chairclr / gir.core

A C# binding generator for GObject based libraries providing a C# friendly API surface

Welcome to Gir.Core

Gir.Core provides C# bindings for several GObject based libraries like GTK for user interfaces.

This project aims to provide a complete set of APIs for writing rich cross-platform user interfaces and multimedia programs. It is built upon the well-established GObject Introspection framework for language bindings.

Features

• Idiomatic C#: An API which feels natural to C# developers (including the async/await feature).
• Simplicity: Memory management is handled automatically, greatly simplifying the C-API.
• Complete API: Support for the entire GTK and GStreamer stack, enabling feature-rich applications which deeply integrate with the OS.
• Extensibility: Allows 3rd party developers to write bindings for other GObject-based libraries, achieving full interoperability between them.

Status

The code is under development and not ready for production use. There are nuget packages available. The API is subject to change as long as version 1.0 is not released. Feel free to visit the nuget organization to get an overview.

The upcoming features and releases can be checked out in the milestones.

Supported Libraries

Library	Description	Level of Support
GTK-4.0	UI-Toolkit	Partial
Libadwaita-1	Building blocks for modern GNOME applications	Partial
GStreamer-1.0	Multimedia Framework	Partial
Cairo-1.0	Graphics Library	Partial
Pango-1.0	Font/Text Library	Partial
Gio-2.0	Library for high level application functionality	Partial
GdkPixbuf-2.0	Image loading in various formats	Partial
libshumate	Library to display maps	Planned
WebKit-6.0	Browser engine (Linux only)	Partial
JavaScriptCore-6.0	JavaScript engine for WebKit (Linux only)	Partial
GtkSource-5	Extends a Gtk.TextView to be like a source code editor	Partial

Get Involved

Anyone who wants to help is very welcome. If you want to get in contact feel free to chat with us via matrix (#gircore:matrix.org) or open a discussion and don't forget to check out our contribution guidelines.

Build

To generate the bindings locally execute the following commands in a terminal. Make sure to initialise submodules with --recursive otherwise the gir-files directory will not be loaded properly.

$ git clone --recursive https://github.com/gircore/gir.core.git
$ cd gir.core/src
$ dotnet fsi GenerateLibs.fsx
$ dotnet build GirCore.Libs.slnf

If you want to clean the Libs folder of all generated files run:

$ dotnet fsi CleanLibs.fsx

For more advanced build options, see the documentation.

Code structure

The folder structure in this repository is organized as follows:

• src/GirTool: The tool to generate the bindings.
• src/Generation/GirLoader: A library for reading and resolving GObject Introspection repositories.
• src/Generation/GirModel: An interface based definition of the GObject data model. Used by the loader and generator to have a common understanding of the GObject data model.
• src/Generation/Generator: Code generator generates C# code from GObject Introspection data.
• src/Integration: Optional source generators to reduce boilerplate code in your projects.
• src/Libs: Contains manually written code for libraries. The generator outputs code here.
• src/Samples: Example programs using GTK, GStreamer, and others.
• src/Extensions: Auxilary libraries which extend the core libraries.
• src/Tests: Unit and Integration tests.
• ext/gir-files: Introspection data from gircore/gir-files.

The code in the library folder is not complete because most of the code is generated when the GirTool is run.

Licensing terms

Gir.Core is licensed under the terms of the MIT-License. Please see the license file for further information.

The Gir.Core logo is built upon the original GTK logo by Andreas Nilsson which is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and was relicensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Therefore the Gir.Core logo is licensed under the CC BY-SA 3.0, too.