8 ms·

ImRAD is a GUI builder for the ImGui library

227 points by davikr 2y ago

klaussilveira 2y ago
This is amazing. It might be my Visual Basic nostalgia kicking in, but this is the icing on the imgui cake for me.
- 29athrowaway 2y ago
  To this date there's no RAD experience faster than Visual Basic 6.
  - _mlbt 2y ago
    Lazarus is pretty close and it’s cross platform. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ It’s Pascal instead of BASIC, which may or may not be an improvement depending on your perspective.
    - badsectoracula 2y ago
      I think "pretty close" is severely underselling Lazarus - it is way ahead of Visual Basic 6 in almost every aspect when it comes to making GUIs. Even Delphi 2 (the first 32bit Delphi) allowed for more complex GUIs compared to VB6, let alone something way more advanced like Lazarus. The only thing that VB up to 6 had that you can't find in Lazarus (or Delphi for that matter) is being able to pause the program while it is running (or some error occurred), modify it and continue the execution without restarting it. But overall considering all the pros Lazarus has compared to VB6 i'd say it is much better than VB6 ever was.
      - nickpsecurity 2y ago
        VB6 also used to start in about one second on a 400MHz P3. Test runs on the programs were about as fast. I had no mental pauses for compile times. Is Lazarus that fast?
        badsectoracula 2y ago
        More or less, depending on many factors though. In general it is among the most lightweight IDEs, i've even used it on an original Raspberry Pi (though that was a few years ago) - it wasn't fast there, but it was usable which is more than can be said about most other still developed IDEs. Free Pascal is not as fast as Delphi 2 (especially if the target OS needs to use a native linker like GNU ld), for some decently sized projects it can take several seconds (or even a minute for multimillion lines of code) for a full build, though partial builds tend to be almost instant - at least in hardware released within the last 10 years (and SSDs help, like everywhere else). Of course both the language and the libraries (and Lazarus itself as an IDE and its own framework) do way more than Delphi 2, which itself was also more advanced than VB6. I do believe that the provided functionality scales well with its requirements. I'm not sure about a 400MHz P3, but i have tried a git build of Lazarus from last year on a late 2003 Athlon64 PC running Windows 7 and was very comfortable. A 400MHz P3 would be faster than an original Raspberry Pi, so i'd expect that if nothing else to be usable though might not be as comfortable as VB6 (or Delphi 2 for that matter). I do have a (IIRC) 800MHz P3 around for retro games, at some point i might try to install some lightweight Linux for fun and try to see how it performs there.
        nickpsecurity 2y ago
        That sounds very competitive. One, more question. I used to use VB6 partly just for quickly drawing GUI’s, esp getting size right. Lazarus was one of free tools I found that was similar but most prefer other languages. Is there a way to make a GUI in Lazarus, save it to a file with types/dimensions, and then some other tool could generate a non-Pascal GUI from it? Does it have an export ability that’s detailed and parsable enough for that?
      - 29athrowaway 2y ago
        VB6 was not very flexible in many ways but you could get an application going in no time. GAMBAS is the spiritual successor.
        FpUser 2y ago
        "VB6 was not very flexible in many ways but you could get an application going in no time" Same in Delphi / Lazarus. And the language was / is way more powerful.
      - pjmlp 2y ago
        Which is available in .NET.
      - stavros 2y ago
        Lazarus seems amazing, and I'd love to write some software with it, but I can't get past the language. You generally do want to pick languages with a big ecosystem, as everything you might want will have already been written. The difference between Python and Delphi isn't a bit more work, it's often the difference between "there's a library so I can make my thing" and "it would take way too long".
        doublerabbit 2y ago
        Pascal is a workhorse and to tame the horse takes a lot of skill and blind knowledge. And then when tamed, your horse is the best at the show. I can't fault Pascal. It may not have every module ever like Python, it's syntax may feel archaic but the satisfaction and feel of producing a program with is fuzzy feeling great. I enjoy making my own things, especially wheels.
        badsectoracula 2y ago
