Scott and Wes ditch Electron and Tauri for GPUI, the GPU accelerated Rust UI framework from the Zed team. They get into its React-like API, styling that feels a lot like Tailwind, GPUI Kit components, the community fork drama, and the tiny desktop apps Scott has built with it.
Show Notes
- 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- 01:24 Electron, Tauri, and the Trouble With Web Views
- 04:05 Enter GPUI: Why We Don’t Take Money to Talk About Tools
- 05:32 Brought to you by Sentry.io
- 05:59 What GPUI Is: GPU Accelerated, Cross Platform, Native All the Way Down
- 06:50 A React Like API in Rust: Divs, Flex, and Chained Methods
- 09:35 Components, Props, and State in GPUI
- 11:21 How Much of CSS Does GPUI Actually Reimplement?
- 12:52 Flexbox Everywhere, But Where Is CSS Grid?
- 14:17 Where Does Your App Logic Live? No RPC Layer Needed
- 15:53 Render vs RenderOnce: Stateful and Static Components
- 16:57 GPUI Kit: The shadcn of GPUI
- 18:46 GPUI CE: The Community Fork and Ecosystem Tension
- 21:29 Apps Scott Built With GPUI: Gendo, File Bro, and Mr. Space
- 22:48 Why Tiny Utility Apps Should Stay Tiny
- 24:25 File Bro: File Automations a la Hazel
- 25:27 Mr. Space: Building a macOS Window Manager
- 27:05 The Downsides: No Native UI Elements and No Browser DOM
- 29:56 Testing GPUI Apps With Jev and the Accessibility Tree
- 30:39 GPUI Mobile: Experimental, But It Works
- 31:52 Final Verdict: GPUI for Personal Desktop Software
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