qtrs — Rust-style Qt6 bindings

Demo

A type-safe, builder-pattern-driven Qt6 GUI library for Rust. Built on cxx for zero-cost C++ interop, with RAII memory management and signal/callback bridging.

Features

Builder pattern — chain .title("X").size(800, 600).show()
RAII cleanup — automatic C++ deletion, parent-child aware (no double-free)
Signal bridging — Qt signals invoke Rust closures via a global trampoline
Layout ownership — adding a widget to a layout transfers ownership
.ui file loading — load Qt Designer .ui files at runtime
Zero unsafe in public API — all FFI is encapsulated

Quick Start

use qtrs::prelude::*;

fn main() {
    let app = Application::new();

    let mut window = Widget::new()
        .title("Hello, qtrs!")
        .size(400, 300)
        .build();

    let mut layout = VBoxLayout::with_parent(&window);

    let btn = PushButton::new("Click me")
        .on_clicked(|| println!("clicked!"))
        .build();
    let label = Label::new("Welcome!").build();

    layout.add_widget(Box::new(btn));
    layout.add_widget(Box::new(label));

    window.set_vlayout(layout.layout_ptr());
    window.show();

    app.exec();
}

You can see demo.rs for details.

Widgets

Windows & Containers

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`Application`	`QApplication`	—
`Widget`	`QWidget`	—
`MainWindow`	`QMainWindow`	—
`GroupBox`	`QGroupBox`	—
`TabWidget`	`QTabWidget`	`on_current_changed(i32)`
`StackedWidget`	`QStackedWidget`	`on_current_changed(i32)`
`ScrollArea`	`QScrollArea`	—
`Splitter`	`QSplitter`	—

Buttons & Controls

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`PushButton`	`QPushButton`	`on_clicked`
`CheckBox`	`QCheckBox`	`on_toggled(bool)`
`RadioButton`	`QRadioButton`	`on_toggled(bool)`
`Slider`	`QSlider`	`on_value_changed(i32)`
`SpinBox`	`QSpinBox`	`on_value_changed(i32)`
`ComboBox`	`QComboBox`	`on_current_text_changedon_current_index_changed(i32)`

Text & Display

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`Label`	`QLabel`	—
`LineEdit`	`QLineEdit`	`on_return_pressed`
`TextEdit`	`QTextEdit`	`on_text_changed`
`ProgressBar`	`QProgressBar`	—

Item Views

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`ListWidget`	`QListWidget`	`on_item_clicked(String)on_item_double_clicked(String)on_current_item_changed(String)`
`TableWidget`	`QTableWidget`	`on_cell_clickedon_cell_double_clickedon_current_cell_changed`
`TreeWidget`	`QTreeWidget`	`on_item_clicked(String)on_item_double_clicked(String)on_item_expanded(String)on_item_collapsed(String)on_current_item_changed(String)`

Menus & Toolbars

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`Action`	`QAction`	`on_triggered(bool)on_toggled(bool)`
`Menu`	`QMenu`	—
`MenuBar`	`QMenuBar`	—
`ToolBar`	`QToolBar`	per-action callbacks via `add_action`
`StatusBar`	`QStatusBar`	—

Dialogs

Type	Qt Class	Notes
`MessageBox`	`QMessageBox`	Builder + `exec()`, static `about()`
`FileDialog`	`QFileDialog`	`open_file`, `save_file`, `select_directory` (static)
`ProgressDialog`	`QProgressDialog`	Builder with `set_value` / `was_canceled`
`InputDialog`	`QInputDialog`	`get_text`, `get_int`, `get_double`, `get_item` (static)
`MessageBox`	`QMessageBox`	`information`, `warning`, `critical`, `question` (static)

Layouts

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`VBoxLayout`	`QVBoxLayout`	—
`HBoxLayout`	`QHBoxLayout`	—
`GridLayout`	`QGridLayout`	—

System

Type	Qt Class	Signals
`Timer`	`QTimer`	`on_timeoutsingle_shot(ms, fn)`
`UiLoader`	`QUiLoader`	`.ui` file loading
`Point`	`QPoint`	—

Prerequisites

Qt6 with development headers:

Platform	Instructions
Debian / Ubuntu	`sudo apt install qt6-base-dev qt6-declarative-dev`
Fedora	`sudo dnf install qt6-qtbase-devel qt6-qtdeclarative-devel`
Arch	`sudo pacman -S qt6-base qt6-declarative`
macOS (Homebrew)	`brew install qt@6`
Windows	Install from qt.io or via vcpkg

Remember to set a PATH environment to tell qtrs where the qmake are.

Installation

Add to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
qtrs = "0.3.0"

Memory management

Widgets are deleted automatically on Drop — unless they have a Qt parent (set explicitly or via layout). In that case Qt's parent-child tree handles deletion, preventing double-free.

Widget created without parent  ->  Drop deletes C++ object
Widget created with parent     ->  Drop skips deletion (Qt handles it)
Widget added to layout         ->  Layout takes ownership, Drop skips deletion

Thread safety

Qt GUI classes are not thread-safe. All widget creation, mutation, and the event loop must happen on the main thread.

License

MIT OR Apache-2.0 — see LICENSE-MIT and LICENSE-APACHE.

qtrs 0.3.0