        You can interface with existing libraries if you really want, you need to somehow expose a C ABI (be it via the library written in C, exposing an official C ABI or you writing a C bridge). There is a 3rd party "Python-for-Lazarus" bridge[0] though for simple stuff you can use the python library directly: program foo; {$MODE OBJFPC} uses CTypes; const PyLib = 'python3.11'; procedure Py_Initialize; cdecl; external PyLib; function PyRun_SimpleString(Command: PChar): CInt; cdecl; external PyLib; begin Py_Initialize; PyRun_SimpleString( 'from tkinter import *'#13 + 'window = Tk()'#13 + 'window.title("Hello, world!")'#13 + 'button = Button(window, text="Clicky")'#13 + 'button.grid()'#13 + 'window.mainloop()'); end. The above uses the Tk library that comes with Python. Also depending on what you want to do chances are there is already a Free Pascal library or existing bindings to a library written in another language. If not, if the library has a C header file you can use the h2pas utility that comes with FPC to make your own (though the generated code does need some modifications to work more often than not). Of course all the above do assume you have knowledge of both Free Pascal and whatever you want to interface with, but at least as far as being able to access existing libraries is concerned, it should be possible - just with some hoops (and at that point it depends on how much you value whatever Lazarus provides over the effort involved in whatever library you want to use). EDIT: and truth be told IMO the biggest roadblock with Lazarus isn't so much the language but that it is just not easy to learn most of that stuff (the core language and runtime library is decently documented but anything outside of that can be a hit and miss) and you basically need an almost arrogant attitude of "this is just dumb code, not magic, if it is technically possible i can figure out myself how to do it" :-P. [0] https://github.com/Alexey-T/Python-for-Lazarus https://github.com/Alexey-T/Python-for-Lazarus
    - zerr 2y ago
      I wish it had C++ support as well, akin to C++Builder. Pascal syntax is off-putting for many.
      - lelanthran 2y ago
        > I wish it had C++ support as well, akin to C++Builder. Pascal syntax is off-putting for many I write my "app" as a library (.dll/.so) in C and use Lazarus to do the GUI, because FFI from FreePascal to C (and back again, for callbacks) is almost transparent.
        zerr 2y ago
        Well, I like using C++ for UI.
      - nazgulsenpai 2y ago
        Have you ever tried U++? I haven't used it beyond quick and dirty testing but has a decent GUI builder and is a full C++ IDE. https://www.ultimatepp.org/ https://www.ultimatepp.org/
        klaussilveira 2y ago
        Thank you, I did not know about this!
      - badsectoracula 2y ago
        It'd be neat but that would require a ton of effort and cooperation by several different projects. Basically you'd need a C++ compiler to implement the C++ extensions used by C++ Builder (or something similar if you don't care about C++ Builder compatibility) so that C++ code can use Object Pascal methods with the extra functionality it adds (most important being properties and "published" sections in class declarations that are exposed via RTTI). You'd also need some tool to create C++ bindings for all the Free Pascal units. The above will make possible to use LCL from C++, though only via code. To get the full RAD deal you'd need to implement a C++ parser (including the extensions mentioned above) and refactoring support for Lazarus' CodeTools equivalent to the existing Free Pascal parser/refactoring so that the IDE can autogenerate code (Lazarus doesn't generate separate source code files like some other IDEs with GUI designers do, instead it updates the same source code you are editing on the fly as it keeps a full AST in memory for all edited files and units they depend on - something like that would be needed for C++ too). And yeah, you'd need the people involved with all the above (really mainly the C++ compiler developers) to play along without breaking stuff.
  - sedatk 2y ago
    Delphi could run circles around VB6.
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    Delphi, C++ Builder, WinForms.
  - varispeed 2y ago
    Microsoft WPF was great as well. I thought they killed it, but seems like the project is still active.
  - scrlk 2y ago
    Given that Python appears to be the new VB6/VBA (in terms of adoption by a non-SWE user base), IMO there's still a gap for a decent VB6-like RAD experience within the Python ecosystem. Qt Designer exists, but PyQt/PySide licencing can cause headaches.
    - WillAdams 2y ago
      I'd give a lot for there to be a simple tool for Python which: - had an interactive tool for laying out a GUI - integrated that layout into the code in a meaningful fashion - allowed distributing a project as a single file which could be easily run (say by downloading/installing a single run-time module) The problem is, for each computer I use I need to keep track of which Python environment(s) have been installed where, (and uninstall them) or I end up with something like: https://xkcd.com/1987/ https://xkcd.com/1987/ (well, at least something which won't allow me to get a new project installed).
