GUI Applications

Introduction#

Rust has no own framework for GUI development. Yet there are many bindings to existing frameworks. The most advanced library binding is rust-gtk. A ‘semi’ full list of bindings can be found here

Simple Gtk+ Window with text

Add the Gtk dependecy to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
gtk = { git = "https://github.com/gtk-rs/gtk.git" }

Create a simple window with the following:

extern crate gtk;

use gtk::prelude::*; // Import all the basic things
use gtk::{Window, WindowType, Label};

fn main() {
    if gtk::init().is_err() { //Initialize Gtk before doing anything with it
        panic!("Can't init GTK");
    }

    let window = Window::new(WindowType::Toplevel); 

    //Destroy window on exit
    window.connect_delete_event(|_,_| {gtk::main_quit(); Inhibit(false) });

    window.set_title("Stackoverflow. example");
    window.set_default_size(350, 70);
    let label = Label::new(Some("Some text"));
    window.add(&label);
    window.show_all();
    gtk::main();
}

Gtk+ Window with Entry and Label in GtkBox , GtkEntry signal connection

extern crate gtk;

use gtk::prelude::*;
use gtk::{Window, WindowType, Label, Entry, Box as GtkBox, Orientation};

fn main() {
    if gtk::init().is_err() {
        println!("Failed to initialize GTK.");
        return;
    }

    let window = Window::new(WindowType::Toplevel);

    window.connect_delete_event(|_,_| {gtk::main_quit(); Inhibit(false) });

    window.set_title("Stackoverflow. example");
    window.set_default_size(350, 70);
    let label = Label::new(Some("Some text"));

    // Create a VBox with 10px spacing
    let bx = GtkBox::new(Orientation::Vertical, 10);
    let entry = Entry::new();

    // Connect "activate" signal to anonymous function 
    // that takes GtkEntry as an argument and prints it's text
    entry.connect_activate(|x| println!("{}",x.get_text().unwrap()));

    // Add our label and entry to the box
    // Do not expand or fill, zero padding
    bx.pack_start(&label, false, false, 0);
    bx.pack_start(&entry, false, false, 0);
    window.add(&bx);
    window.show_all();
    gtk::main();
}