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Do any GUI frameworks support WASM? I've been looking for a way to run GUI applications remotely for a while, specifically on a wlroots compositor. Projects li

Do any GUI frameworks support WASM? I've been looking for a way to run GUI applications remotely for a while, specifically on a wlroots compositor. Projects like this (maybe one day) and https://github.com/udevbe/greenfield https://github.com/udevbe/greenfield are interesting since they essentially make access universally accessible.

echelon 3y ago
I don't know about GTK, QT, and the like, but there's a whole budding ecosystem purporting to solve it WASM-native. Dioxus [1] and about a dozen other libraries are attempting to be write-once, deploy web, mobile, desktop with native performance. They adopt a React-like component UI. The Rust ecosystem is full of stuff. There are lots of different approaches too - immediate mode drawing, canvas drawing [2], etc. Choosing a winner is the hard part. There are too many projects and no clear community-elected leader. [1] https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/getting_started/wasm https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/getting_started/wasm [2] https://www.egui.rs/#demo https://www.egui.rs/#demo
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  GTK+ has Broadway to render GTK applications to the web browser. Qt has some ActiveX support, but you don't want that. Java/Kotlin has a bunch of frameworks, like TeaVM to run .JAR files in the browser, or Vaadin to write web GUIs like you would desktop applications. I think most languages that have been around for more than five years have some kind of GUI framework that'll run in the browser. Very worst-case scenario, you could compile a Windows executable and run them in BottledWine :P
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- rapnie 3y ago
  Makepad, very ambitious (watch the vid): https://github.com/makepad/makepad https://github.com/makepad/makepad
satvikpendem 3y ago
Flutter is looking to do so, it was just waiting for WASM-GC support which has now shipped on Chrome. Rust is another good one as the other commenter stated. I personally use Flutter for the UI and Rust for the business logic, using libraries like flutter_rust_bridge and rinf as FFI between the two.
- nox101 3y ago
  I'm curious how flutter apps will do on visionOS. I suspect apps using native widgets will be great because the OS can change to UX for the app. Flutter apps on the other hand may all have to be re-shipped since they're doing it by hand.
westurner 3y ago
COSMIC DE (Rust-based) supports rust-windowing/winit apps, which compile to a <canvas> tag in WASM. winit: https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit
callalex 3y ago
This seems like an absolute nightmare for people with disabilities.
kelvie 3y ago
egui [1] supports wasm. I wrote a simple chord finder for learning to play guitar with it pretty quickly [2], and would use it again to solve a problem like this, though I'm told immediate mode UI frameworks aren't good for things other than quick prototypes, or in my case, scratching a quick itch. [1] https://www.egui.rs/ https://www.egui.rs/ [2] https://kelvie.github.io/chord-finder/ https://kelvie.github.io/chord-finder/
- xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
  Immediate mode UI frameworks are not inherently less appropriate than any other framework. Curious what the source of that is.
  - nox101 3y ago
    In my experience Immediate mode UI frameworks are almost always not very internationalization friendly (right to left text like Arabic, problematic IME support) and, they are almost always not very accessibility friendly. Also things like system context menus to offer features like translation, system level spelling correction with the user's custom dictionary, system password memorization and recall, word lookup, etc it's not impossible. in fact at an API level, React is an immediate mode gui written on top of a retained mode gui. but it's that retained mode that's providing all the features above. which immediate mode GUIs have you used that cover these features?
    - xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
      If the issue is that implementations are feature lacking, that's a different story. The world is littered with half baked frameworks. Hell, I've used plenty of retained mode frameworks that lack all of those things too. My concern was moreso that there is nothing inherent to immediate mode that prevents all of those things. Someone just has to build it. RTL tends to be more of a layout problem and has little to do with UIs. Most of my experience with immediate mode UI frameworks is in proprietary applications. I will say that we had no issues with localization and we integrated well with screen readers though none of this was in a platform independent manner. And that's usually the root of all of these issues.
tonygrue 3y ago
I’ve used ImGui with success. I specially was also using webgpu so I used the glfw+webgpu backends. I had to fix a few issues in both halfs of the backend and there remain some little interaction bugs (mostly because browsers capture some keychords and mouse actions and you have to work around a number of them). ImGui makes a specific design choice and isn’t amazingly documented. I don’t think it’s a good choice for larger scale apps. But good for tools or UIs in games, etc. Accessibility is a nightmare with pretty much anything skipping browser layout of course.
flohofwoe 3y ago
I'm using Dear ImGui for my cross-platform projects (which includes running in browsers): - https://floooh.github.io/visual6502remix/ https://floooh.github.io/visual6502remix/ - (start the emulators by clicking the little "UI" icon to get the debugger UI) https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/ https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/ - (start by clicking the little "UI" icon) https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/ https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/ Platform abstraction is handled through the sokol headers: https://github.com/floooh/sokol https://github.com/floooh/sokol Dear ImGui is small and fast enough for running in browsers (it will add up to a few hundred KBytes of WASM byte code). If this is too much "bloat", there are smaller, but also less powerful alternatives like microui: https://github.com/rxi/microui https://github.com/rxi/microui)
berkes 3y ago
Not exactly what you are looking for, probably, but Leptos[1]. Dioxus[1.1], Yew[2] and almost all "frontend web frameworks in rust" run primarily/only on WASM. Larger list here[3] [1] https://github.com/leptos-rs/leptos https://github.com/leptos-rs/leptos, https://github.com/dioxuslabs/dioxus https://github.com/dioxuslabs/dioxus [2] https://yew.rs/ https://yew.rs/ [3] https://github.com/flosse/rust-web-framework-comparison#frontend-frameworks-wasm https://github.com/flosse/rust-web-framework-comparison#fron...