  - reddit_clone 2y ago
    How about Delphi 6 ? I have some good memories.
  - nottorp 2y ago
    ... or a more full featured experience than Delphi. VB fails (or used to, haven't worked with it in a looong time) when you want to do custom controls and integrate them in the UI builder. With Delphi that used to be piss easy, you could even write designer-only methods that helped with custom configuring your controls, while with VB you had to do it in something else iirc. Too bad Embarcadero only wants to sell to enterprises that are stuck on legacy applications. And what's with all the Pascal hate? Missing your <> and {}? Nothing wrong with begin and end. What I wonder is: if the Rust crowd is hell bent on rewriting everything, why don't they clone the VCL and the GUI designer?
    - kragen 2y ago
      i think most guis in 02024 are built in html5, godot, or unity rather than vb or delphi vcl. so i'm not sure cloning the vcl would be so useful
      - nottorp 2y ago
        Godot or Unity? Why would you build a regular application GUI with that? Those are for running a game or game like application constantly at XX fps, not for something that reacts to user input and should consume 0% cpu when it's not told to do anything. Please tell me "modern" UI toolkits are still event driven and don't infinitely render everything in a loop like a game...
        kragen 2y ago
        the thread you have (apparently unintentionally) posted this comment in is entitled 'ImRAD is a GUI builder for [an] ImGui library [for opengl]' :-) more generally, guis that don't need to run constantly at xx fps don't have much reason to not be written in html5
        nottorp 2y ago
        Oh :( I thought ImGui was a regular GUI library. Why are people even mentioning VB6 and Delphi then in the comment threads? Possibly because they made the same assumption that I made :)
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    Interface Builder and Project Center on NeXTstep were amazing --- see Steve Job's 5-minute word processor demo. For a large-scale real world project example consider that the NeXT version of Wordperfect was done is 6 weeks or so --- granted it started w/ a working Unix version, but it felt fully native and nicely polished (and was much better than the Windows version).
  - mmargerum 2y ago
    Delphi is leagues better and still supported
timschmidt 2y ago
[flagged]
- ashkankiani 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - timschmidt 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - ashkankiani 2y ago
      How is "Now one for egui, please" not a request? Are you suggesting that was just a wish you're putting out into the universe hoping someone fulfills it? "please" is a word you use as a request, typically. Entitlement w.r.t open source just kills me.
      - timschmidt 2y ago
        > Are you suggesting that was just a wish you're putting out into the universe There's the charitable interpretation of others I know you're capable of. One might even consider my comment as a starting point for other interested parties to discuss related functionality for a related toolkit. I don't know what others know. Perhaps there's one out there already?
        ashkankiani 2y ago
        I want to apologize. I just lashed out from my past bad experience. You don't really deserve it, and you're right, it could just open up a discussion about writing an alternative for egui. Sorry about that.
        timschmidt 2y ago
        Thank you, and no worries. I appreciate that you took time to consider the interaction and write this, not everyone would. I'm sorry that my comment caused you distress of any sort. It wasn't my intention to demand anything from anyone, though I see how my comment could be interpreted that way. I'm really thankful for all the open source work done by other members of the community, and that's why I work to contribute everything I can. This is an exciting development for the imgui folks, and as an egui user, I'm just a little jealous! Here's hoping that all the toolkits get nice RAD builders sooner rather than later. I'd be happy to contribute to an egui effort.
dsp_person 2y ago
This would be cool built in a wasm html5 app to whip up a gui in the browser and copy paste the result into your editor. > It generates and parses C++ code which can be directly used in your application. Is the parsing part just to read it's own code it generates?
- _aavaa_ 2y ago
  > wasm html5 app That would seem a little anathema to a imgui library aiming to be native on multiple platforms and to have minimum dependencies.
