Cambalache For Linux

Let's say that you want to create a super-sleek, modern, native Linux app from scratch and you want its GUI to be perfectly in line with GNOME's Code of Conduct and design guidelines, and be perfectly usable even on VMs (with no resolutions and scaling issues), and support for Wayland.

Well, it's safe to say that there aren't many options out there. However, that's not to say that there are NO options out there.

Meet Cambalache, a modern and well-designed, free, and open-source GTK user interface maker. To quote the project's official repository, Cambalache is "a new RAD (rapid application development) tool for GTK4 and GTK3 with a clear MVC design and data model first philosophy."

In short, it means that Cambalache was designed from the ground up to offer a wide range of useful features that can help you require next to no developer intervention for basic support.

The app is written in Python and uses Meson as its build system, the GTK3 and GTK4 toolkits (with broadway backend enabled, meaning it supports multiple GTK versions and the workspace is rendered out-of-process), Python GTK bindings, Python libxml2 bindings, and WebkitGTK (the webview for workspaces).

The whole point of Cambalache was to be as easy to use as possible. Upon first launching the app, you're greeded by a stylish welcome screen (that displays the app's name).

You get a typical GTK/GNOME top toolbar which allows you to create new projects, open and save already existing ones, undo and redo, as well as access the app's menu.

To start a new project, simply type in a name for project, select a location on your computer, choose the target toolkit (GTK3 or GTK4), and click "Create."

Cambalache works fairly similar to other user interface creator apps such as Qt or QtDesigner, but it's a lot more modern.

The app boasts a nifty "Getting started" helper that displays the main GUI elements. While this is definitely useful for newcomers, it would have been nice if the app had a sort of sample project, so beginner users would have a more solid starting point for learning.

Cambalache is a very well designed and modern user interface creator for GNOME that's definitely worth checking out.