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Going through this with my side project (a game of sorts, C++ and DirectX) but it's more of the opposite issue. I needed to implement a very simple GUI and didn

by and0 10y ago

Going through this with my side project (a game of sorts, C++ and DirectX) but it's more of the opposite issue. I needed to implement a very simple GUI and didn't want to dig into any libraries, so I created a sort of minimalist mouse event flow with GUI objects. It was designed just well enough that it wouldn't be full of bugs. But as I've been adding all the features I originally intended I'm finding it's a bit of a slog. Every new feature I add is pretty well compartmentalized but it all still smells a little + sometimes requires some refactoring to fix unintended side effects. I'm only working on it a few hours a week (as opposed to 16+ last month), partially because it's just not fun writing code that I'm not proud of, but also because new code requires more and more caution as the system grows.

criddell 10y ago
Do you ever reconsider your no-libraries stance? There have been times where I didn't use a library but eventually learned that the library exists for good reasons. Some time is wasted, but on the other hand, I have a deeper understanding.
- and0 10y ago
  I use libraries all the time. However, all the C++ DirectX GUI libraries seemed way too heavy for what I was trying to do. Part of the fun of hobby projects is creating your own little development style, and digging through old docs on opinionated frameworks to reconcile those choices doesn't make for a very fun hobby project :( Now that I think of it, the GUI itself was simple enough to do, but the mouse clicks in the 3D scene + various methods of selection were the biggest pain. The GUI just had to show things related to those selections.
  - laythea 10y ago
    I'm going through similar stuff at the moment; fluffing up my opengl application with an actual interface that is forgiving and functional is proving slightly less trivial than I thought - but fun. And oh so nice compared to native Windows.

by and0 10y ago

criddell 10y ago

Do you ever reconsider your no-libraries stance? There have been times where I didn't use a library but eventually learned that the library exists for good reasons. Some time is wasted, but on the other hand, I have a deeper understanding.

and0 10y ago
I use libraries all the time. However, all the C++ DirectX GUI libraries seemed way too heavy for what I was trying to do. Part of the fun of hobby projects is creating your own little development style, and digging through old docs on opinionated frameworks to reconcile those choices doesn't make for a very fun hobby project :( Now that I think of it, the GUI itself was simple enough to do, but the mouse clicks in the 3D scene + various methods of selection were the biggest pain. The GUI just had to show things related to those selections.
- laythea 10y ago
  I'm going through similar stuff at the moment; fluffing up my opengl application with an actual interface that is forgiving and functional is proving slightly less trivial than I thought - but fun. And oh so nice compared to native Windows.