GUI libraries and frameworks for extensions

GP Extensions Developing GP Extensions
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I thought I’d kick off a conversation between those of us who are trying out developing extensions, specifically GUI libraries.

For context, I am developing on Windows and prefer to use VSCode and kick off CMake from a terminal session for building GP extensions, though do also have the option of the full Visual Studio IDE.

I have been trying out JUCE and find that I am not really a fan of it… the whole “design it in a GUI and then have it generate commands to build the GUI programmatically” seems odd to me, though I am sure there are very real reasons for this that I am simply not aware of.

@rank13 very kindly suggested I take a look at Ultralight (https://ultralig.ht/) which would be a great fit for me as my more recent programming skills are in the web domain rather than relying on just my C++ skills that are rusty to say the least (apart from Arduino/Teensy coding). So far, I am struggling to set the right references and CMakeLists.txt configuration to get it to build a standard “Hello World” project as a .DLL rather than a standalone executable. Has anyone else tried it?

Are there any other GUI libraries anyone is using in plugin development that would be applicable to GP extensions?

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The API does not depend on JUCE - and in principle you can use any language you like as long as you can bind to the underlying C API - but it’s much easier if you use C++

That said, JUCE is extremely good once you get the hang of it.

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