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Hello everyone, how u doing ?

I’ve been thinking about starting to develop my own UI system in PureBasic, using sprites as the foundation. The idea sounds exciting, but I’m also a bit hesitant.
My concern is: what if future versions of PureBasic eventually introduce a new, native UI framework? In that case, all the time and effort I put into building a custom system might end up being redundant or even obsolete.

Creating a full UI system from scratch is a big investment of time, and maintaining it long-term could be tricky if an official solution arrives later. At the same time, I don’t want to hold back progress on my projects just because of “what ifs.”

So I’d like to hear your opinions:
[*]Do you think it’s worth starting such a project now?
[*]Or would it be wiser to wait and see if a new UI system comes to PureBasic in the future?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

pf shadoko has already a working UI using PB sprite, it just need to be packaged. May be he can upload a lib for you to test.

I can provide the library for Win64 or Win32
(but keyboard input does not work in library form, and I do not wish to give away the source code).

Fred wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 8:23 am pf shadoko has already a working UI using PB sprite, it just need to be packaged. May be he can upload a lib for you to test.

awesooome

pf shadoko wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 10:42 am I can provide the library for Win64 or Win32
(but keyboard input does not work in library form, and I do not wish to give away the source code).

I would love to try it if possible!

A UI without keyboard input? Hmm

Do I understand it correctly that we get some fresh UI goodies soon packaged in PureBasic?

I would be happy with a keyboardinkey() that triggers with push, not with release...

The keyboard issue has been resolved.

will it be a purebasic lib?

Will this UI lib have antialiasing and the dreaded dpi awareness?

It's based on the PB vector library so it should be easy to do these kind of things

Whoa! Encouraging.
Running hoops with javascript callbacks to a webviewer is not my favorite approach to realize a modern native gui.
What type of baseline "gadgets" are available? listbox, editable grid, popup menus?

Dear skinkairewalker,

skinkairewalker wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 2:12 am [*]Do you think it’s worth starting such a project now?

My answer is a clear, yes!

skinkairewalker wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 2:12 am My concern is: what if future versions of PureBasic eventually introduce a new, native UI framework? In that case, all the time and effort I put into building a custom system might end up being redundant or even obsolete.

Creating own libraries is never a waste of time. You always learn from it and increase your experience with PureBasic.
And your UI can be designed as you wish.
Aside from that, I would claim that PureBasic never would include a native sprite-based UI.

skinkairewalker wrote: Wed Sep 24, 2025 2:12 am Creating a full UI system from scratch is a big investment of time, and maintaining it long-term could be tricky if an official solution arrives later.

Yes, that's true. I did it myself three times until I reached a state, where I can fully control/design my UI system via a XML document, where I can define graphics, sounds, events, and effects.

As a starting point, I would recommend some of my codes:
Typeface - Sprite-based font include/module
DisplayBoxedSprite() - Zoom sprites with fixed border and stretched center.

Hi skinkairewalker,

I wrote my own GUI in screen mode for my CAD/CAM program.
It was a lot of work, yes a lot of work.
but ...
I'm happy I did it, the result is stunning.
and I learned a lot of programming in PB, sprites and OGRE.

Greetings,
marco

STARGÅTE wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 7:40 pm As a starting point, I would recommend some of my codes:
Typeface - Sprite-based font include/module
DisplayBoxedSprite() - Zoom sprites with fixed border and stretched center.

Thats awesome, I will definitely study your examples.

STARGÅTE wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 7:40 pm My answer is a clear, yes!

marc_256 wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 9:56 pm I wrote my own GUI in screen mode for my CAD/CAM program.
It was a lot of work, yes a lot of work.
but ...
I'm happy I did it, the result is stunning.
and I learned a lot of programming in PB, sprites and OGRE.

I thank you both for the encouragement!!

skywalk wrote: Thu Sep 25, 2025 5:48 pm Whoa! Encouraging.
Running hoops with javascript callbacks to a webviewer is not my favorite approach to realize a modern native gui.
What type of baseline "gadgets" are available? listbox, editable grid, popup menus?

It's for games as it leverage sprite, opengl etc., not designed to be a replacement for WebView IMHO