Why would anyone write a GUI app in C? Almost every alternative is better for the job.
It's easy to writing bindings for C: Python, Ruby, Lua, Lisp -- all have easy ways to interface with C.
Libui: GUI library in C
21–30 of 186 posts
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#22These APIs are notoriously hard to get right and coherent, and releasing at such an early stage will make it hard to change anything when building up on this.
That said I do not know of any cross platform library in C, so this does seem to fill a niche.
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#23Juce is another interesting UI lib https://www.juce.com/ Works with Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS and Android. Strangely, juce seems to have a revamped website that has no pictures or screenshots of the juce user interface and its widgets. Weird. Not sure how effective that marketing is...
Juce is a great library but it doesn't target the native feel (last time i checked) which libui does.
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#24This is so funny. Yesterday there was another discussion on how C needs to be replaced due to security/corectness concerns (the K&R topic), today people are fascinated by a UI(!!!) library built in it.
And they actually consider using this library.
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#25Why would anyone write a GUI app in C? Almost every alternative is better for the job.
Performance?
The FFI reasonings are OK, I understand them. I didn't think in those terms originally. (Thought I asked about writing a C app not a C library...)
But speed and C are othogonal nowadays (at least if productivity is in the picture). It is so much simpler to write correct programs leveraging multicore environments an/or asynchronity in other environments, that it is not productive to chose C for speed. (In terms of development costs. Ofc. there are special cases when it might be worth, I'm talking about the general situation)
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#26Juce is another interesting UI lib https://www.juce.com/ Works with Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS and Android. Strangely, juce seems to have a revamped website that has no pictures or screenshots of the juce user interface and its widgets. Weird. Not sure how effective that marketing is...
I know, we always do this, but...
I hate this website. I feel like I'm looking at a Medium post, stuff is popping around as I scroll, hero carousel, unclear Metro-style tiles that turn black and disappear the text on mouse-over, the works. Spent way too much time trying to figure out where the API docs and examples were hidden.
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#27This is so funny. Yesterday there was another discussion on how C needs to be replaced due to security/corectness concerns (the K&R topic), today people are fascinated by a UI(!!!) library built in it. And they actually consider using this library.
My feelings exactly. (thus my question above)
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#28Why would anyone write a GUI app in C? Almost every alternative is better for the job.
How so? The likely reason is that a C lib is usable from many other environments. Look at ncurses for example. Heavily used from many languages, and written in C. Another reason is that the underlying tools used by this library are likely in C as well, so it's probably the easiest language to use for the task.
Ok, but my question was not about FFI, but writing a GUI app...
Re: Libui: GUI library in C
#29These APIs are notoriously hard to get right and coherent, and releasing at such an early stage will make it hard to change anything when building up on this. That said I do not know of any cross platform library in C, so this does seem to fill a niche.
Umm, Gtk?