  - dymk 2y ago
    A multi-platform, minimal dependency project such as this is a perfect fit for targeting wasm, which of course is "just" another platform (not sure what additional dependencies you think it would need?)
  - joshcryer 2y ago
    ImGUI generally runs on GLFW and there is even a port to html5: https://github.com/jnmaloney/WebGui https://github.com/jnmaloney/WebGui ImRAD appears to be based on GLFW as well so one would only have to follow a tutorial: https://uncovergame.com/2015/01/21/porting-a-complete-c-game-engine-to-html5-through-emscripten/ https://uncovergame.com/2015/01/21/porting-a-complete-c-game...
    - jasonjmcghee 2y ago
      WebGL2 is a thing now so some of what that blog discusses isn't as bad anymore, in terms of shader support. Mind blowingly, webgl + Mac + integer textures still don't work afaik.
  - dsp_person 2y ago
    it's easy nowadays to compile imgui apps to wasm/html5 examples: https://web.imhex.werwolv.net https://web.imhex.werwolv.net https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/imgui-sapp.html https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/imgui-sapp.html
waynenilsen 2y ago
Makes me miss netbeans Now do the same for tailwind
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Still using it on personal Java projects.
  - waynenilsen 2y ago
    the codegen that thing had for frontend was excellent in later versions once you got the hang of it you could really move quickly with desktop gui development
tecleandor 2y ago
Is the C++ generated code usable from, for example, Python when using pyimgui bindings?
joenot443 2y ago
This is fantastic. I've spent the last couple years working on an ImGui C++ app, this would have saved me many hours.
- BatFastard 2y ago
  I am just starting with imGui, tell me how this will save me time please?
  - consteval 2y ago
    You can see the interface while you're designing it. Meaning, instead of writing a bunch of code, compiling, running, deciding one widget needs to be moved a bit you can just see it and move it. You also save time writing a ton of boilerplate.
exe34 2y ago
I don't think there should be so many sudos in there. otherwise looks really cool!
secondary_op 2y ago
Why is GUI builder for ImGui is not implemented in ImGui itself ?
- flohofwoe 2y ago
  What makes you think that it isn't? Looking at the code and screenshot it uses Dear ImGui for its UI.
9erdelta 2y ago
Awesome, I've been working on a project with ImGui and keep thinking how great something like this would be. I'll be trying this out!
dymk 2y ago
Perhaps one of the most mind-boggling parts of this project is it has a hand-rolled parser for the subset of C++ that it can emit. All implemented in a single header. Equal parts impressive and crazy. https://github.com/tpecholt/imrad/blob/main/src/cpp_parser.h https://github.com/tpecholt/imrad/blob/main/src/cpp_parser.h
- syeare 2y ago
  What does this comment mean? Since not particularly well-versed in programming, all I understood was that this project has something that can read data? What is impressive about a tool that can read C++? Would appreciate if someone can explain, thanks!
  - dymk 2y ago
    C++ is a notoriously difficult language to parse [1], so hand-rolling a parser (even for a subset of the language) is an impressive feat. It's also interesting that they decided to implement their own tokenizer and lexer instead of using something "off the shelf". [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_vexing_parse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_vexing_parse
supportengineer 2y ago
Steam is a popular cross-platform system, could it ever be used for non-gaming applications? Even Enterprise applications?
- webkike 2y ago
  I’m not sure why you’re bringing up Steam, but they do sell software on it
- andsoitis 2y ago
  > could it ever be used for non-gaming applications? Even Enterprise applications? Applications typically need good text rendering and layout support (multiline, fonts, maybe RTL, etc.), which ImGUI lacks.
lainga 2y ago
Shouldn't it be "for the Dear library" given that the dear-imgui creator has stated it's named "dear"? (IMGUI means immediate-mode GUI, and ocornut has said he was inspired by another IMGUI named "simgui" [] ) > I renamed it to "dear imgui" (about 15 months later) because "imgui" has been hogging up the whole acronym. I am sorry for the confusion caused even today. [] https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/issues/7892 https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/issues/7892
- TillE 2y ago
  Dear ImGui is the full official name, but it's still extremely common to refer to it simply as ImGui (that's what the namespace is called, etc). It's definitely not just "Dear".

