leif

Highlights

Leif is UI in C/C++ made easy. The library is designed to be really easy to setup and provide maximal functionality. All of that while retaining a consice and readable codebase.

Theming & Styling support

The library comes with a fully-featured property system where each UI element can be customized to your liking. Every visible part of your UI can be configured in no time.

Exposed Rendering API

Leif comes with a very performant inhouse batch renderer. The renderers drawing API is fully exposed to the user. This expands the scope of application of the library a lot as you can also utilize it for various non-UI components of your project.

Exposed State

The UI state of leif is nearly completly exposed to the user which, with the rendering system, makes it really easy to add new UI components client-side.

Complete Input-Handling System

The library contains an input subsystem that can be utilized by the user for various different tasks (eg. is_key_down, is_mouse_button_released, etc.) which makes development a whole lot easier.

Dependencies

Dependency	Reason of Usage
glad	Loading OpenGL functions
stb_image	Loading image files into memory
stb_image_resize2	Resizing images
stb_truetype	Loading font glyphs from font files
cglm	Linear Algebra Math
*GLFW	Handling windowing, input etc.

*: This library is an optional library and will be replacable with other libraries

Installation

Installing the library is made very easy by the use of an install script:

git clone https://github.com/cococry/leif
cd leif
./install.sh

Usage

Initialize Leif before using and after creating a window with your windowing backend:

lf_init_glfw(displayWidth, displayHeight, glfwWindow);

Within the main loop of your program, call the lf_begin() and lf_end() functions within which you can render UI elements.

Simple hello-world application with GLFW for windowing

#include <GLFW/glfw3.h>
#include <leif/leif.h>

int main() {
  glfwInit();
  GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(800, 600, "Hello", NULL, NULL);

  glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);

  lf_init_glfw(800, 600, window);

  while(!glfwWindowShouldClose(window)) {
    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
    glClearColor(0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f, 1.0f);

    lf_begin();

    lf_text("Hello, Leif!");

    lf_end();
    glfwSwapBuffers(window);
    glfwPollEvents();
  }
  lf_terminate();
  glfwDestroyWindow(window);
  glfwTerminate();
}

Hello-World Plus

#include <GLFW/glfw3.h>
#include <leif/leif.h>

static int winw = 800, winh = 800;

static void resizecb(GLFWwindow* window, int w, int h) {
  winw = w;
  winh = h;
  glViewport(0, 0, w, h);
  // Resize the leif display on window resize
  lf_resize_display(w, h);
}

int main() {
  glfwInit();
  GLFWwindow* window = glfwCreateWindow(winw, winh, "Hello", NULL, NULL);

  glfwMakeContextCurrent(window);

  glfwSetFramebufferSizeCallback(window, resizecb);

  lf_init_glfw(winw, winh, window);

  // Loading a bigger font (replace /home/cococry with your user)
  LfFont bigfont = lf_load_font("/home/cococry/.leif/assets/fonts/inter.ttf", 50);

  while(!glfwWindowShouldClose(window)) {
    glClear(GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
    glClearColor(0.1f, 0.1f, 0.1f, 1.0f);

    // Starting leif context
    lf_begin();

    const char* text = "Hello, Leif!";
    const char* btntext = "Exit";

    // Defining properties of the button
    LfUIElementProps btnprops = lf_get_theme().button_props;
    btnprops.margin_left = 0.0f; btnprops.margin_top = 15.0f; btnprops.border_width = 0.0f; btnprops.corner_radius = 9.0f;
    btnprops.text_color = LF_WHITE;
    btnprops.color = (LfColor){90, 90, 90, 255};

    // Beginnig a new container
    {
      // Styling the container (setting corner radius)
      LfUIElementProps props = lf_get_theme().div_props;
      props.corner_radius = 10.0f;
      lf_push_style_props(props);

      // Positioning the container in the center
      float width = 400.0f, height = 400.0f;
      lf_div_begin(((vec2s){(winw - width) / 2.0f, (winh - height) / 2.0f}), ((vec2s){width, height}), false);

      // Popping the container's props again
      lf_pop_style_props();
    }

    /* Text */
    {
      // Setting big font
      lf_push_font(&bigfont);
      // Center the text horizontally
      lf_set_ptr_x_absolute((winw - lf_text_dimension(text).x) / 2.0f);
      // Center the text (and button) vertically
      lf_set_ptr_y_absolute((winh - (lf_text_dimension(text).y + lf_text_dimension(btntext).y + btnprops.padding * 2.0f + btnprops.margin_top)) / 2.0f);

      // Remove any margin
      LfUIElementProps props = lf_get_theme().text_props;
      props.margin_left = 0.0f; props.margin_right = 0.0f;
      // Push the style props
      lf_push_style_props(props);

      // Render the text
      lf_text(text);

      // Pop the style props
      lf_pop_style_props();

      // Unsetting big font
      lf_pop_font();
    }

    // Advance into the next line
    lf_next_line();

    /* Exit Button */
    {
      const float width = 180.0f;

      lf_push_style_props(btnprops);
      // Center the button horizontally
      lf_set_ptr_x_absolute((winw - (width + btnprops.padding * 2.0f)) / 2.0f);

      // Rendering a button with fixed scale (-1 stands for "use normal height")
      if(lf_button_fixed(btntext, width, -1) == LF_CLICKED) {
        // Closing the window when you pressed the button
        glfwSetWindowShouldClose(window, 1);
      }

      lf_pop_style_props();
    }

    // Ending the container
    lf_div_end();

    // Ending leif context
    lf_end();

    glfwSwapBuffers(window);
    glfwPollEvents();
  }

  lf_terminate();
  glfwDestroyWindow(window);
  glfwTerminate();
}

Building your project

To build your project, link it with leif and its depdencies.

gcc -o project project.c -lleif -lglfw -lm -lGL -lclipboard

Real world usage

But how does the leif library perform in real applications? I am currently working on a music player called lyssa. The frontend of the player is written entirely with leif. You can see a brief look at of the application below.

A task management app that i also wrote with the leif library:

Contributing

You can contribute to Leif by:

• Fixing bugs or contributing to features
• Changing features or adding new functionality