echelon 3y ago

I don't know about GTK, QT, and the like, but there's a whole budding ecosystem purporting to solve it WASM-native. Dioxus [1] and about a dozen other libraries are attempting to be write-once, deploy web, mobile, desktop with native performance. They adopt a React-like component UI. The Rust ecosystem is full of stuff. There are lots of different approaches too - immediate mode drawing, canvas drawing [2], etc. Choosing a winner is the hard part. There are too many projects and no clear community-elected leader. [1] https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/getting_started/wasm https://dioxuslabs.com/learn/0.4/getting_started/wasm [2] https://www.egui.rs/#demo https://www.egui.rs/#demo

jeroenhd 3y ago
GTK+ has Broadway to render GTK applications to the web browser. Qt has some ActiveX support, but you don't want that. Java/Kotlin has a bunch of frameworks, like TeaVM to run .JAR files in the browser, or Vaadin to write web GUIs like you would desktop applications. I think most languages that have been around for more than five years have some kind of GUI framework that'll run in the browser. Very worst-case scenario, you could compile a Windows executable and run them in BottledWine :P
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rapnie 3y ago
Makepad, very ambitious (watch the vid): https://github.com/makepad/makepad https://github.com/makepad/makepad

satvikpendem 3y ago

Flutter is looking to do so, it was just waiting for WASM-GC support which has now shipped on Chrome. Rust is another good one as the other commenter stated. I personally use Flutter for the UI and Rust for the business logic, using libraries like flutter_rust_bridge and rinf as FFI between the two.

nox101 3y ago
I'm curious how flutter apps will do on visionOS. I suspect apps using native widgets will be great because the OS can change to UX for the app. Flutter apps on the other hand may all have to be re-shipped since they're doing it by hand.

westurner 3y ago

COSMIC DE (Rust-based) supports rust-windowing/winit apps, which compile to a <canvas> tag in WASM. winit: https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit

callalex 3y ago

This seems like an absolute nightmare for people with disabilities.

kelvie 3y ago

egui [1] supports wasm. I wrote a simple chord finder for learning to play guitar with it pretty quickly [2], and would use it again to solve a problem like this, though I'm told immediate mode UI frameworks aren't good for things other than quick prototypes, or in my case, scratching a quick itch. [1] https://www.egui.rs/ https://www.egui.rs/ [2] https://kelvie.github.io/chord-finder/ https://kelvie.github.io/chord-finder/

xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
Immediate mode UI frameworks are not inherently less appropriate than any other framework. Curious what the source of that is.
- nox101 3y ago
  In my experience Immediate mode UI frameworks are almost always not very internationalization friendly (right to left text like Arabic, problematic IME support) and, they are almost always not very accessibility friendly. Also things like system context menus to offer features like translation, system level spelling correction with the user's custom dictionary, system password memorization and recall, word lookup, etc it's not impossible. in fact at an API level, React is an immediate mode gui written on top of a retained mode gui. but it's that retained mode that's providing all the features above. which immediate mode GUIs have you used that cover these features?
  - xyzzy_plugh 3y ago
    If the issue is that implementations are feature lacking, that's a different story. The world is littered with half baked frameworks. Hell, I've used plenty of retained mode frameworks that lack all of those things too. My concern was moreso that there is nothing inherent to immediate mode that prevents all of those things. Someone just has to build it. RTL tends to be more of a layout problem and has little to do with UIs. Most of my experience with immediate mode UI frameworks is in proprietary applications. I will say that we had no issues with localization and we integrated well with screen readers though none of this was in a platform independent manner. And that's usually the root of all of these issues.

tonygrue 3y ago

I’ve used ImGui with success. I specially was also using webgpu so I used the glfw+webgpu backends. I had to fix a few issues in both halfs of the backend and there remain some little interaction bugs (mostly because browsers capture some keychords and mouse actions and you have to work around a number of them). ImGui makes a specific design choice and isn’t amazingly documented. I don’t think it’s a good choice for larger scale apps. But good for tools or UIs in games, etc. Accessibility is a nightmare with pretty much anything skipping browser layout of course.

flohofwoe 3y ago

I'm using Dear ImGui for my cross-platform projects (which includes running in browsers): - https://floooh.github.io/visual6502remix/ https://floooh.github.io/visual6502remix/ - (start the emulators by clicking the little "UI" icon to get the debugger UI) https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/ https://floooh.github.io/tiny8bit/ - (start by clicking the little "UI" icon) https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/ https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/ Platform abstraction is handled through the sokol headers: https://github.com/floooh/sokol https://github.com/floooh/sokol Dear ImGui is small and fast enough for running in browsers (it will add up to a few hundred KBytes of WASM byte code). If this is too much "bloat", there are smaller, but also less powerful alternatives like microui: https://github.com/rxi/microui https://github.com/rxi/microui)

berkes 3y ago

Not exactly what you are looking for, probably, but Leptos[1]. Dioxus[1.1], Yew[2] and almost all "frontend web frameworks in rust" run primarily/only on WASM. Larger list here[3] [1] https://github.com/leptos-rs/leptos https://github.com/leptos-rs/leptos, https://github.com/dioxuslabs/dioxus https://github.com/dioxuslabs/dioxus [2] https://yew.rs/ https://yew.rs/ [3] https://github.com/flosse/rust-web-framework-comparison#frontend-frameworks-wasm https://github.com/flosse/rust-web-framework-comparison#fron...