2.7 KiB

Raw Blame History

Using libui

Shared vs. Static

In order to properly use libui, you first need to know whether you are using it as a shared library (also called a dynamically-linked library) or as a static library.

With a shared library, your application will need to ship with the libui shared library object, or require it at runtime (if it is to be installed via a system package manager). However, your program will only need to directly depend on libui itself.

With a static library, your application will ship with libui embedded within it, so no additional dependencies will be needed at runtime (apart from ones that require installation via a system package manager, such as GTK+). However, you need to do slightly more work to be able to actually build your application; exactly what is discussed on this page.

If you are using a language binding, the language binding will likely have already decided how it will use libui, and will provide its own instructions on what to do based on that decision.

Including libui in Source Code

libui ships as a single header file, ui.h. Therefore, to include it in a C or C++ source file, all you need to do is

// If the libui headers are loaded in the same way as other system headers
#include <ui.h>
// OR
// If the libui headers are included directly
#include "path/to/ui.h"

If you are using libui as a static library, you'll need to add the line

#define uiStatic

before including ui.h, as that informs ui.h to tell the compiler that the functions in ui.h are not dynamically loaded.

OS-Specific Headers

For most purposes, the above will be sufficient. However, if you need to do any OS-specific work with libui, there are a few more steps to take. Typically, this would be done if you either wanted to create a new control or access the underlying OS handles behind a control.

Each OS has a special OS-specific header that provides the necessary additional functions and constants. These must be included after ui.h. These must also be included after any OS headers:

Windows: The OS-specific header is ui_windows.h. The only OS header that is necessary is <windows.h>:
```
#include <windows.h>
#include "ui.h"
#include "ui_windows.h"
```
TODO(andlabs): version constants
Unix: The OS-specific header is ui_unix.h. Only <gtk/gtk.h> needs to be included beforehand:
```
#include <gtk/gtk.h>
#include "ui.h"
#include "ui_unix.h"
```
TODO(andlabs): version constants
macOS: The OS-specific header is ui_darwin.h. Only <Cocoa/Cocoa.h> needs to be included beforehand:
```
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
#import "ui.h"
#import "ui_darwin.h"
```

Linking Against libui

TODO(andlabs): write this

2.7 KiB Raw Blame History