Most UI frameworks abstract the underlying render loop with persistant view hierarchies that consist of objects that represent components and event handlers that asynchronously allow clients to respond to user activity. Our theory is that a functional UI library that does not abstract the render loop and allows the client to respond to events synchronously would be more ergonomic for developers to use and mitigate the number of concepts you have to learn to use a UI framework.

Of course, we are not the first to do this. ImGUI is a popular immediate style UI library, primarily used for debug controls and developer tools. Ryan Fleury wrote about this concept as well in 2022. Paradigm hopes to improve on each idea and concept presented by the aforementioned contributors. For example, ImGUI caches objects by hashing user defined strings. This can theoretically slow down rendering if you end up using a lot of strings in your UI. Ryan Fleury's proposal requires an extra pass due to a complicated auto-layout system. Paradigm's auto-layout system does not need an extra pass to work. My theory is that you can build useable enough UIs with a simpler set of constraints that can all be determined before the end of your render loop. So far, I have been able to implement parents that auto-resize to the size of their children without any extra auto-layout pass.

It remains to be seen if this project will be a success. However, as somebody who's spent many years dealing with UI frameworks, I am passionate about making UI programming simpler and easier for coders. I don't believe UI programming should add much friction at all to your application, and Paradigm hopes to provide such a library.

Paradigm is still in an early stage of development, but check back soon for code snippets and screenshots!