denis256 notes and projects

Proton is a Go GUI library built on Gio, and this recent activity is mostly about making the project easier to evaluate before you install it. The headline change is a large README refresh that turns scattered notes into a clearer map for install steps, widgets, theming, Android builds, and example apps.

README becomes the first support surface

The biggest useful change is not in a widget file. It is the long README refresh, followed by smaller polish commits such as fixing the Android guide link and promoting the dashboard code link. For a GUI library, that matters. Most users decide if they can try it in the first few minutes, long before they read the implementation.

The updated README.md now tells a reader what Proton is trying to be: a pure Go GUI layer on top of Gio, with no raw Gio types in app code. It also moves the install path into plain view: go get, go mod tidy, and the Linux packages needed by Gio. That is small, but it removes a common source of failed first runs.

Concrete items now visible in the README:

• Install command and Gio dependency tidy step
• Linux package list for Wayland, keyboard, and Vulkan headers
• Short hello window example
• Widget groups for text, input, layout, visual, data, feedback, overlays, and utilities
• Links to official docs and the docs repo

go get github.com/CzaxStudio/proton
go mod tidy
sudo apt install libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libvulkan-dev

Widget docs catch up with the surface area

The README also reads less like a badge page and more like an API index. The large README update adds newer widget names in one place, including SearchInput, Avatar, Logo, Table, ProgressRing, and Stepper. That gives users a quick inventory before they open the package docs.

There is also a useful shift in examples. The README now shows state shaped around proton.Editor, proton.Clickable, proton.Bool, proton.Enum, proton.Float, and proton.Scrollable. That is the core programming model for this style of immediate UI code: the draw function runs often, and app state remains in your own struct. The updated prose says this directly, without wrapping it in too much framework language.

The v0.2.x section is worth scanning if you already use Proton. It documents examples for Table, Stepper, ProgressRing, SearchInput, Avatar, NumberInput, and Overlay. The commit does not prove those APIs landed this week. It does prove the public docs now point at them, which is the part a user will see first.

GitHub language metadata got repeated attention

Seven commits touched .gitattributes. The sequence starts with creating a GitHub attributes file, then switching Markdown from documentation to detectable, then adding text files, adding Go module files, and later adding sum files. This is not runtime work, but it changes how GitHub reports the repo.

That can matter for a small Go library. If README, text, module, and sum files dominate the tree, language bars and discovery metadata can look odd. The intent in these commits is to make those files count as detectable content instead of being hidden or treated as documentation only.

There is a rough edge here. The final excerpt in input.md still shows whitespace churn around the Markdown line in .gitattributes, with one more cleanup commit touching the same area. Treat this as repository metadata in motion, not a settled policy document.

*.txt linguist-detectable=true
*.md  linguist-detectable=true
*.mod linguist-detectable=true
*.sum linguist-detectable=true

Build and helper files were trimmed

The small script changes are worth mentioning because they affect how contributors read the repo. The maintainers deleted a launch helper, June12.bash, which initialized git, created a launch tag, pushed to a generic GitHub remote, and ran a broken looking module command. That file was not part of the library API. Removing it reduces noise for anyone cloning the project and asking which scripts are real.

The build.bat update is less tidy. It adds a test message at the top of build.bat, while the script still points at .\examples\cybertool\main.go and builds ProtonCyberTool. If you rely on Windows helper scripts, inspect this file before treating it as a supported build path. The README examples are clearer than this batch file.

The showcase comment cleanup in examples/showcase/main.go is also minor. It removes an introductory comment from a live widget gallery. That does not change behavior. It does make the example a little more bare, so new readers will need the README to provide context.

What to watch

First, watch whether the .gitattributes policy settles. Several small commits changed the same few lines in a short period. If language stats matter for the project, one quiet cleanup commit would be better than more churn.

Second, the README now claims a broad public surface: Android, theming, keyboard shortcuts, overlays, logo loading, and many widgets. The next useful work would be tests or examples that keep those snippets honest. A docs page is helpful. A compiling example is better.

Third, treat this activity as docs and repo hygiene, not a feature drop. The reviewed commits do not show a core API change. For users of CzaxStudio/proton, the practical step is to reread the README, check the install notes, and verify any local scripts before using them in automation.