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13124 :: nim-easygui: Auto-GUI Generation Feature Now LIVE!

• BeigeHornet (orginal) [2025-06-20T12:33:01+02:00] view original

  Project Update

  BeigeHornet

  Just shipped the killer feature everyone requested - automatic GUI generation from function signatures!

  What's New:

  • autoGUI() macro - Turn any function into a GUI with one line
  • Docstring parsing - Automatically extracts parameter descriptions
  • Type-aware defaults - Smart default values based on parameter types
  • quickGUI() - Rapid prototyping without writing functions

  Before vs After:

  Before (manual GUI):

  discard createWindow("Calculator", 400, 300)
  addLabel("BMI Calculator")
  addLabel("Weight (kg):")
  addInput("", "70.0")
  addLabel("Height (m):")
  addInput("", "1.75")
  addButton("Calculate") do:
    # calculation logic here
  showWindow()
  Run

  After (auto-generated):

  proc calculateBMI(weight: float, height: float): float =
    ## Calculate Body Mass Index
    ## weight: Weight in kilograms
    ## height: Height in meters
    result = weight / (height * height)
  
  autoGUI(calculateBMI)  # That's it! Complete GUI generated!
  Run

  The macro automatically:

  • Reads your function signature
  • Parses docstring comments for field labels
  • Creates labeled input fields with appropriate defaults
  • Generates a working GUI with calculate button

  Try it now:

  GitHub: https://github.com/BeigeHornet151/nim-easygui

  git clone https://github.com/BeigeHornet151/nim-easygui.git
  cd nim-easygui
  nimble install winim
  nim c -r examples/macro_demo.nim
  Run

  This makes nim-easygui unique in the Nim ecosystem - no other GUI library offers zero-boilerplate GUI generation from procedure signatures!

  Perfect for teaching, rapid prototyping, and converting console tools to GUI apps.

  What do you think? This is exactly what spectereye and cblake suggested!

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• spectereye (orginal) [2025-06-20T15:38:09+02:00] view original

  Great! you are so fast amazing! i come from python so some features nice to have from pythonier view:

  • Feature 1: a info. board at top of controls and "tee" stdout/stderr output to the info. board - nice if it can support markdown render, so in my proc i can just echo result or echo &"__{result}__ to highlight.
  • Feature 2: more compact controls layout, when i do some mechanical calculation by python, i need maybe 5 ~ 10 parameters, so nicer auto compact layout needed, eg. 2 column, 5 parameters each column, for each parameter, show parameter name as label, parameter value as input control, parameter description (parsed from docstring) as tooltip.
  • Feature 3: possible to add frame/border to group some functions - i implemented one in python, normally just all methods of one class as one group, and add some "tab" to group diff. class, defined by eg.

  
  tabs = {
          'Demo': [ClsA, ClsB],
          'ABOUT': [ABOUT],
  }
  Run

  • in python i use param xxx: ... but not sure nim have similar docstring style

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• ITwrx (orginal) [2025-06-20T16:15:58+02:00] view original

  As one data point/feedback: Looks cool, but i don't use Windows. May The Swartz be with you, though! :)

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• spectereye (orginal) [2025-06-20T16:32:03+02:00] view original

  Hello again, i shared my feature request as image below, show how it looks like :-)

  https://excalidraw.com/#json=vYw6u2Shc-2cW8hEDvrMa,HUDBMmoS0FkQv_NEgF-yKg

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• PMunch (orginal) [2025-06-22T19:40:17+02:00] view original

  Hmm, I just get a 404 when I try to visit the repo. Seems to be private

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• spectereye (orginal) [2025-06-23T03:11:19+02:00] view original

  see 404 too, strange guy ...

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• PMunch (orginal) [2025-06-23T08:53:03+02:00] view original

  According to this they seem to have deleted their repository: https://github.com/ringabout/awesome-nim/pull/102. Although they made a contribution here: https://github.com/aeimi/nim-easygui so the v1 version is still available. Since everything was MIT licensed I guess anyone who managed to clone it before it was taken down should be free to re-upload it. I'd be curious to have a look at the automatic UI stuff as it lines up somewhat with an idea I've had myself.

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