# MinUI 🌒
MinUI is a lightweight terminal UI framework for building games and applications in Rust. It's designed to be simple to use while providing the essential tools you need for terminal-based interfaces.
## Why MinUI?
I wanted to build terminal games in Rust, but I found existing libraries either too complex or missing game-specific features. MinUI strikes a balance between simplicity and functionality - it's easy to learn but powerful enough for both traditional TUIs and real-time games.
## Features
- 🚀 **Fast**: Performance-focused with game development in mind
- 🎮 **Game-friendly**: Supports both event-driven apps and fixed-rate game loops
- 🎯 **Simple**: Clean, intuitive API that gets out of your way
- ⌨️ **Input handling**: Very comprehensive keyboard and mouse event handling
- 🎨 **Full color support**: RGB, ANSI, and named colors
- 🧰 **Safe**: Proper error handling and automatic cleanup
## Current Status
MinUI is actively developed with these features available:
- [x] Full color support
- [x] Simple and customizable widget system
- [x] Container widget
- [x] Label widget
- [x] Text block widget
- [x] Panel widget
- [ ] Table widget
- [ ] Input widget
- [ ] Predefined common widget layouts
- [x] Robust error handling
- [x] Buffered drawing for smooth and efficient updates
- [x] Built-in game/app loop utilities
- [ ] Simplified character/sprite and map management utilities
- [ ] Easy character/sprite movement support with common Unicode characters built-in
- [ ] Cell management with collision detection options
- [x] Support for various input methods (customizable key binds with crokey, mouse support, etc.)
## Getting Started
Add MinUI to your `Cargo.toml`:
```toml
[dependencies]
minui = "0.3.1"
```
### Basic Example
```rust
use minui::prelude::*;
fn main() -> minui::Result<()> {
let mut app = App::new(())?;
app.run(
|_state, event| {
// Return false to exit
!matches!(event, Event::Character('q'))
},
|_state, window| {
// Draw your UI here
let label = Label::new("Press 'q' to quit").with_alignment(Alignment::Center);
label.draw(window)?;
Ok(())
}
)?;
Ok(())
}
```
Run the examples: `cargo run --example basic_usage`
## Perfect for Games and TUIs
**Games**: MinUI handles the timing, input, and rendering so you can focus on game logic. It supports both turn-based and real-time games with smooth frame rates.
**TUI Apps**: The widget system makes it easy to build traditional terminal interfaces with HTML-like div containers, as well as panels, forms, layouts, and more.
What makes MinUI different:
- Minimal learning curve so you can start coding immediately
- Game-focused features like fixed tick rates and smooth input
- Lightweight with few dependencies
- Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux)
## Games Built with MinUI
- _Coming Soon: [Tet.rs](https://github.com/JackDerksen/tet.rs)_
## Acknowledgments
Built using:
- [crossterm](https://github.com/crossterm-rs/crossterm) - Cross-platform terminal manipulation library
- [thiserror](https://github.com/dtolnay/thiserror) - Error handling
- [crokey](https://github.com/Canop/crokey) - Keybind configuration