minimal-windows-gui

miwig: MInimal, WIndows-focused Graphical user-interface toolkit.

A crate to build Graphical User Interfaces for Windows applications, using just WinAPI.

The primary goal is to build a better abstraction for Rust to deal with the Windows API, and the development is tailored by theForger's Win32 API Programming Tutorial which is a great source to get into the API. The examples from that resource are ported to Rust using this crate under the examples/ folder, which can be ran with cargo:

# for small single-file examples
cargo run --example test

# for larger examples using resources
cargo run --package menu_one

For Using Resources, a separate crate such as embed-resource or winres may be used for commodity (essentially emitting the correct cargo:rustc-link-lib value in build.rs). You may also read about .rc files to understand what they are and how they work.

Why another toolkit?

I like to avoid heavy dependencies on my projects when possible, and if those dependencies are my own, it's even more justifiable to use them!

I know there are other good options out there (A 2021 Survey of Rust GUI Libraries is a great summary), even Windows-focused alternatives such as Native Windows GUI, but that's like, not my own! And I can't prevent NWG from growing more than I'd want my own to.

So, this is my own personal take on this thing. It's very minimal. You can expect a certain level of abstraction, but don't expect a full-blown DSL or fancy derive macros. If you're doing anything half-serious, you may want to consider a different toolkit.

Ported theForger's examples

To run a file.rs-based example, use:

cargo run --example file

To run a folder/-based example, use:

cargo run --manifest-path examples/folder/Cargo.toml

To run all of them:

for f in examples/*; do test -f "$f" && { cargo run --example $(basename "$f" .rs); } || { cargo run --manifest-path $f/Cargo.toml; }; done

• Basics
  • Getting Started: intro.rs. Displays a message box and exits.
  • A Simple Window: simple_window.rs. A blank window with default behaviour.
  • Handling Messages: window_click.rs. A window that reacts to click events.
  • The Message Loop: No full program examples in this section.
  • Using Resources: No full program examples in this section.
  • Menus and Icons: menu_one/, menu_two.rs. A window with toolbar actions, using resources and created programatically, respectively.
  • Dialog Boxes: dlg_one/. A window with a toolbar action to open a custom About dialog.
  • Modeless Dialogs: dlg_two/. A window with a dialog pre-opened that cannot be closed.
  • Standard Controls: ctl_one/. A complex window layout with text inputs, scrollable lists, and buttons.
  • Dialog FAQ: dlg_three/. A window with a custom background color.
• Creating a simple application
  • Creating controls at runtime. app_one.rs. A window with a text area with scrollbars in both directions and a resize grip.
  • Files and the common dialogs. app_two.rs. Builds on top of app_one and adds a window with a toolbar to open the standard Open File and Save As dialogs.
  • Tool and Status bars. app_three.rs. Builds on top of app_two and adds a status bar and icon bar as an alternative to the toolbar.
  • Multiple Document Interface. Not ported yet. Builds on top of app_three and adds nested windows that are contained within the main window.
• Graphics Device Interface
  • Bitmaps and Device Contexts. bmp_one/. A window that loads and displays a bitmap.
  • Transparency. bmp_two.rs. A window that loads and displays a bitmap with different masks applied.
  • Timers and Animation. anim_one.rs. A window that loads a bitmap and uses a timer to animate it.
  • Text, Fonts and Colours. Not ported yet. A window that uses a custom font in its text area.