31–40 of 44 posts
I would like to think that for some UI projects that things like XAML(WPF/Silverlight) or Flex(Flash) would be some of the first things to reach for... IIRC there are similar tooling for building for GTK and QT applications. Why build your own?
Need to take a closer look if this happens to match my needs
Many game developers seem to build their own UI libraries from scratch. Wouldn't it make sense to use Chromium Embedded Framework[0] or Awesomium[1] instead? I haven't used them myself (yet), but writing a UI in HTML+CSS sounds a lot easier than learning a new API. [0] https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef [1] http://www.awesomium.com
Many game developers seem to build their own UI libraries from scratch. Wouldn't it make sense to use Chromium Embedded Framework[0] or Awesomium[1] instead? I haven't used them myself (yet), but writing a UI in HTML+CSS sounds a lot easier than learning a new API. [0] https://bitbucket.org/chromiumembedded/cef [1] http://www.awesomium.com
- Embedding a whole browser in your app just to display a few widgets is not my definition of "lightweight"
- Often coding UI in native code (C++) makes a lot more sense, integrate with exiting code in a much cleaner way
Game developpers would much less tend to build their own libraries from scratch, if there was at least one that satisfied all of these 'basic' requirements : lightweight, skinnable, auto-layout
This is wonderful. Thank you for building this. Your emphasis on modern C++ and small dependencies is especially appreciated, especially in a world where an Emscripten bundle size matters. What's your rendering performance like, such as when you update 50 static text fields or images every frame?
Thank you. As to the draw calls, NanoVG draws everything directly each frame so this is constant whether or not you are updating. As to the overhead, not too long ago everything was updated each frame regardless of whether it was modified or not, and performance was fine. Worse than it is now, but okay. So I guess it could handle it. But then again, that's only the default renderer. You can always roll your own and p…
By comparison, a basic Emscripten libRocket demo takes 6-8ms (mostly due to Freetype rendering and its layout system, see http://forums.librocket.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5223), and ImGui takes 1ms (probably due to its monospaced bitmap fonts and simple widgets, demo: http://floooh.github.io/oryol/ImGuiDemo.html).
Just some thoughts in case you're planning on adding complicated game logic every frame :)
I think it's funny how many xml based UI frameworks have been made over the years that are better composed better than html with more strict rules and consistency that are continuously overlooked at times. I would like to think that for some UI projects that things like XAML(WPF/Silverlight) or Flex(Flash) would be some of the first things to reach for... IIRC there are similar tooling for building for GTK and QT app…
After spending quite some time writing UI, I believe doing it in either XML or HTML is just pure madness.
UI is a very complex structure with complex wiring and interactions between components, and so it is very prone to human error. To represent such a complex system in anything else than a statically typed language like C++ is, to me, incredibly counter-productive.
You may like to write them in XML, but I want to write them in code and I wrote kiUi just for that. It's more concise, less error prone.
More essentially, I think it comes from a "fallacy" or "false dream" that a designer could design a reactive UI in XML or HTML without knowing anything about code.
The back of the coin, is that to code a real UI you need both HTML and javascript, or XML and another language. XML and HTML are just here for the layout.
But kiUi takes a rather different approach at layout, which is that you may not even need to specify layout in the first place. It's done for you already, but, the designer can still tweak it if needed.
So, kiUi inverted relationship of the primacy of layout over the rest. In kiUi the primacy is to the native code, and to the logical elements (the widgets).
Funny thing, I've been scheming and plodding with seemingly identical idea. I've been approaching it with a bit more experimental angle (more declarative way to generate the ui? what approach for auto layout? etc.), so I've yet to make much progress. Need to take a closer look if this happens to match my needs
I think many things in kiUi, especially the layout and style, can be seen as declarative, in a way.
But the individual widgets and interaction between them are not. And I'm curious as to how it could be different. Also you want to collaborate on something or just discuss, I'm interested.
Funny thing, I've been scheming and plodding with seemingly identical idea. I've been approaching it with a bit more experimental angle (more declarative way to generate the ui? what approach for auto layout? etc.), so I've yet to make much progress. Need to take a closer look if this happens to match my needs
I think it's funny how many xml based UI frameworks have been made over the years that are better composed better than html with more strict rules and consistency that are continuously overlooked at times. I would like to think that for some UI projects that things like XAML(WPF/Silverlight) or Flex(Flash) would be some of the first things to reach for... IIRC there are similar tooling for building for GTK and QT app…
I have a simple answer but it may not suit you : After spending quite some time writing UI, I believe doing it in either XML or HTML is just pure madness. UI is a very complex structure with complex wiring and interactions between components, and so it is very prone to human error. To represent such a complex system in anything else than a statically typed language like C++ is, to me, incredibly counter-productive. Y…
The fact that it is XML is more convention in this case... even with React, it's translated to coded controls via strict rules.. and is relatively easy to manage and reason with.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a simple answer but it may not suit you : After spending quite some time writing UI, I believe doing it in either XML or HTML is just pure madness. UI is a very complex structure with complex wiring and interactions between components, and so it is very prone to human error. To represent such a complex system in anything else than a statically typed language like C++ is, to me, incredibly counter-productive. Y…
I think that things like React, and React-Native show the opposite is true... composition of UI elements that are meant to be rendered in relative terms doesn't tend to work out well when you are trying to use absolute measurements in something like C++ with lower-level constructs. The fact that it is XML is more convention in this case... even with React, it's translated to coded controls via strict rules.. and is r…
You don't specify any absolute measurement when using kiUi from C++.
The whole point is to get rid of them. They are calculated under the hood.
The style gives the necessary hints. And this is done in a way entirely separate from the UI code itself.
Think of the C++ code doing what is regularly done in both HTML and Javascript, and the kiUi style sheet as what is regularly done in CSS.