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
    281·
    12 days 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.

    • olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.comOP
      5·
      12 days 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 :)

  • communism@lemmy.ml
    12·
    12 days 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.

  • refalo@programming.dev
    10·
    12 days 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·
    11 days 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·
    12 days 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·
      12 days 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·
    11 days 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
    5·
    12 days 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·
      12 days 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·
    12 days 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).

  • replicat@lemmy.world
    4·
    12 days 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.

  • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
    4·
    11 days 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.

  • FizzyOrange@programming.dev
    21·
    10 days 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.