Would a modern native desktop UI framework and VS Code designer be interesting for the D community?

macasm jckj33 at gmail.com
Mon Apr 20 21:15:53 UTC 2026


Hi everyone,

I have been exploring the idea of building a modern desktop UI 
framework and development tooling focused on D, and I would love 
to get feedback from the community.

The idea is something along these lines:

* UI described with a modern CSS-like / declarative syntax
* code written in D
* native Windows output (Win32 / potentially Direct2D)
* small binaries and fast startup
* optional VS Code extension with live preview / GUI designer
* focus on better developer experience compared to raw Win32 APIs

The main goal would be to offer something with a workflow closer 
to modern frontend development, while still generating native 
desktop applications.

I am trying to understand whether this would actually be useful 
for D developers.

Some questions I would love feedback on:

* Would this be interesting for your projects?
* What do you currently use for desktop UI in D?
* What are the biggest pain points today?
* Would you prefer direct native Win32 generation, or a 
cross-platform backend?
* How important would live preview / visual designer tooling be?

I would really appreciate honest feedback from people actively 
using D for desktop or tooling projects.



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