A cross-language comparison of common UI patterns in React, C# (Microsoft.UI.Reactor), and Rust (windows-reactor), followed by concrete proposals to reduce boilerplate and friction in the Rust version — while remaining idiomatically Rust.
Kenny Kerr kennykerr
kennykerr
/ simplify.md
Created
May 29, 2026 12:45
A comparison of four declarative, component-based UI frameworks — the original React (the progenitor) and three reactor-style frameworks sharing the same conceptual lineage: declarative UI with reconciliation.
The goal is not to clone React, but to understand where the state of the art is heading and what ideas can benefit windows-reactor in a Rust/WinUI context.
| React | windows-reactor | Microsoft.UI.Reactor | MauiReactor | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repo | facebook/react | microsoft/windows-rs | microsoft/microsoft-ui-reactor | adospace/reactorui-maui |
| Language | JavaScript / TypeScript | Rust | C# | C# |
kennykerr
/ filter.txt
Created
May 26, 2026 17:22
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| extras | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.DependencyObject | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.UIElement | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.FrameworkElement | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.RoutedEventHandler | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.HorizontalAlignment | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.VerticalAlignment | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.TextWrapping | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.ElementTheme | |
| Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Thickness |
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| fn main() { | |
| windows_rdl::Reader::new() | |
| .input("crates/tools/bindings/src/extras.rdl") | |
| .input("winmd/Windows.Win32.winmd") | |
| .output("winmd/extras.winmd") | |
| .write() | |
| .unwrap(); | |
| let args = [ | |
| "--in", |
kennykerr
/ filter-methods.md
Created
May 12, 2026 18:02
Design note to file against microsoft/windows-rs. No code changes in this
repo yet — the work depends on bindgen-side support landing first.
Type-level --filter in crates/tools/bindings/src/main.rs is at its
empirical minimum (see the bindings filter memory: every entry is reachable
from code we actually use). Despite that, crates/libs/reactor/src/bindings.rs
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| Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 0.26s | |
| Running `target\debug\theme.exe` | |
| [theme-sample] starting (WINDOWS_REACTOR_THEME_TRACE=ON). To capture a verbose trace for a bug report, set WINDOWS_REACTOR_THEME_TRACE=1 before running and redirect stderr to a file (PowerShell: `$env:WINDOWS_REACTOR_THEME_TRACE='1'; cargo run -p theme 2> theme.log`). | |
| windows_reactor: diagnostics armed (panic hook; crash log → C:\Users\kekerr\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-reactor-crash-36936.log) | |
| [theme + 0ms] use_color_scheme -> Light (cell_present=true) | |
| [theme + 0ms] reconciler::reconcile ENTRY force_rerender=false color_scheme=Light | |
| [theme + 10ms] reconciler::reconcile EXIT (clearing force_component_rerender from false) | |
| [theme + 138ms] subscribe_actual_theme_changed initial seed ActualTheme=ElementTheme(2) -> Dark | |
| [theme + 138ms] reconciler::notify_theme_changed CHANGED Light -> Dark (force_component_rerender=true) | |
| [theme + 204ms] use_color_scheme -> Dark (cell_present=true) |
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| Compiling windows-reactor v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\libs\reactor) | |
| Compiling showcase v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\samples\showcase) | |
| Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 4.50s | |
| Running `target\debug\showcase.exe` | |
| windows_reactor: diagnostics armed (panic hook + VEH + SEH filter; crash log → C:\Users\kekerr\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-reactor-crash-31448.log) | |
| thread 'main' (34912) panicked at crates\libs\reactor\src\winui\backend.rs:1742:22: | |
| UIElementCollection.SetAt: Error { code: HRESULT(0x800F1000), message: "Element is already the |
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| Removed 664 files, 392.7MiB total | |
| Compiling proc-macro2 v1.0.106 | |
| Compiling quote v1.0.45 | |
| Compiling unicode-ident v1.0.24 | |
| Compiling windows-link v0.2.1 (https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs?rev=e176d92b82fbdd7678175d6d215c831069167761#e176d92b) | |
| Compiling pulldown-cmark v0.10.3 | |
| Compiling memchr v2.8.0 | |
| Compiling windows-reactor v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\libs\reactor) | |
| Compiling bitflags v2.11.1 | |
| Compiling unicase v2.9.0 |
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| Removed 697 files, 404.8MiB total | |
| Compiling proc-macro2 v1.0.106 | |
| Compiling quote v1.0.45 | |
| Compiling unicode-ident v1.0.24 | |
| Compiling windows-link v0.2.1 (https://github.com/microsoft/windows-rs?rev=e176d92b82fbdd7678175d6d215c831069167761#e176d92b) | |
| Compiling pulldown-cmark v0.10.3 | |
| Compiling bitflags v2.11.1 | |
| Compiling windows-reactor v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\libs\reactor) | |
| Compiling memchr v2.8.0 | |
| Compiling unicase v2.9.0 |
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| Compiling windows-reactor v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\libs\reactor) | |
| Compiling showcase v0.0.0 (D:\git\windows-reactor-rs\crates\samples\showcase) | |
| Finished `dev` profile [unoptimized + debuginfo] target(s) in 3.14s | |
| Running `target\debug\showcase.exe` | |
| windows_reactor: diagnostics armed (panic hook + VEH + SEH filter; crash log → C:\Users\kekerr\AppData\Local\Temp\windows-reactor-crash-7496.log) | |
| thread 'main' (33428) panicked at crates\libs\reactor\src\winui\backend.rs:1637:22: | |
| UIElementCollection.SetAt: Error { code: HRESULT(0x800F1000), message: "Element is already the c |
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