🥥 Cocoanut

A Rust wrapper for Cocoa to develop macOS-specific GUI applications with idiomatic, simple APIs.

Why Cocoanut?

The Problem

Raw objc and cocoa crates require:

• Manual pointer management
• Verbose method calls
• Manual layout calculations
• No built-in styling system
• Steep learning curve

The Solution

Cocoanut provides:

• ✅ Builder Patterns - Fluent, chainable API
• ✅ Layout System - Declarative VStack/HStack
• ✅ Design System - Carbon Design System built-in
• ✅ Type Safety - No raw pointers in public API
• ✅ Simplicity - Learn macOS GUI development easily

Simplicity in Action

Before (objc/cocoa)

let button = Button::new("Click")?;
button.set_title("Updated")?;
button.set_size(100.0, 50.0)?;
button.set_enabled(true)?;
window.add_subview(button, 10.0, 10.0, 100.0, 50.0)?;

After (Cocoanut)

let button = Button::builder()
    .title("Updated")
    .size(100.0, 50.0)
    .enabled(true)
    .build()?;

let vstack = VStack::new()
    .spacing(Spacing::standard())
    .alignment(Alignment::Center);

Comparison Table

Recommendation: Start with Cocoanut to learn macOS GUI development in Rust!

Quick Start

cargo add cocoanut

use cocoanut::prelude::*;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Create a window
    let window = Window::builder()
        .title("My App")
        .size(600.0, 400.0)
        .center()
        .build()?;
    
    // Run the app - components display automatically!
    app("MyApp")
        .with_window(window)
        .run()?;
    
    Ok(())
}

That's it! The app will display a window with Button, Label, and TextField components automatically.

Run it:

cargo run

Features

• ✅ Builder Patterns - Fluent, chainable API
• ✅ Layout System - VStack/HStack for composition
• ✅ Carbon Design System - Professional styling
• ✅ Window Management - Native macOS windows
• ✅ Menu System - Application menus
• ✅ Controls - Button, Label, TextField
• ✅ Event Handling - User interactions
• ✅ Drawing - Core Graphics integration
• ✅ Type Safety - No raw pointers
• ✅ Memory Safe - Rust ownership system

Examples

Run examples to see Cocoanut in action:

# Minimal app with components
cargo run --example minimal_app

# Basic window
cargo run --example basic_window

# Menu application
cargo run --example menu_app

# Comprehensive component demo
cargo run --example comprehensive_app

# Layout & Containers Demo - Educational overview
cargo run --example layout_and_containers_demo

# Layout Patterns Demo - Real-world patterns
cargo run --example layout_patterns

# Containers with Borders Demo - Visual container demonstration
cargo run --example containers_with_borders

All examples display real macOS GUI windows with interactive components. Press Cmd+Q to quit.

Layout & Containers Demos:

• docs/VISUAL_LAYOUT_DEMO.md - Visual GUI with 50+ interactive components
• docs/CONTAINERS_WITH_BORDERS.md - Containers with visual borders (NEW)
• docs/LAYOUT_CONTAINERS_DEMO.md - Comprehensive layout guide

See docs/EXAMPLES_AND_TESTS.md for all examples.

Requirements

• macOS 10.15 or later
• Rust 1.70 or later
• Xcode command line tools

Building

cargo build

Running Examples

cargo run --example basic_window
cargo run --example menu_app

Testing

cargo test

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0 - see the LICENSE file for details.

Changelog

0.2.0 (Current)

• ✅ GUI Components Display - Button, Label, TextField now show in windows
• ✅ SimpleApp API - Minimal boilerplate app creation
• ✅ Window Builder - Fluent window configuration
• ✅ Component Positioning - Automatic layout in windows
• ✅ Real macOS GUI - No mocking, full NSApplication support

📚 Documentation

Complete documentation is available in DOCUMENTATION.md. Key guides:

• ARCHITECTURE.md - System architecture and design
• SRC_ORGANIZATION.md - Source code structure
• MACOS_FEATURES.md - Native macOS features
• SIMPLE_APP_API.md - High-level API guide
• EXAMPLES_UPDATED.md - Available examples

📋 Changelog

0.2.0

• ✅ Trait-Based Architecture - Drawable, Textual, Positionable traits
• ✅ macOS Features - Native Feel, Accessibility, Dark Mode, Touch Bar, Continuity
• ✅ Priority Features - 15 features across 3 priority levels
• ✅ Source Organization - Hierarchical module structure
• ✅ Component Positioning - Automatic layout in windows
• ✅ Real macOS GUI - No mocking, full NSApplication support

0.1.0

• Initial release
• Basic window management
• Menu system
• UI controls (Button, Label, TextField)
• Event handling
• Drawing utilities
• Comprehensive test suite