[Question] How best to use elements in a larger project?

[Radagan]

I'm coming back to this library after some time away. Looking forward to using it in a C++ app targeting macOS, Windows, and Linux. It's a pretty complex app and I need a good cross-platform UI that's modern C++. Elements seems like the best lib out there!

How best should I add elements to my git and cmake based project to keep the library current and build it's dependencies into my app? This is a commercial product, so the commitment to elements is long-term. Should elements be a submodule, etc.?

I looked at the docs and see that I can build the examples outside the project, but that's not quite the advice I'm asking.

[djowel]

There's really no single answer to this question. There are a multitude of ways to structure the development of an application. Personally, I tend to have the application code totally separate from elements. That can be seen in the examples, and in how the examples can be built outside the project, by setting the ELEMENTS_ROOT directory to point at the location of elements. That way, I can have multiple applications, each pointing to one single ELEMENTS_ROOT directory.

[Radagan]

The app I'm working on will be used by multiple developers and built by our CI/CD for windows and mac. So, I was trying to figure out how best to package elements as the UI lib. I like the shared approach, but that would complicate builds.

To give some context, the heart of the app is a Vulkan based rendering pipeline, which currently uses GLFW window. I'm hoping to use elements as a UI on top of it.