Show HN: A Modern GUI Library for Ada: CSS Styling, XML UI, SDL3

 (github.com)

16 points | by ovenpasta 1 hour ago

3 comments

  • tosti 1 minute ago
    There's so much repetition in there. E.g.: (adi-json.adb)

        if not W.After_Key (W.Depth) then
        -- things
    else
        W.After_Key (W.Depth) := False;
    end if;
    -- ...more things...
    W.After_Key (W.Depth) := False;
    And what's the deal with those filenames? If you replace adi- with TIMMEH, you'll see what I mean.

    Code should be more DRY (don't repeat yourself).

  • nicoburns 29 minutes ago
    I'm going to ask the obvious question: why ADA?

    ---

    My framework (Dioxus Native - https://github.com/dioxuslabs/blitz) would fit quite nicely into your comparison table:

    - Compiles to self-contained OS-native app bundle

    - <10 MB (compiled with Oz) or ~15MB (with O3) (can be golfed smaller)

    - GPU or CPU rendering

    - Windows 10+ / macOS / Linux / mobile / wasm / (+ web DOM with Dioxus Web)

    - Rust

    - Memory safety: borrow checked

    - Styling: CSS (support matrix: https://blitz.is/status/css)

    [-]
    • ovenpasta 10 minutes ago
      Hi! Interesting! Your frameworks seems to be a kind of web browser, with dynamic content. Adi2 takes a different approach. Your entire app is static code. Every widget, every style is built at compile time. No interpreters or parsers at runtime.

      -- Why Ada, well and why Rust? I guess it depends on your taste...

      You can know more about Ada here: https://learn.adacore.com/courses/intro-to-ada/chapters/intr...

      It is a language with a long history, completely defined both the language and it's runtime library, it is an ISO standard, it is readable, it is modern, it has many features both for embedded and general purpose use, it has 1st class support on GCC as a frontend. Maybe it does not have a borrow checker as of today, but if you need to harden you can use the Ada/SPARK subset, a very interesting language, that can prove program correctness at compile time.

      [-]
      • nicoburns 6 minutes ago
        > Every widget, every style is built at compile time.

        Huh. That does sound cool. Does that mean that the XML and CSS is parsed and resolved at compile time? How does that handle dynamic content changes (e.g. content changes in response to user input).

        Note that while Blitz applies CSS and runs layout at runtime, the scripting layer (equivalent of JS in the browser or Dart in flutter) is AOT-compiled Rust.

  • switchbak 41 minutes ago
    Why would anyone choose XML for a modern GUI layout in 2026? That seems like a mis-step.
    [-]
    • ovenpasta 37 minutes ago
      Author here, the library itself is pure Ada, the XML UI is just a convenience layer on top of it, there is a code generator that picks it and writes ada packages. happy to hear better alternatives!