README.org

#+TITLE: cl-gtk4 [[https://docs.gtk.org/gtk4/gtk-logo.svg]]

GTK4/Libadwaita/WebKit bindings for Common Lisp.

• Requirement Before getting started, please ensure these libraries are available in your system:

• GTK4
• GObject Introspection
• WebkitGTK (optional)
• libadwaita (optional) Theoretically, the application built with cl-gtk4 can run on most systems supported by GTK4 and most implementations that support CFFI callback (required by cl-gobject-introspection). The [[file:examples/][examples]] are tested to run on following implementations:
• SBCL
  • Microsoft Windows \ [[file:examples/screenshots/adw-win.png]]
  • MacOS \ See: [[https://ibb.co/7KZz3r2]]
  • GNU/Linux \ See the screenshots in the [[examples][Examples]] section.
• CCL
• ECL
• ABCL

• Usage

1. Currently, cl-gtk4 is available on [[https://ultralisp.org][Ultralisp]], so it can be downloaded via Quicklisp with Ultralisp installed as its distribution. To install cl-gtk4 manually, you can clone this repository along with the following dependencies into the local-projects under your Quicklisp installation root:
   • [[https://github.com/bohonghuang/cl-gobject-introspection-wrapper][cl-gobject-introspection-wrapper]]
   • [[https://github.com/bohonghuang/cl-glib][cl-glib]]
2. Load the library with:
   • (ql:quickload :cl-gtk4)
   • (ql:quickload :cl-gtk4.adw) (if you need libadwaita)
   • (ql:quickload :cl-gtk4.webkit) (if you need WebkitGTK)
3. For GTK4 usage, please refer to [[https://docs.gtk.org/gtk4/][GTK API reference]] and check out the [[https://github.com/bohonghuang/cl-gobject-introspection-wrapper#conversion-rules][conversion rules]] for these APIs. ** Multi-threading Please note that GTK runs in a single thread and is NOT thread-safe, so all the UI-related operations must happen in GTK [[https://docs.gtk.org/glib/main-loop.html][main event loop]], which means you cannot write the code like this:

#+BEGIN_SRC lisp (let ((label (make-label :str "0")) (count 0)) (bt:make-thread (lambda () (loop :repeat 5 :do (setf (label-text label) (format nil "~A" (incf count))) (sleep 1))))) #+END_SRC

GLib provides idle_add and timeout_add to add a function to execute in the main event loop, which is thread-safe so that it can be called in other threads. [[https://github.com/bohonghuang/cl-glib][cl-glib]] wraps idle_add and timeout_add, and [[https://github.com/bohonghuang/cl-gtk4][cl-gtk4]] create restarts for the handler passed for them to be invoked safely, even when conditions are signaled. It also provides the API for convenience:

• gtk:run-in-main-event-loop \ Execute the body in GTK main event loop, in which we can access the UI safely: #+BEGIN_SRC lisp (let ((label (make-label :str "0")) (count 0)) (bt:make-thread (lambda () (loop :repeat 5 :do (gtk:run-in-main-event-loop (setf (label-text label) (format nil "~A" (incf count)))) (sleep 1))))) ; Don't put this into `gtk:run-in-main-event-loop' #+END_SRC ** Interactive Programming *** Live Reload You can reload the application without closing the window constructed in define-main-window by recompiling the define-application macro in top-level (Simply stroke =C-c C-c= if using Slime/Sly in Emacs):

[[file:screenshots/live-reload.gif]] *** Restarts The API in cl-gtk4 handles almost all possible recoverable errors by providing restarts, by which you can recover the program or safely exit the GTK application when encountering an error. Additionally, you can interrupt and quit the GTK program by typing =C-c C-c= in Emacs(Slime/Sly)'s REPL.

• Examples See the [[file:examples/][examples]] folder.
• Deployment The [[file:examples/][examples]] are ready for being built into executable if the implementation supports :program-op: #+BEGIN_SRC lisp (asdf:operate :program-op :cl-gtk4/example) #+END_SRC Then you could find the executable file under the examples folder.

Note that:

• On ECL, for unknown reason, the :entry-point of the ASDF system is ignored. This command should be used instead: #+BEGIN_SRC lisp (asdf:make-build :cl-gtk4/example :type :program :epilogue-code '(progn (uiop:symbol-call :gtk4.example :simple) (si:exit))) #+END_SRC

• On Microsoft Windows, it's recommended to launch your application via [[https://www.dependencywalker.com/][Dependency Walker]], then the shared libraries used by your application would appear in it. You should copy all these .dll files into the folder where you place the executable file. If you are using MSYS2, the folder structure might be like this:

  #+BEGIN_EXAMPLE . ├── bin │   ├── gdbus.exe │   ├── libgio-2.0-0.dll │   ├── libgirepository-1.0-1.dll │   ├── libglib-2.0-0.dll │   ├── libgobject-2.0-0.dll │   ├── libgtk-4-1.dll │   ├── your_application.exe │   └── ... ├── lib │   ├── girepository-1.0 │   ├── gtk-4.0 │   └── ... └── share ├── icons └── ... #+END_EXAMPLE

  The folder lib/girepository-1.0 is mandatory, without which your application won't work as expected.