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Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

gioui.org

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Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#81

Post by jwells89 »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #62
shrubble wrote: post #30

The amazing thing is that 30 years ago there were cross platform toolkits like Neuron Data and the toolkit under OpenOffice(called StarOffice originally), and yet today the options are still fragmented and imperfect. We have far better compilers and even languages for cross-platform work, so it should be easier by now.

I’m not sure whether those toolkits abstracted over native GUI interfaces or whether they attempted to recreate a native look and feel or whether they attempted to provide their own look and feel across platforms, but in any case the problem isn’t languages and compilers, it’s that the expectations for a GUI toolkit are dramatically greater now than then. Here are a few things that are (I think) expected from GUI too…

In some ways, expectations for UI toolkits have dropped too, though. Practically no UI toolkits created in the past 5-10 years come with a row recycling tableview/datagrid widget (table with column headers, sort by column, etc) for example, which used to be table stakes (which is why they’re present in Win32, MFC, AppKit, GTK, and Qt among others of the old guard). New toolkits that lacked a tableview would not have been taken seriously back then.

This has been a major blocker for my adoption of newer toolkits. I understand that it’s a result of mobile UI trends dominating the space, but that’s not helpful when I’m looking to build useful desktop apps, for which these widgets are crucial. Relying on third party libraries to fill these gaps (if they even exist) isn’t appealing either, adding yet another dependency to the pile and making a major part of my app subject to likely eventual abandonment by the library’s dev.

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#82

Post by Alifatisk »

nitinreddy88 wrote: post #32
brabel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best option is probably Flutter right now: https://flutter.dev/ If you don't mind writing the UI native, sharing only business logic code, Kotlin is an option: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/multiplatform.html#kotlin-multip... Kotlin also can do the UI if you use Compose: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/compose-multiplatform/ ... however, iOS support is still in alpha, and Web is "experimental". If you're not willing t…

[flagged]

Downvoted you because the top comment in the link straight up goes against your comment. I hope you’re not spreading FUD on purpose.

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#83

Post by Philip-J-Fry »

mort96 wrote: post #70
DrDroop wrote: post #8

Experience report: Impossible to write any serious complex application in this. Lacks components for basic things everyone gets for free on other platforms, things like video, maps or rich text components. Nor does if offer any clear easy path to add them yourself. Breaking API changes every few months. No way to theme something. Immediate mode graphics are great until you need to start managing some complex state, t…

> Breaking API changes every few months. I find this to be the case with a depressing amount of Google code. They do not seem to have a culture which values not breaking their users' code.

Gio isn't made by Google

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#84

Post by hulitu »

elteto wrote: post #63
shrubble wrote: post #30

The amazing thing is that 30 years ago there were cross platform toolkits like Neuron Data and the toolkit under OpenOffice(called StarOffice originally), and yet today the options are still fragmented and imperfect. We have far better compilers and even languages for cross-platform work, so it should be easier by now.

Why would it be easier now? What does a better compiler get you in terms of building a cross-platform UI toolkit? We now have GPUs, mobile OSs with their own separate UI abstractions, the web, WebAssembly, etc. And people want write-once deploy anywhere. You didn’t have any of that 30 years ago.

>You didn’t have any of that 30 years ago.

Java ?

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#85

Post by Alifatisk »

38 wrote: post #55
brabel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best option is probably Flutter right now: https://flutter.dev/ If you don't mind writing the UI native, sharing only business logic code, Kotlin is an option: https://kotlinlang.org/docs/multiplatform.html#kotlin-multip... Kotlin also can do the UI if you use Compose: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/compose-multiplatform/ ... however, iOS support is still in alpha, and Web is "experimental". If you're not willing t…

The one flutter website I have come across is an absolute piece of garbage. Completely destroys the ability to modify or even inspect the HTML source. See for yourself https://sunrisetv.ch/de/vod/1/details/vod/crid:~~2F~~2Fog.li...

You can export the flutter build as HTML, but the point with flutter is not to be a ”website”, it’s supposed to be seen as a ”web-app”.

If you are going to create simple static homepage or interactive website, I don’t think Flutter is the right tool. Full fledged cross-platform applications is what Flutter is meant for.

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#86

Post by bornfreddy »

andsoitis wrote: post #61
lakomen wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't downvote. AFAIK it's not supporting Linux as a target platform. Correct me if I'm wrong.

.NET MAUI supported platforms: * Android 5.0 (API 21) or higher is required. * iOS 11 or higher is required * macOS 10.15 or higher, using Mac Catalyst * Windows 11 and Windows 10 version 1809 or higher While Linux isn't supported, that is also not a typically significant market for GUI apps. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/supported-plat...

However Linux has a non-negligible share among platforms that developers use (as a daily driver). To me, as a Go developer, this library is dead on arrival. It would take extraordinary circumstances to consider it for an app (even in business setting).

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#87

Post by Alifatisk »

bsaul wrote: post #2

A bit off-topic, but what's the best method to build cross-platform mobile & web apps nowadays ? I'm talking either business logic + UI , or just business logic ? like gomobile, rust, typescript, etc ? At some point i thought about using typescript for all business logic, as it seemed the most portable tech, but i realized there's no good way to have decent performance running javascript on iOS.

Flutter

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#89

Post by gonzo41 »

shrubble wrote: post #30

The amazing thing is that 30 years ago there were cross platform toolkits like Neuron Data and the toolkit under OpenOffice(called StarOffice originally), and yet today the options are still fragmented and imperfect. We have far better compilers and even languages for cross-platform work, so it should be easier by now.

I'm still super disappointed that javafx died.

Re: Gio UI – Cross-platform GUI for Go

#90

Post by zackbrown »

shrubble wrote: post #30

The amazing thing is that 30 years ago there were cross platform toolkits like Neuron Data and the toolkit under OpenOffice(called StarOffice originally), and yet today the options are still fragmented and imperfect. We have far better compilers and even languages for cross-platform work, so it should be easier by now.

Building a cross-platform GUI toolkit takes an incredible amount of work & time, especially at the systems level.[0]

A robust cross-platform ecosystem for the underlying programming language is a necessary but insufficient piece of the puzzle.

Given the proliferation of HTML and WebView/web-tech wrappers (Electron, Tauri, React Native etc.) there are now enough "good enough" solutions that most organizations that would underwrite the in-house R&D of a new Neuron Data or Delphi or Flash simply don't feel the need.

When it does happen — say Google Flutter — it's almost statistically impossible to keep the hydra of VPs and biz folks aligned over the decades of ongoing investment it takes to mature & form community around this kind of technology — see the recent Flutter team layoffs at Google.

[0] speaking from my experience building a cross-platform GUI solution in Rust for several years now; see pax.dev

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