uiImageView control

[cody271]

Old PR

[AndyObtiva]

Thank you for continuing to maintain libui-ng. I recently worked on adding the newly implemented Table Selection API to Glimmer DSL for LibUI and it is almost ready for release.

Otherwise, we need this feature (image display support) very badly in Glimmer DSL for LibUI. I've gotten multiple requests for it including this new one. It seems everyone who wants to build a desktop application will end up needing to render an image in their application at one point. Is there any ETA for when it will be available!?

By the way, the way SWT handles this is by allowing us to display an image:

• inside a canvas (like the libui area control)
• inside a label (as a property on label)
• as a background of a composite (equivalent of a box/grid in libui)
• as application icon (shows up on ALT+TAB/CMD+TAB)
• as a tab image-icon in a tab folder.

Displaying an image inside a canvas (area control) might be the one most needed initially. Eventually, it would be helpful if other uses of image are supported too gradually.

[cody271]

It seems everyone who wants to build a desktop application will end up needing to render an image in their application at one point.

Yes absolutely, this is a sorely missing feature.

Is there any ETA for when it will be available!?

Basic uiImageView control, uiImage loading from file, and uiArea support are WIP.

By the way, the way SWT handles this is by allowing us to display an image:

• as application icon (shows up on ALT+TAB/CMD+TAB)

App (and tray) icons are also a high priority. I'm not sure about the other image related feature requests listed.

[petabyt]

IMO uiImage and uiImageView would be confusing for new users. (Shouldn't it be uiImageControl?)
Also appending a uiImage to a box would cause a segmentation fault. This already has caused some confusion (#229)

Why not just turn uiImage into a widget?

uiImage *img = uiNewImage(64, 64);
uiImageFromFile(img, "ide/libui.png");
uiBoxAppend(vbox, uiControl(img), 0);

This would keep backwards compatibility with the current code (the uiImageFromFile API is a suggestion, probably needs improvement)

[AndyObtiva]

I am not sure uiImageControl is better. We don’t say uiTableControl or uiEntryControl. The word control is redundant as almost everything is a control in this library.