greetings, i want to build a daw (digital audio workstation), but i have no idea where to even start. here are my needs and the options i’ve found:

my needs:

  • load and keep things (audio, midi) in memory
  • cross-platform compatibility is not a requirement

the options i’ve found:

  • flutter
  • gtk/qt
  • raylib (with zig)
  • webassembly (with zig)

[rejected] flutter: the first option that came to my mind was flutter. i thought it would give me a quick start in laying down the ui, but i don’t think it has the capability to fulfill my needs (please correct me if i’m wrong)

gtk/qt (with zig): i wonder if qt provide bindings for zig

raylib (with zig): it’s cool (my choice as of now)

[rejected] webassembly (with zig): it would be an ultimate comfort to build this way ig, but is it possible to make that web app into desktop one (like tauri or something)?

id really appreciate your opinions and advice

ps: i hope i’m clear. i got a headache searching about these. i’ll update this post for more clarity later

final note

Thank you guys for all your opinions and advises. Thanks for explaining the limitations with gtk, things with qt and flutter. That kotlin compose thing was cool too. Thanks for mentioning yabridge thats gonna be helpful. It might not seem like it, but I did listen to your thoughts, and stuck with zig and raylib. Thanks a lot

  • @LeFantome
    link
    228 days ago

    Well, it is a bad idea if you are building anything not intended to be exclusively a GNOME app.

    • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼
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      fedilink
      English
      328 days ago

      It’s also a bad idea if you want to build anything that’s more complex than GNOME’s single-purpose apps that lack all kinds of features. Building something as complex as a DAW would be a nightmare with libadwaita.