227 points by davikr 2y ago

klaussilveira 2y ago

This is amazing. It might be my Visual Basic nostalgia kicking in, but this is the icing on the imgui cake for me.

29athrowaway 2y ago
To this date there's no RAD experience faster than Visual Basic 6.
- _mlbt 2y ago
  Lazarus is pretty close and it’s cross platform. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ It’s Pascal instead of BASIC, which may or may not be an improvement depending on your perspective.
  - badsectoracula 2y ago
    I think "pretty close" is severely underselling Lazarus - it is way ahead of Visual Basic 6 in almost every aspect when it comes to making GUIs. Even Delphi 2 (the first 32bit Delphi) allowed for more complex GUIs compared to VB6, let alone something way more advanced like Lazarus. The only thing that VB up to 6 had that you can't find in Lazarus (or Delphi for that matter) is being able to pause the program while it is running (or some error occurred), modify it and continue the execution without restarting it. But overall considering all the pros Lazarus has compared to VB6 i'd say it is much better than VB6 ever was.
    - nickpsecurity 2y ago
      VB6 also used to start in about one second on a 400MHz P3. Test runs on the programs were about as fast. I had no mental pauses for compile times. Is Lazarus that fast?
      - badsectoracula 2y ago
        More or less, depending on many factors though. In general it is among the most lightweight IDEs, i've even used it on an original Raspberry Pi (though that was a few years ago) - it wasn't fast there, but it was usable which is more than can be said about most other still developed IDEs. Free Pascal is not as fast as Delphi 2 (especially if the target OS needs to use a native linker like GNU ld), for some decently sized projects it can take several seconds (or even a minute for multimillion lines of code) for a full build, though partial builds tend to be almost instant - at least in hardware released within the last 10 years (and SSDs help, like everywhere else). Of course both the language and the libraries (and Lazarus itself as an IDE and its own framework) do way more than Delphi 2, which itself was also more advanced than VB6. I do believe that the provided functionality scales well with its requirements. I'm not sure about a 400MHz P3, but i have tried a git build of Lazarus from last year on a late 2003 Athlon64 PC running Windows 7 and was very comfortable. A 400MHz P3 would be faster than an original Raspberry Pi, so i'd expect that if nothing else to be usable though might not be as comfortable as VB6 (or Delphi 2 for that matter). I do have a (IIRC) 800MHz P3 around for retro games, at some point i might try to install some lightweight Linux for fun and try to see how it performs there.
        nickpsecurity 2y ago
        That sounds very competitive. One, more question. I used to use VB6 partly just for quickly drawing GUI’s, esp getting size right. Lazarus was one of free tools I found that was similar but most prefer other languages. Is there a way to make a GUI in Lazarus, save it to a file with types/dimensions, and then some other tool could generate a non-Pascal GUI from it? Does it have an export ability that’s detailed and parsable enough for that?
    - 29athrowaway 2y ago
      VB6 was not very flexible in many ways but you could get an application going in no time. GAMBAS is the spiritual successor.
      - FpUser 2y ago
        "VB6 was not very flexible in many ways but you could get an application going in no time" Same in Delphi / Lazarus. And the language was / is way more powerful.
    - pjmlp 2y ago
      Which is available in .NET.
    - stavros 2y ago
      Lazarus seems amazing, and I'd love to write some software with it, but I can't get past the language. You generally do want to pick languages with a big ecosystem, as everything you might want will have already been written. The difference between Python and Delphi isn't a bit more work, it's often the difference between "there's a library so I can make my thing" and "it would take way too long".
      - doublerabbit 2y ago
        Pascal is a workhorse and to tame the horse takes a lot of skill and blind knowledge. And then when tamed, your horse is the best at the show. I can't fault Pascal. It may not have every module ever like Python, it's syntax may feel archaic but the satisfaction and feel of producing a program with is fuzzy feeling great. I enjoy making my own things, especially wheels.
      - badsectoracula 2y ago
        You can interface with existing libraries if you really want, you need to somehow expose a C ABI (be it via the library written in C, exposing an official C ABI or you writing a C bridge). There is a 3rd party "Python-for-Lazarus" bridge[0] though for simple stuff you can use the python library directly: program foo; {$MODE OBJFPC} uses CTypes; const PyLib = 'python3.11'; procedure Py_Initialize; cdecl; external PyLib; function PyRun_SimpleString(Command: PChar): CInt; cdecl; external PyLib; begin Py_Initialize; PyRun_SimpleString( 'from tkinter import *'#13 + 'window = Tk()'#13 + 'window.title("Hello, world!")'#13 + 'button = Button(window, text="Clicky")'#13 + 'button.grid()'#13 + 'window.mainloop()'); end. The above uses the Tk library that comes with Python. Also depending on what you want to do chances are there is already a Free Pascal library or existing bindings to a library written in another language. If not, if the library has a C header file you can use the h2pas utility that comes with FPC to make your own (though the generated code does need some modifications to work more often than not). Of course all the above do assume you have knowledge of both Free Pascal and whatever you want to interface with, but at least as far as being able to access existing libraries is concerned, it should be possible - just with some hoops (and at that point it depends on how much you value whatever Lazarus provides over the effort involved in whatever library you want to use). EDIT: and truth be told IMO the biggest roadblock with Lazarus isn't so much the language but that it is just not easy to learn most of that stuff (the core language and runtime library is decently documented but anything outside of that can be a hit and miss) and you basically need an almost arrogant attitude of "this is just dumb code, not magic, if it is technically possible i can figure out myself how to do it" :-P. [0] https://github.com/Alexey-T/Python-for-Lazarus https://github.com/Alexey-T/Python-for-Lazarus
