laf

laf documentation

laf is a C++ library to create desktop applications for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It was mainly developed for Aseprite but we want to make it available for other developers in such a way that they can create applications too.

This “framework” (or library, or set of libraries) is still under development, but we’d like to start stabilizing the main API in a near future. The objective is to create a library as small as possible, and leaving parts that are not required to be integrated, to other libraries. For example, signal and slots can be used with other libraries, or the clipboard management with dacap/clip, etc. Even more, parts of laf might be separated to other libraries in the future if they are highly valuable on their own.

Modules

laf is a set of libraries:

• base: Base functions for any kind of application (CLI and GUI), generally one function doesn’t depend on others, so it has a minimal set of dependencies
• gfx: Abstract graphics classes (rectangle, point, region, etc.)
• ft: FreeType wrapper used by the os module (requires freetype library as dependency). Might be deleted in the future (replaced with Skia text rendering)
• os: Functions to create windows in your Operating System

Platform-specific Definitions

Compiling in a specific operating system/platforms:

• LAF_WINDOWS
• LAF_MACOS
• LAF_LINUX

laf backend:

• LAF_SKIA: When we compile with LAF_BACKEND=skia, Skia library is available

CPU endianness (defined in base/config.h):

• LAF_LITTLE_ENDIAN
• LAF_BIG_ENDIAN

This site is open source. Improve this page.