Scott and Wes ditch Electron and Tauri for GPUI, the GPU accelerated Rust UI framework from the Zed team. They get into its React-like API, styling that feels a lot like Tailwind, GPUI Kit components, the community fork drama, and the tiny desktop apps Scott has built with it.
Show Notes
00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
GPUI
01:24 Electron, Tauri, and the Trouble With Web Views
04:05 Enter GPUI: Why We Don’t Take Money to Talk About Tools
05:32 Brought to you by Sentry.io
05:59 What GPUI Is: GPU Accelerated, Cross Platform, Native All the Way Down
06:50 A React Like API in Rust: Divs, Flex, and Chained Methods
09:35 Components, Props, and State in GPUI
Scott’s GPUI Demo Gist
11:21 How Much of CSS Does GPUI Actually Reimplement?
12:52 Flexbox Everywhere, But Where Is CSS Grid?
14:17 Where Does Your App Logic Live? No RPC Layer Needed
15:53 Render vs RenderOnce: Stateful and Static Components
16:57 GPUI Kit: The shadcn of GPUI
18:46 GPUI CE: The Community Fork and Ecosystem Tension
21:29 Apps Scott Built With GPUI: Gendo, File Bro, and Mr. Space
22:48 Why Tiny Utility Apps Should Stay Tiny
24:25 File Bro: File Automations a la Hazel
25:27 Mr. Space: Building a macOS Window Manager
27:05 The Downsides: No Native UI Elements and No Browser DOM
Scott’s Rust Best Practices Skill
29:56 Testing GPUI Apps With Jev and the Accessibility Tree
gpui-agent
30:39 GPUI Mobile: Experimental, But It Works
GPUI Kit Mobile Docs
gpui-mobile
31:52 Final Verdict: GPUI for Personal Desktop Software
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