Immediate mode GUI

An immediate mode graphic user interface (GUI), also known as IMGUI, is a graphical user interface design pattern which aims to translate the Immediate mode vs retained mode API concept^[1] from 3D rendering APIs to user interface API design.^[2]

History

Casey Muratori developed the technique and coined the term "Single-path Immediate Mode Graphical User Interface" to describe it.^[3]^[4] One of the earliest publicly available implementations was written by Sean Barrett.^[5]

Examples of Immediate Mode GUIs

Dear ImGui^[6] written in C++ with back-ends for several graphics APIs (Allegro 5, DirectX, GLFW, iOS, Marmalade, Metal, OpenGL, SDL 2 and Vulkan), that also has
- projects for additional back-end support (Android, Irrlicht Engine, OGRE, SFML, ...)
- projects for additional language bindings (C#/.NET, D, Go, Haskell, Java, ...)
- ports to other languages (such as Java^[7])
egui^[8] for Rust
Gio^[9] for Go
kiss_sdl^[10] for SDL (Simple Direct Media Layer)
nuklear^[11] with backends for several graphics libraries (Direct3D, GLFW, OpenGL, SDL, SFML, Wayland, Windows GDI, Window GDI+ and X11)

References

^ Radich, Quinn (May 30, 2018). "Retained Mode Versus Immediate Mode". Win32 apps. Microsoft. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
^ Barrett, Sean (September 2005), "Immediate Mode GUIs", Game Developer Magazine, retrieved 17 June 2024
^ "Immediate-Mode Graphical User Interfaces (2005)". Immediate-Mode Graphical User Interfaces (2005). Retrieved 2021-06-15.
^ Barrett, Sean (September 2005). "Immediate Mode GUIs" (PDF). Game Developer. Vol. 12. pp. 34–36. Retrieved 14 February 2021.
^ "Sample IMGUI implementation and demo program". silverspaceship.com. Retrieved 2021-06-15.
^ Cornut, Omar (2019-12-22). "ocornut/imgui: Dear ImGui: Bloat-free Immediate Mode Graphical User interface for C++ with minimal dependencies". GitHub.
^ kotlin-graphics (2019-12-19). "kotlin-graphics/imgui: Bloat-free Immediate Mode Graphical User interface for JVM with minimal dependencies (rewrite of dear imgui)". GitHub.
^ "egui: an easy-to-use immediate mode GUI in pure Rust". GitHub. 3 June 2021.
^ "Gio - immediate mode GUI in Go". giDoui.org. Retrieved 2019-11-14.
^ Korrovits, Tarvo (2019-12-19). "actsl/kiss_sdl: Simple generic GUI widget toolkit for SDL2". GitHub.
^ Mettke, Micha (2019-12-22). "vurtun/nuklear: A single-header ANSI C gui library". GitHub.

[1] Radich, Quinn (May 30, 2018). "Retained Mode Versus Immediate Mode". Win32 apps. Microsoft. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[2] Barrett, Sean (September 2005), "Immediate Mode GUIs", Game Developer Magazine, retrieved 17 June 2024

[3] "Immediate-Mode Graphical User Interfaces (2005)". Immediate-Mode Graphical User Interfaces (2005). Retrieved 2021-06-15.

[4] Barrett, Sean (September 2005). "Immediate Mode GUIs" (PDF). Game Developer. Vol. 12. pp. 34–36. Retrieved 14 February 2021.

[5] "Sample IMGUI implementation and demo program". silverspaceship.com. Retrieved 2021-06-15.

[6] Cornut, Omar (2019-12-22). "ocornut/imgui: Dear ImGui: Bloat-free Immediate Mode Graphical User interface for C++ with minimal dependencies". GitHub.

[7] tlin-graphics (2019-12-19). "kotlin-graphics/imgui: Bloat-free Immediate Mode Graphical User interface for JVM with minimal dependencies (rewrite of dear imgui)". GitHub.

[8] "egui: an easy-to-use immediate mode GUI in pure Rust". GitHub. 3 June 2021.

[9] "Gio - immediate mode GUI in Go". giDoui.org. Retrieved 2019-11-14.

[10] Korrovits, Tarvo (2019-12-19). "actsl/kiss_sdl: Simple generic GUI widget toolkit for SDL2". GitHub.

[11] Mettke, Micha (2019-12-22). "vurtun/nuklear: A single-header ANSI C gui library". GitHub.

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Immediate mode GUI

History

Examples of Immediate Mode GUIs

References

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