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CUI project presents about 190 native UI components for C

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CUI project presents about 190 native UI components for C

CUI is a library of native UI components written for C, presented on a project site under the title "CUI: native UI components for C". The site's headline claims are short. The library has about 190 components. They are compiled to machine code with no browser or runtime inside. One C99 codebase targets Windows, macOS, Linux and the web. And the site says a complete app built with it is about 250 KB.

The site's navigation lists an overview, a guide, a components catalogue, a showcase, example apps, a changelog and a link to the source code on GitHub. A search box is bound to Ctrl K. The page also lists a tutorial on building a to-do app and a "Getting started" section.

The project's own site runs every component live in the browser, and that needs JavaScript. The text of every page is also available without it, through the list of links on the front page. The page we have is only that landing text, so the details behind the claims are not covered here: the contents of the tutorial, the showcase and the example apps are not included.

Key facts

  • CUI is a library of native UI components for C, with about 190 components according to its project site.
  • The site says the components are compiled to machine code with no browser or runtime inside.
  • One C99 codebase is said to target Windows, macOS, Linux and the web.
  • The site claims a complete app is about 250 KB; it does not say whether that is typical, minimum or maximum.
  • The site runs every component live and needs JavaScript for that; the text of each page is available without it.

Why it matters

Most modern UI toolkits either ship a browser engine or depend on a sizeable runtime. CUI's pitch is the opposite: C99 code compiled straight to machine code, with nothing running underneath. If the claims hold, a C programmer would get a large set of ready-made components, about 190 by the site's count, and one codebase for four targets: Windows, macOS, Linux and the web.

Who it affects

The audience is developers who write in C and want to build graphical interfaces without moving to a browser-based or runtime-heavy stack. The site also offers a tutorial that builds a to-do app, which points at newcomers to the library as well.

How to use it

The site points to a Getting started guide, a tutorial on building a to-do app, a catalogue of all components, a showcase, example apps and a changelog. The source is on GitHub, linked from the site. Every component can be tried live on the project's site, which needs JavaScript; the text of each page is available without it.

How solid is it

Everything here comes from the project's own landing page, so these are the project's claims rather than independent findings. The 250 KB app size is stated without saying what the app contains or whether it is the same on every platform. No benchmarks, memory usage or performance figures are given. No comparison with other UI toolkits is made. The page does not say how the web target works or how rendering is done on each platform.

Risks and caveats

No author, maintainer or organisation is named on the page. No license is stated. No release date, version number or changelog content is given. Anyone considering CUI for real work would need to check those points, and the claims about size and cross-platform behaviour, in the repository and the documentation.