  - zerr 2y ago
    I wish it had C++ support as well, akin to C++Builder. Pascal syntax is off-putting for many.
    - lelanthran 2y ago
      > I wish it had C++ support as well, akin to C++Builder. Pascal syntax is off-putting for many I write my "app" as a library (.dll/.so) in C and use Lazarus to do the GUI, because FFI from FreePascal to C (and back again, for callbacks) is almost transparent.
      - zerr 2y ago
        Well, I like using C++ for UI.
    - nazgulsenpai 2y ago
      Have you ever tried U++? I haven't used it beyond quick and dirty testing but has a decent GUI builder and is a full C++ IDE. https://www.ultimatepp.org/ https://www.ultimatepp.org/
      - klaussilveira 2y ago
        Thank you, I did not know about this!
    - badsectoracula 2y ago
      It'd be neat but that would require a ton of effort and cooperation by several different projects. Basically you'd need a C++ compiler to implement the C++ extensions used by C++ Builder (or something similar if you don't care about C++ Builder compatibility) so that C++ code can use Object Pascal methods with the extra functionality it adds (most important being properties and "published" sections in class declarations that are exposed via RTTI). You'd also need some tool to create C++ bindings for all the Free Pascal units. The above will make possible to use LCL from C++, though only via code. To get the full RAD deal you'd need to implement a C++ parser (including the extensions mentioned above) and refactoring support for Lazarus' CodeTools equivalent to the existing Free Pascal parser/refactoring so that the IDE can autogenerate code (Lazarus doesn't generate separate source code files like some other IDEs with GUI designers do, instead it updates the same source code you are editing on the fly as it keeps a full AST in memory for all edited files and units they depend on - something like that would be needed for C++ too). And yeah, you'd need the people involved with all the above (really mainly the C++ compiler developers) to play along without breaking stuff.
- sedatk 2y ago
  Delphi could run circles around VB6.
- pjmlp 2y ago
  Delphi, C++ Builder, WinForms.
- varispeed 2y ago
  Microsoft WPF was great as well. I thought they killed it, but seems like the project is still active.
- scrlk 2y ago
  Given that Python appears to be the new VB6/VBA (in terms of adoption by a non-SWE user base), IMO there's still a gap for a decent VB6-like RAD experience within the Python ecosystem. Qt Designer exists, but PyQt/PySide licencing can cause headaches.
  - WillAdams 2y ago
    I'd give a lot for there to be a simple tool for Python which: - had an interactive tool for laying out a GUI - integrated that layout into the code in a meaningful fashion - allowed distributing a project as a single file which could be easily run (say by downloading/installing a single run-time module) The problem is, for each computer I use I need to keep track of which Python environment(s) have been installed where, (and uninstall them) or I end up with something like: https://xkcd.com/1987/ https://xkcd.com/1987/ (well, at least something which won't allow me to get a new project installed).
- reddit_clone 2y ago
  How about Delphi 6 ? I have some good memories.
- nottorp 2y ago
  ... or a more full featured experience than Delphi. VB fails (or used to, haven't worked with it in a looong time) when you want to do custom controls and integrate them in the UI builder. With Delphi that used to be piss easy, you could even write designer-only methods that helped with custom configuring your controls, while with VB you had to do it in something else iirc. Too bad Embarcadero only wants to sell to enterprises that are stuck on legacy applications. And what's with all the Pascal hate? Missing your <> and {}? Nothing wrong with begin and end. What I wonder is: if the Rust crowd is hell bent on rewriting everything, why don't they clone the VCL and the GUI designer?
  - kragen 2y ago
    i think most guis in 02024 are built in html5, godot, or unity rather than vb or delphi vcl. so i'm not sure cloning the vcl would be so useful
    - nottorp 2y ago
      Godot or Unity? Why would you build a regular application GUI with that? Those are for running a game or game like application constantly at XX fps, not for something that reacts to user input and should consume 0% cpu when it's not told to do anything. Please tell me "modern" UI toolkits are still event driven and don't infinitely render everything in a loop like a game...
      - kragen 2y ago
        the thread you have (apparently unintentionally) posted this comment in is entitled 'ImRAD is a GUI builder for [an] ImGui library [for opengl]' :-) more generally, guis that don't need to run constantly at xx fps don't have much reason to not be written in html5
        nottorp 2y ago
        Oh :( I thought ImGui was a regular GUI library. Why are people even mentioning VB6 and Delphi then in the comment threads? Possibly because they made the same assumption that I made :)
- WillAdams 2y ago
  Interface Builder and Project Center on NeXTstep were amazing --- see Steve Job's 5-minute word processor demo. For a large-scale real world project example consider that the NeXT version of Wordperfect was done is 6 weeks or so --- granted it started w/ a working Unix version, but it felt fully native and nicely polished (and was much better than the Windows version).
- mmargerum 2y ago
  Delphi is leagues better and still supported

