There are some times that I make something and the terminal isn’t enough. I want to make it user-friendly and add buttons and dropdowns and stuff. I mainly write C, so I want a well-known and good GUI library for C. I have tried learning Qt but the documentation was awful and all the examples were for C++ or Python. I also am aware about libraries like imgui but it’s more for debugging UIs I think and not for normal applications that end users use.

I also would like the library to be platform-agnostic, or at least just work with Linux because that’s what I am using.

If you also code in C, what do you use to make GUIs? What do you suggest me to use?

Thanks in advance.

Also, if anyone suggests Electron or anything involving a browser, I will find them and remove one electron from each atom of theirs, turning them into smoke.

  • promitheas@programming.dev
    30·
    7 months ago

    Also, if anyone suggests Electron or anything involving a browser, I will find them and remove one electron from each atom of theirs, turning them into smoke.

    This made me laugh, it was so unexpected xD

    Also, while its not an answer for your question, look up ncurses if you dont know it. It might be a middle ground for your future projects, if you prefer staying in the terminal but having a UI.

  • communism@lemmy.ml
    12·
    7 months ago

    GTK? Depends on how important cross-platform support is for you. I’ve heard GTK programs don’t look great on Windows, but it does support Windows. GTK is written in C as well—Qt is in C++ so that might be where some of your problems are coming from, I’ve not tried making any kind of GUIs in C though.

    • olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      5·
      7 months ago

      I had tried GTK in the past and I remember it’s documentation as having like 5 examples and then letting you completely on your own. Maybe however it has changed since then, I will have a look :)

  • refalo@programming.dev
    10·
    7 months ago

    I have tried learning Qt but the documentation was awful

    I found the Qt documentation to be quite excellent, with tons of examples and a huge community.

    But for C I typically use nuklear. There’s also microui.

  • iza@lemmy.zip
    7·
    7 months ago

    There’s a couple interesting libraries that abstract different toolkits under the hood (GTK on Linux, Win32 on Windows). I’m not sure how they compare to using GTK directly. IUP, libui

  • brisk@aussie.zone
    7·
    7 months ago

    I’ve used GTK and WxWidgets for C programs. GTK is more powerful but takes longer to get used to its idioms as I recall

    • Lee@retrolemmy.com
      3·
      7 months ago

      I’ve used WxWidgets and Win32 API in C. I suspect OP will quickly learn why electron is popular even though it’s so bloated. That said, sounds like OP wants a light weight and cross platform option, so WxWidgets gets my vote. Granted it’s been over 10 years since I’ve used it.

  • Jankatarch@lemmy.world
    6·
    7 months ago

    Raylib+raygui is my favorite for getting started because how simple they are. I also heard good things about clay.

    For professional UI libraries with buttons etc similar to qt, I know of GTK, EFL, and iup portable.

    GTK is the main one I can vouch for. Google sometimes gives gtk-3 docs and sometimes gtk-4 docs so just remember to use docs’ searchbar.

    Also consider TUI instead of GUI if you really want C. These libraries usually support mouse too.

  • AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social
    6·
    7 months ago

    I generally don’t do GUIs for C. But I’m also an embedded C person.

    When I have I’ll generate DLLs for the C portion then just pull them into a python based interface or something with easier to deal with gui implementations.

    Programming languages are tools. Would you use a wrench to drive a nail? You could. But it would be painful, you’re gonna miss and whack your hand at least once.

    If it’s a learning exercise, go for the C implementation, why not? I’ve written an XML parser in LabVIEW. (I never stopped to ask whether I should…) Is that the right tool for the job? Fuck no.

    If this is an exercise in software engineering be an engineer and use the 99% already built and verified system to do the job it’s meant to.

    Or you can write an entire theme park simulator in assembly because you like pain or something.

    • _cnt0@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      7 months ago

      Or you can write an entire theme park simulator in assembly because you like pain or something.

      Say what you will, but that was an economically viable route to take. I’m still in love with TTD and RCT2.

  • said@lemmy.sdf.org
    5·
    7 months ago

    I don’t know how feasible for you to use an immediate mode GUI library but imgui came to my mind as soon as i read the post. However it’s written in C++ instead of C.

    I never tried the C bindings but it seems to have a couple of options including cimgui to use imgui in a C project.

    Maybe it’s worth a shot if you want something that’s proven to be lightweight and battle tested (I mean the main imgui project for this).

  • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
    5·
    7 months ago

    I know it’s not really what you’re asking, but have you considered learning Rust? In many ways, Rust is more similar to C than C++ and is just as capable. There are quite a few very well documented (as is common in the Rust ecosystem) Rust libraries for GUIs, including efficient native ones or immediate mode ones and such. Just a suggestion.

    • count_duckula@discuss.tchncs.de
      10·
      7 months ago

      You probably love Rust as much as I do, but this is such an unhelpful comment. Dude mainly programs in C, asks about libraries for C, and you don’t even bother to list any native Rust libs that may give OP an incentive to even consider learning Rust.

      • SorteKanin@feddit.dk
        1·
        7 months ago

        I think that’s quite harsh. As I said, I know it’s not what OP asked and it was just a suggestion. I’m just adding it as an option. Perhaps someone else reading the thread will find it useful, if not OP (who I don’t think you should speak for).

        OP mentioned they want native speed and were struggling with badly documented libraries. I feel like it was appropriate to at least mention Rust, considering those two things. Since when is widening a discussion slightly considered bad? You don’t have to reply to my comment either, if my comment does not seem interesting to you. Let alone downvote it. You can just leave it alone, it doesn’t hurt anyone.

    • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
      5·
      7 months ago

      +1 for being the kind of guy that goes to a Windows problem thread and suggests installing Linux (I have done that just for fun), but for Rust.

      I am currently learning Rust in my freer time and found “Rust by Example” not as appealing.
      For context, I learnt C when I was a kid, following “Programming with C - Schaum Series” and loved how it started by giving an idea of the memory representation for all data structures the way it is abstracted (or not so much) in C. Later in Uni, I hated “Let us C” (even though it seemed to do a similar thing at a glance) and “Let us C++” and just learnt the languages on the go as required by courses and projects (also simply used a C++ reference book instead of a course styled one).

      Now I see “Rust by Example” and see some parts not having been explained in the beginning, for which I would have to open the link to a section, much further ahead (it probably is not a course styled thingy). I will end up learning it, given time, but is there some material available that has a similar approach to introducing programming with Rust as the Schaum Series one was for C?

        • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          7 months ago

          the Rust book

          Do you mean this? https://doc.rust-lang.org/book/

          I actually started with that, but somehow redirected to “Rust by Example” and realise they were different, probably because of the same domain name and theme.
          Now I see, they did start with explaining ownership, which is one of the things I felt that i was missing, when I started moving forward in “Rust by Example”. Thanks for putting me back on track.

    • brisk@aussie.zone
      2·
      7 months ago

      I’ve recently started a handful of projects exploring the rust gui ecosystem and the experience has been… disappointing.

      • The most mature native library I’ve seen is Druid, which is deprecated in favour of Xilem. Xilem is highly experimental.

      • Slint is somehow used by several industry partners, yet is incapable of rendering flowing text documents, and only just brought in text formatting (via Xilem’s text library oddly enough).

      • Egui seems a bit more capable, but it has the usual downsides of immediate mode gui without any of the typical upsides (you can’t intermingle gui elements with logic, the gui has to all go in one place).

      • Dioxus is reasonably capable but is absolutely webtech focused, which seems likely anathema to Op.

      • Iced I haven’t used beyond hello world, and I didn’t enjoy that experience.

      AFAICT the most mature rust gui libraries are the rust bindings for C’s GTK and C++'s Qt.

      I also - somewhat controversially - disagree with “very well documented”. Rust projects consistently have published API references - which is great! The actual quality of the API references is mixed. Actual documentation - such as intended usage, common patterns, design intent - are much more sparse. Of the GUI libraries I listed, only Dioxus and Slint come close.

  • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    7 months ago

    Apart from GTK, wxWidgets (wxC) and FLTK (cfltk), which others have already stated and are more geared towards desktop UI, you can consider SDL3 for a more open ended graphics library. It’s good for making game engines.

  • replicat@lemmy.world
    4·
    7 months ago

    You could just use SDL. Very easy to integrate into a C project. BUT SDL doesn’t come with any UI primitives so you will need to make buttons, sliders etc yourself.

  • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
    2·
    7 months ago

    Best option is to switch to C++ and use QtWidgets. You don’t need to know much C++ for that - if you want to tediously micromanage strings you can still do that in your business part of the program.