Commenters criticize the 'Exact' framework's documentation for being unintelligible and overly focused on AI agents at the expense of human developers, while others praise its innovative approach to agent-driven UI control. A secondary debate centers on whether the project is a viable cross-platform solution or an unnecessary abstraction given existing tools like Slint and Flutter.
109 readable replies · Supporting reply 1 · Supporting reply 2 · Supporting reply 3 · Supporting reply 4slint-ui
slint
Rust2020–2026
slint-ui / slint
slint
Slint is an open-source declarative GUI toolkit to build native user interfaces for Rust, C++, JavaScript, or Python apps.
27Distinct people
56Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
24.6KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Slint is an open-source declarative GUI toolkit to build native user interfaces for Rust, C++, JavaScript, or Python apps.
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Where it is used
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Also in these discussions
- woboq/qmetaobject-rs · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year56 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2020-10-13 18:49:48 UTC to 2026-08-28 17:19:59 UTC.
* An incomplete calendar period is marked with an outlined bar. Its count is not directly comparable with a full period.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 16 | 2 | 14 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 12 | 1 | 11 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2026 (partial) | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2027-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
What Hacker News says
56 sourcesOGogoffart·Aug 28, 2026
There is Slint - https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/
- UI renders natively (without a browser)
- Slint uses a declarative UI that should be intuitive to use for developers / designers / agents.
- Can be interfaced from different languages such as Rust / JS / TS / Python
(disclaimer, I am working for Slint)
In Ask HN: Any true alternatives to electron JavaScript?If you are looking for something similar but not limited to C++, you can check Slint out: https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/
In Native all the way, until you need textSome notes:
- The docs.rs docs are still building, but the docs from the recent RC are available [0]
- The Slint project have an example of embedding Servo into Slint [1] which is good example of how to use the embedding API, and should be relatively easy to adapt to any other GUI framework which renders using wgpu.
- Stylo [2] and WebRender [3] have both also been published to crates.io, and can be useful standalone (Stylo has actually been getting monthly releases for ~year but we never really publicised that).
- Ongoing releases on a monthly cadance are planned
[0]: https://docs.rs/servo/0.1.0-rc2/servo
[1]: https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/tree/master/examples/servo
[2]: https://docs.rs/stylo
[3]: https://docs.rs/webrender
In Servo is now available on crates.io> someone has to make a native cross-platform desktop UI framework that doesn't suck
This is exactly what we're trying to do with Slint (https://github.com/slint-ui/slint
).
It’s a native, cross-platform UI framework for desktop and embedded (Rust/C++/Python/JS), with no browser runtime
In High-Level Is the GoalSlint is not a great option:
https://github.com/slint-ui/slint?tab=License-1-ov-file#read...
In Upcoming Rust language features for kernel developmentOn macOS and Windows, the menubar is native. On Windows, context menus are, too. On macOS it‘s a small patch away, we just haven‘t gotten around.
(https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/blob/7bb333c77dd477f8625c8... )
Shout out to the muda folks here and big thanks to npwoods :)
In Making Slint Desktop-ReadyI use the the code lenses of code action feature of the LSP so that the user can start a preview. The LSP server will then open a native window on desktop.
Every time the users do some change in the code, the editor sends the document and we re-render the preview.
I use the textDocument/documentHighlight request to know when elements are being selected from the code so I can highlight them in the preview.
When selecting an element in the preview UI, my LSP server sends a window/showDocument to position the cursor at the right location. And if the user changes property or do change in the file, we do a workspace/applyEdit command with the changes.
Btw, the code is there: https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/tree/master/tools/lsp
In Code-GUI bidirectional editing via LSPAnyone considering it will need to decide for themselves how to feel about it, but I think it's important to prospective users to highlight that the current licensing model for Slint requires either GPL3-compatible licensing of your work, advertising for Slint within your own software, or paying ongoing licensing fees and/or royalties.
https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/blob/master/FAQ.md#licensi...
I only mention this because those constraints are notably more restrictive than the vast majority of the Rust crate ecosystem.
I take no particular stance on whether this is a fair or good practice or about the technical suitability of Slint beyond this concern, I just think it's a hurdle for most people so they should be made aware early and often.