timschmidt 2y ago

[flagged]

ashkankiani 2y ago
[flagged]
- timschmidt 2y ago
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  - ashkankiani 2y ago
    How is "Now one for egui, please" not a request? Are you suggesting that was just a wish you're putting out into the universe hoping someone fulfills it? "please" is a word you use as a request, typically. Entitlement w.r.t open source just kills me.
    - timschmidt 2y ago
      > Are you suggesting that was just a wish you're putting out into the universe There's the charitable interpretation of others I know you're capable of. One might even consider my comment as a starting point for other interested parties to discuss related functionality for a related toolkit. I don't know what others know. Perhaps there's one out there already?
      - ashkankiani 2y ago
        I want to apologize. I just lashed out from my past bad experience. You don't really deserve it, and you're right, it could just open up a discussion about writing an alternative for egui. Sorry about that.
        timschmidt 2y ago
        Thank you, and no worries. I appreciate that you took time to consider the interaction and write this, not everyone would. I'm sorry that my comment caused you distress of any sort. It wasn't my intention to demand anything from anyone, though I see how my comment could be interpreted that way. I'm really thankful for all the open source work done by other members of the community, and that's why I work to contribute everything I can. This is an exciting development for the imgui folks, and as an egui user, I'm just a little jealous! Here's hoping that all the toolkits get nice RAD builders sooner rather than later. I'd be happy to contribute to an egui effort.

dsp_person 2y ago

This would be cool built in a wasm html5 app to whip up a gui in the browser and copy paste the result into your editor. > It generates and parses C++ code which can be directly used in your application. Is the parsing part just to read it's own code it generates?

