LAF: The Lost Application Framework
A library to create Windows, macOS, and Linux applications.
This library is under active development so we don't provide API or ABI compatibility at this moment.
Modules
- base: Base functions for any kind of application.
- gfx: Generic graphics classes (rectangle, point, region, etc.)
- ft: FreeType wrapper used by the
os
module (requiresfreetype
library as dependency) - os: Functions to create windows in your Operating System.
Dependencies
laf can be compiled with two back-ends (LAF_BACKEND
): skia
or none
.
When LAF_BACKEND=skia
, laf requires a compiled version of the Skia library from branch aseprite-m96
. You can check the aseprite/skia fork which includes a release with pre-built versions, or the check the instructions to compile skia from scratch.
When LAF_BACKEND=none
, the Pixman library can be used as an alternative implementation of the gfx::Region
class (generally if you're using laf-os
you will link it with Skia, so there is no need for Pixman at all).
Compile
To compile laf with Skia as backend you have to specify some variables pointing to a valid compiled version of Skia in your disk. In the following example /skiadir
is the absolute path to a directory where the Skia source code + compiled version is, or just where you've uncompressed a pre-built package of Skia (note that in this case /skiadir/out/Release-x64
should contain the Skia library files, i.e. skia.lib
on Windows or libskia.a
on other platforms):
git clone https://github.com/aseprite/laf.git
cd laf
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -G Ninja \
-DLAF_BACKEND=skia \
-DSKIA_DIR=/skiadir \
-DSKIA_LIBRARY_DIR=/skiadir/out/Release-x64 \
..
ninja
./examples/helloworld
To compile only the library (without examples and tests) you can disable the LAF_WITH_EXAMPLES
/LAF_WITH_TESTS
options:
cmake -DLAF_WITH_EXAMPLES=OFF -DLAF_WITH_TESTS=OFF ...
Running Tests
You can use ctest
to run all tests:
cd build
ninja
ctest
Defined Macros
LAF_WINDOWS
: Compiling on Windows platformLAF_MACOS
: Compiling on macOS platformLAF_LINUX
: Compiling on Linux platformLAF_SKIA
: When we compile withLAF_BACKEND=skia
(Skia library is available)
License
laf is distributed under the terms of the MIT license.
Some functions in laf depends on third party libraries (you should include these license notices when you distribute your software):
- base::encode/decode_base64 functions use stringencoders by Nick Galbreath (MIT license).
- Tests use the Google Test framework by Google Inc. licensed under a BSD-like license.
- Color spaces,
gfx::Region
, and thelaf::os
library use code from the Skia library by Google Inc. licensed under a BSD-like license and several other third-party libraries/licenses. gfx::Region
uses the pixman library if you are not compiling with the Skia backend (e.g. a if you want to create only Command Line utilities that uses thegfx::Region
class). Pixman is distributed under the MIT License.