zig-gtk3

This package contains some convenience functions and wrappers around the C api of both the Gtk+ and Vte libraries for developing Gui applications using Zig.

Usage

We track zig-master, so you will need the current master compiler. In your build.zig file, add the package path:

    const exe = b.addExecutable("exe-name", "path-to-source.zig");
    exe.addPackagePath("zig-gtk3", "path/to/zig-vte/lib.zig");
    exe.linkLibC();
    exe.linkSystemLibrary("gtk+-3.0");
    exe.linkSystemLibrary("vte-2.91");

The Gtk wrappers are namespaced to gtk, the C functions to c, and Vte to vte.

const GTK = @import("zig-vte");
const c = GTK.c;
const gtk = GTK.gtk;
const vte = GTK.vte;
const std = @import("std");

const Gui = struct {
    window: gtk.Window,
    term: vte.Terminal,

    fn init(app: *c.GtkApplication) Gui {
...

There are several gtk examples and one vte example in the examples subdirectory.

Rationale

It is entirely possible to call C functions directly from Zig. However, Zig's translate-c function, which is used to import C code into Zig, is still somewhat immature and tends to fail with heavily macro dependent code. This happens for certain parts of Gtk+ that make working around it quite difficult.

Additionally, the C Api to Gtk (and Vte), due to limitations of the language, can be incredibly verbose as well as quite clumsy at times. A better Api is both possible and desireable in a language such as Zig.