[OxidizeConf2024] Building Cross-Platform GUIs with Slint – A Practical Introduction
Introducing Slint’s Versatility
Creating intuitive, cross-platform graphical user interfaces (GUIs) is a critical challenge in modern software development. At OxidizeConf2024, Olivier Goffart, co-founder of Slint, introduced this Rust-based GUI framework designed for desktop, embedded, and bare-metal MCU applications. With a background in Qt and KDE, Olivier demonstrated Slint’s capabilities through a live coding session, showcasing its ability to craft native applications with minimal platform-specific adjustments.
Slint combines a declarative markup language with Rust’s imperative logic, offering a balance of expressiveness and performance. Olivier highlighted its support for desktop, mobile, and web platforms via WebAssembly, though the web is secondary to native targets. His demo illustrated the creation of a simple button with dynamic styling, leveraging Slint’s markup to define layouts and Rust for logic, making it accessible for developers accustomed to imperative programming.
Live Coding a Responsive UI
Olivier’s live coding session was a highlight, demonstrating Slint’s ease of use. He built a button with a gray background, padding, and centered alignment, using Slint’s markup to define the UI. By adding a touch area and binding it to a click event, he enabled dynamic color changes—red when pressed, gray otherwise—with a 300ms animation for smooth transitions. Border radius and width further enhanced the button’s aesthetics, showcasing Slint’s flexibility in meeting designer specifications.
The demo underscored Slint’s portability. Olivier noted that the same code, with minor adaptations, can run on bare-metal MCUs using tools like probe-rs. This portability, enabled by Rust’s ecosystem, allows developers to target diverse platforms without extensive rewrites. Slint’s integration with cargo ensures seamless compilation, making it an efficient choice for embedded and desktop applications alike.
Streamlining Development with Slint
Slint’s design prioritizes developer productivity and application performance. Olivier emphasized its lightweight nature, suitable for resource-constrained environments like MCUs. The framework’s ability to handle complex layouts with minimal code reduces development time, while Rust’s safety guarantees prevent common UI bugs. For embedded systems, Slint’s compatibility with Rust’s ecosystem tools like cargo and probe-rs simplifies deployment, as demonstrated by Olivier’s assurance that the demo code could run on an MCU with minor tweaks.
By open-sourcing Slint, Olivier and his team encourage community contributions, fostering a growing ecosystem. His invitation to visit the demo booth reflects Slint’s collaborative spirit, aiming to refine the framework through developer feedback. Slint’s practical approach to cross-platform GUI development positions it as a powerful tool for Rust developers, streamlining the creation of responsive, reliable applications.