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Wiish (Why Is It So Hard) GUI framework might one day make it easy to develop, package and deploy auto-updating, cross-platform applications for desktop and mobile. If it succeeds, maybe the name will have to change :)

Wiish is currently ALPHA quality software. Don't make anything with it unless you're willing to rewrite it when this package changes.

Quickstart

1. Install Nim and nimble

2. Install Wiish:

   nimble install https://github.com/iffy/wiish.git
   

3. Install other dependencies:

   Run wiish doctor to see what you need installed. It will probably be:

   • Ubuntu: apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libgtk-3-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.0-dev
   • macOS: Xcode
   • Windows: Don't know yet

4. Create a project and run it:

   wiish init somedir
   cd somedir
   wiish run
   

See wiish --help for how to build executables and apps and configure a project. For example:

wiish doctor
wiish run --os ios
wiish run --os android
wiish build
wiish init --base-template opengl my_opengl_app

Features

Wiish provides these main things:

1. wiish - A command line tool for running, building and packaging apps.
2. wiish - A Nim library import wiish/... for help with making apps.

Plugins

Wiish uses a plugin system to support various GUI methods:

• wiish/plugins/webview - For build webview-based apps.
• wiish/plugins/sdl2 - For SDL and OpenGL apps.

The GUI component is designed to work separately from other features (e.g. auto-updating, packaging, etc...) so that different GUI libraries can be swapped in/out.

Support

• macOS

  • wiish run
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target app
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target dmg

• Windows

  • wiish run
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target exe
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target win-installer

• Linux

• iOS

  • wiish run
    • webview
    • OpenGL (doesn't handle events yet)
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target ios-app
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2

• Android

  • wiish run
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2
  • wiish build --target apk
    • webview
    • OpenGL
    • SDL2

• Mobile dev (runs mobile app on desktop)

• App icon

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • iOS
  • Android

• wiish run logs to stdout

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • iOS
  • Android

• Log to file

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • iOS
  • Android

• Code signing

  • macOS .app
  • iOS .app
  • macOS notarizing

• Include static resources in built app

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • iOS
  • Android

• Automatic updates

• File associations

• Menu bar

Examples

See the examples directory for more examples of how to use this library. You can also initialize a project using these examples with wiish init. See wiish init --help for information.

Developing wiish

See CONTRIBUTING.md for information about contributing to Wiish development.

Webview messaging

When using the wiish/plugins/webview plugin, you send/receive strings between JavaScript and your Nim like this:

In JavaScript do this:

window.wiish = window.wiish || {};
wiish.onReady = () => {
    wiish.onMessage(message => {
        // Handle message from Nim
    })
    wiish.sendMessage("Hello Nim! -Sincerely JavaScript");
}

In Nim do this:

import wiish/webview_mobile

app.launched.handle:
    app.window.onReady.handle:
        app.window.sendMessage("Looks like you're ready, JS!")
    app.window.onMessage.handle(message):
        app.window.sendMessage("Thanks for the message, JS.")

A note on quality

This library works as advertised, but it is a huge mess. I'm learning as I'm going, and trying to wrangle all these platforms is ridiculous. I happily welcome suggestions (and pull requests).