_aavaa_ 2y ago
> wasm html5 app That would seem a little anathema to a imgui library aiming to be native on multiple platforms and to have minimum dependencies.
- dymk 2y ago
  A multi-platform, minimal dependency project such as this is a perfect fit for targeting wasm, which of course is "just" another platform (not sure what additional dependencies you think it would need?)
- joshcryer 2y ago
  ImGUI generally runs on GLFW and there is even a port to html5: https://github.com/jnmaloney/WebGui https://github.com/jnmaloney/WebGui ImRAD appears to be based on GLFW as well so one would only have to follow a tutorial: https://uncovergame.com/2015/01/21/porting-a-complete-c-game-engine-to-html5-through-emscripten/ https://uncovergame.com/2015/01/21/porting-a-complete-c-game...
  - jasonjmcghee 2y ago
    WebGL2 is a thing now so some of what that blog discusses isn't as bad anymore, in terms of shader support. Mind blowingly, webgl + Mac + integer textures still don't work afaik.
- dsp_person 2y ago
  it's easy nowadays to compile imgui apps to wasm/html5 examples: https://web.imhex.werwolv.net https://web.imhex.werwolv.net https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/imgui-sapp.html https://floooh.github.io/sokol-html5/imgui-sapp.html

waynenilsen 2y ago

Makes me miss netbeans Now do the same for tailwind

pjmlp 2y ago
Still using it on personal Java projects.
- waynenilsen 2y ago
  the codegen that thing had for frontend was excellent in later versions once you got the hang of it you could really move quickly with desktop gui development

tecleandor 2y ago

Is the C++ generated code usable from, for example, Python when using pyimgui bindings?

joenot443 2y ago

This is fantastic. I've spent the last couple years working on an ImGui C++ app, this would have saved me many hours.

BatFastard 2y ago
I am just starting with imGui, tell me how this will save me time please?
- consteval 2y ago
  You can see the interface while you're designing it. Meaning, instead of writing a bunch of code, compiling, running, deciding one widget needs to be moved a bit you can just see it and move it. You also save time writing a ton of boilerplate.

exe34 2y ago

I don't think there should be so many sudos in there. otherwise looks really cool!

secondary_op 2y ago

Why is GUI builder for ImGui is not implemented in ImGui itself ?

flohofwoe 2y ago
What makes you think that it isn't? Looking at the code and screenshot it uses Dear ImGui for its UI.

9erdelta 2y ago

Awesome, I've been working on a project with ImGui and keep thinking how great something like this would be. I'll be trying this out!

dymk 2y ago

Perhaps one of the most mind-boggling parts of this project is it has a hand-rolled parser for the subset of C++ that it can emit. All implemented in a single header. Equal parts impressive and crazy. https://github.com/tpecholt/imrad/blob/main/src/cpp_parser.h https://github.com/tpecholt/imrad/blob/main/src/cpp_parser.h

syeare 2y ago
What does this comment mean? Since not particularly well-versed in programming, all I understood was that this project has something that can read data? What is impressive about a tool that can read C++? Would appreciate if someone can explain, thanks!
- dymk 2y ago
  C++ is a notoriously difficult language to parse [1], so hand-rolling a parser (even for a subset of the language) is an impressive feat. It's also interesting that they decided to implement their own tokenizer and lexer instead of using something "off the shelf". [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_vexing_parse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_vexing_parse

supportengineer 2y ago

Steam is a popular cross-platform system, could it ever be used for non-gaming applications? Even Enterprise applications?

webkike 2y ago
I’m not sure why you’re bringing up Steam, but they do sell software on it
andsoitis 2y ago
> could it ever be used for non-gaming applications? Even Enterprise applications? Applications typically need good text rendering and layout support (multiline, fonts, maybe RTL, etc.), which ImGUI lacks.

lainga 2y ago

Shouldn't it be "for the Dear library" given that the dear-imgui creator has stated it's named "dear"? (IMGUI means immediate-mode GUI, and ocornut has said he was inspired by another IMGUI named "simgui" [] ) > I renamed it to "dear imgui" (about 15 months later) because "imgui" has been hogging up the whole acronym. I am sorry for the confusion caused even today. [] https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/issues/7892 https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/issues/7892

TillE 2y ago
Dear ImGui is the full official name, but it's still extremely common to refer to it simply as ImGui (that's what the namespace is called, etc). It's definitely not just "Dear".