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Miloslav Ciz 2022-05-23 16:24:35 +02:00
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@ -6,9 +6,9 @@ Expert computer users normally frown upon GUI because it is the "noobish", ineff
GUIs mostly use [callback](callback.md)-based programming, which again is more complicated than standard polling non-interactive I/O.
## How And When To Say Yes To GUI
## When And How To Do GUI
GUI is not forbidden, it has its place, but today it's way too overused -- it should be used only if completely necessary (e.g. in a painting program) or as a completely optional thing build upon a more [suckless](suckless.md) text interface or [API](api.md). So remember: first create a program working without GUI and only then consider creating an optional GUI [frontend](frontend.md).
GUI is not forbidden, it has its place, but today it's way too overused -- it should be used only if completely necessary (e.g. in a painting program) or as a completely optional thing build upon a more [suckless](suckless.md) text interface or [API](api.md). So remember: first create a program and/or a [library](library.md) working without GUI and only then consider creating an optional GUI [frontend](frontend.md). GUI must never be tied to whatever functionality can be implemented without it.
Still, when making a GUI, you can make it [suckless](suckless.md) and lighthweight. Do your buttons need to have reflections, soft shadows and rounded anti-aliased borders? No. Do your windows need to be transparent with light-refraction simulation? No. Do you need to introduce many MB of dependencies and pain such as [QT](qt.md)? No.
@ -18,4 +18,4 @@ The ergonomics and aesthetic design of GUIs has its own field and can't be cover
- Things must be intuitive, i.e. behave in a way that they normally do (e.g. main menu should be at the top of the window, not the bottom etc.).
- Just use your brain. If a button is important and often used, it should probably be bigger than a button that's used almost never, etc.
The million dollar question is: **which GUI framework to use?** Ideally none. GUI is just pixels, buttons are just rectangles; make your GUI simple enough so that you don't need any shitty abstraction such as widget hierarchies etc. If you absolutely need some framework, look for a suckless one; e.g. [nuklear](nuklear.md) is worth checking out.
The million dollar question is: **which GUI framework to use?** Ideally none. GUI is just pixels, buttons are just rectangles; make your GUI simple enough so that you don't need any shitty abstraction such as widget hierarchies etc. If you absolutely need some framework, look for a suckless one; e.g. [nuklear](nuklear.md) is worth checking out. The suckless community sometimes uses pure [X11](x11.md), however that's not ideal, X11 itself is kind of bloated and it's also getting obsoleted by [Wayland](wayland.md). The ideal solution is to make your GUI **backend agnostic**, i.e. create your own very thin abstraction layer above the backend (e.g. X11) so that any other backend can be plugged in if needed just by rewriting a few simple functions of your abstraction layer (see how e.g. [Anarch](anarch.md) does rendering).