ArgonUI

ArgonUI is a fast cross-platform UI framework for .NET. It aims to aims to provide a fast and flexible UI framework, without all of the boilerplate.

Features:

• A collection of common UI controls built in
• Windows/Linux/Mac support
• Support for multiple rendering backends
  • Efficient OpenGL based rendering backend
• Event driven rendering, means elements or only rendered when they change
• Flexible control styling system
• Data binding

Usage

For most users, it's easiest to simply intall the NuGet package:

dotnet add package ArgonUI

Install a suitable rendering backend as well:

dotnet add package ArgonUI.Backends.OpenGL

Using ArgonUI is as simple as creating an ArgonManager and a UIWindow:

using ArgonUI;
using ArgonUI.UIElements;
using ArgonUI.Backends.OpenGL;

namespace ArgonUI.Examples.DemoApp;

public class Program
{
    public static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ArgonManager argon = new();
        var wnd = argon.CreateOpenGLWindow();

        // Wait for the window to exit before returning
        wnd.Wait();
    }
}

Adding UI elements and subscribing to events is equally simple:

ArgonManager argon = new();
var wnd = argon.CreateOpenGLWindow();
var rect = new Rectangle();
var label = new Label();
wnd.RootElement.AddChild(rect);

int counter = 0;

wnd.RootElement.BGColour = new(0, 0.5f, 1, 1);
rect.Width = 100;
rect.Height = 100;
rect.Rounding = 5;
rect.Colour = new(0, .8f, .25f, 1);
rect.OnMouseDown += () =>
{
    label.Text = $"Hello World! {counter++}";
};
rect.OnMouseEnter += () =>
{
    rect.Colour = new(1f, .5f, .1f, 1);
    rect.Rounding = 20;
};
rect.OnMouseLeave += () =>
{
    rect.Colour = new(0, .8f, .25f, 1);
    rect.Rounding = 5;
};

wnd.RootElement.AddChild(label);
label.Text = "Hello World!";

wnd.Wait();

For more details see the Documentation.

Building

ArgonUI can be built with Visual Studio 2022 using the .NET SDK 8.

See the design_notes.md document for more details on the internal design of ArgonUI. (Note that this is a working document, and may not reflect the latest changes)