Xilem – An experimental Rust native UI framework

(github.com)

48 points | by Levitating 5 hours ago

6 comments

  • brainless 1 hour ago
    I keep trying Xilem and then egui or Iced. Xilem needs more widgets out of the box to be easy to build with. Slint is another option. I wonder what cross platform GUI framework (from any language) will finally become as common as Electron based apps or the vast number of native OS apps in Windows or macOS or Linux.

    I keep going back to Tauri, which is practical to build desktop apps quickly but still uses HTML, CSS, JS to build the UI. You can use Rust web UI tools but then it is still (system) browser based.

    • feverzsj 6 minutes ago
      Cross platform GUI is extremely hard. Qt is the only good choice, even though it's still far from mature after 30 years of development.
    • tvshtr 1 hour ago
      Something like GPUI probably, I would be quite happy with it if it wasn't so tied and restricted by the Zed's team (they reject PRs because they're not strictly related to Zed), there's even mobile fork. Dioxus native would be second, but it's far far far away from being ready.
    • synergy20 1 hour ago
      QT does it well but the license is a maze
  • mtndew4brkfst 3 hours ago
    Was there some new developments with this project that renewed interest recently? I started learning Rust in 2018 or 2019 and I think "good Rust GUI" research is probably at least that old.
    • wmf 10 minutes ago
      The last demo I saw just had a button so the chess app shows a lot of progress.
  • sheepscreek 3 hours ago
    Been using it with mixed success. While I love vello, Xilem is less mature in comparison. Many standard UI components, such as selection box, are not implemented yet. On the other hand, it’s a great opportunity to become a contributor towards a genuinely useful and promising project!
  • _stillmind 1 hour ago
    Why not just use Flutter with Rust, via the flutter_rust_bridge (https://cjycode.com/flutter_rust_bridge/quickstart)? Seems like a reasonable combo to me.
  • eviks 1 hour ago
    Is there a plan for this to compete the experiment any time (soon)?
  • sourcegrift 1 hour ago
    Very happy with qmetaobject-rs. Qt is tried and tested, dnd multi platform. Also, UI itself is best done declaratively not imperatively. Qmetaobject-rs gives you the best of both worlds: great UI declaratively, logic in Rust.
    • eviks 1 hour ago
      But since this is a declarative framework, it gives you the very best of two worlds with only rust?