In I Switched from Flutter and Rust to Rust and EguiI actually wrote Rust bindings for Qt a while back: https://github.com/woboq/qmetaobject-rs/. I'm curious to see how Qt's own take with Qt Bridges will work out. That said, I’ve since moved on and now work on Slint [https://github.com/slint-ui/slint]
Slint was created with the same idea as what drives "Qt Bridges". We made a UI toolkit that is language-agnostic from the start. Slint uses its own UI language (inspired by QML), and gives you first-class, idiomatic APIs in Rust, C++, Pyhton, and JavaScript. And a clean separation between UI and business logic.
In Qt's New Bridging Technology – Looking Back to Move ForwardSome time ago I did research for myself on the topic of GUI libraries/frameworks. Below are some things from this study. The modern tendency for all frameworks to use 2D rendering engines to draw all widgets from scratch instead of using platforms' widgets and APIs. Usually, they use Skia.
I can recommend reading blog posts by Raph Levien [1], who is one of the founders of Linebender [2] and Xilem [3]. Xilem is a Rust cross-platform GUI framework intended to use GPU for rendering in the first place. Earlier, they tried to develop their own GPU meta-API, then they switched to WGPU [4] and developed their own 2D rendering engine instead of using "standard" Skia, like many others.
JetBrains develops Compose Multiplatform [5]: using the same Android API - Jetpack Compose, but for many platforms and in Kotlin. They also use Skia but are consid
Read the rest
ering switching to Impeller (a new 2D rendering engine in Flutter) because of performance issues in Skia with shaders compiling.
Slint [6], was founded by 3 guys who's been working for a long time in Qt Group. It is written in Rust but uses DSL to develop GUI. As I understand, they try to solve the main fundamental issues in Qt.
MAUI, as I understand it, was Xamarin.Forms and now Microsoft tries to develop it.
Another interesting thing. There is a part of each GUI framework, a system to automatically place widgets on the screen - layouting, something like a grid, table, and so on. Several years ago, Apple had a big boom in the implementation and use of the Cassowary algorithm [7] in their GUI frameworks. It was a promising, strong math-based academia-proof algorithm, but in real life, as I understood, it can not work reliably in many edge cases [8], so Apple quietly removed it and implemented Flexbox [9].
More approaches: to use game engines as GUI frameworks: Unity, Unreal, Godot, etc.
Fun fact: Blender has its own GUI library, which is implemented on top of OpenGL.
PS If you find anything interesting, I would appreciate it if you share.
PPS As a way to find more, I can recommend using search in HN, Reddit, and GitHub. Try to find projects that people develop to solve something and look at what ideas they use.
[1] https://raphlinus.github.io/
[2] https://linebender.org/
[3] https://github.com/linebender/xilem
[4] WebGPU implementation in Rust, used in Firefox and many other projects, can be used as a separate library, cross-platform, meta-API over Vulkan, DirectX, Metal etc
[5] https://www.jetbrains.com/compose-multiplatform/
[6] https://github.com/slint-ui/slint
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassowary_(software)
[8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13935264
[9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Flexible_Box_Layout
Awesome project! Really cool to see that the UI is built with Rust and Slint, the GUI framework I’m working on. https://github.com/slint-ui/slint
In Show HN: Game Bub – open-source FPGA retro emulation handheld> I wonder if someone could make a decent cross-platform GUI toolkit to save us from the horribly slow Electron-hell we've carved out for ourselves.
https://github.com/slint-ui/slint
In WASM will replace containersI don't use Rust much but I think there's a lot going on in terms of UI:
- https://github.com/iced-rs/iced
- https://github.com/emilk/egui
- https://github.com/slint-ui/slint
- https://github.com/DioxusLabs/dioxus
No idea if these are actually good or not, but it looks interesting.
In Ask HN: Modern GUI ResearchYes, we'd like to improve on that: https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/issues/4128
In Do Not Sign the Qt License Agreement UnchangedRich Text content is not yet implemented. This is tracked in https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/issues/2723
Thanks for reporting the broken link. Fixed in https://github.com/slint-ui/slint/commit/9200480b532f49007d2...
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