Cihan Tas

@ctas
7 Followers
6 Following
66 Posts
Founder/CTO @ Geostar.ai ✦ Prev. Founder Monto (acquired)
Cihan TasJan 19
Original, CSS reference, AppLib.
Cihan TasJan 18

Not planning to copy OSX, but I had a blast rebuilding this title bar today.

#Rust #macOS #Linux

Cihan TasJan 8

I thought about writing the low-level parts in #Rust and then binding a high-level #Swift API on top.

But #GPUI for example all closures and borrowed state. Doesn't cross language boundaries well.

So if I actually want Swift, there’s no real GPUI alternative. Which means rebuilding a similar API on top of Skia.

And that means… way more code. Code I now have to maintain. I'm in limbo.

Cihan TasJan 8

Many components still don't work properly, but we're close to parity with the Rust version.

Anyone wants to port a simple macOS app to Linux? Be my alpha tester.

Cihan TasJan 8
Reactivity with @ State and @ Binding done.
Cihan TasJan 7
We did it! Just before bedtime. Fully working window system in #Swift. Connects to #Wayland compositor, creates XDG toplevel window, and initialized #Skia EGL context. Next, I need to draw the same components as in my original #Rust version.
Cihan TasJan 7

I'm in Swift bindings hell.

Skia bindings implemented. Yoga bindings implemented. wlroots bindings implemented. libinput bindings implemented.

I'm so close to rendering a window surface!

Cihan TasJan 7

Porting AppLib to Swift today as an experiment. I want to compare the ergonomics between #Rust and #Swift.

My guess is Swift will feel better day-to-day for building UI. Rust may still be the better strategic choice in other ways.

Cihan TasJan 6

My Ghostty shell froze for weeks.

It turned out Ghostty reloads its config, which reloads fish, which runs nvm, which costs ~500ms.

Lazy-loading nvm fixed it.

Show threadCihan TasJan 6

Then there's reactivity. I could switch to Iced and get it built in, or bolt a reactive layer onto GPUI myself.

To get macOS people to take Linux seriously, a Swift-based path might feel less like moving to a different planet, as long as AppLib ends up with an API that’s close enough to AppKit.