Helium

Major features:

Custom elements

Write your own elements, and interface with them however you want to

Efficient rendering & updating

The elements only update&re-render when state changes

Code hotswap

Save a file, and see changes immediately

User facing interface

helium.element(function,reloader,w,h,parameters) 
   ->Element --Creates a new element
   	:draw(x,y) --Renders the element at a location
   	:undraw() --Removes the element from the render buffer

--The intended loader for element files (supports optional live hotswapping)
HeliumLoader(filepath) -> ElementFactory
ElementFactory(parameters,w,h) -> Element

helium.input
   .subscribe(x, y, w, h, subType, callback, startOn)
       subType -- Subscription type
       callback -- Subscription callback on event
       startOn -- a bool to disable a subscription by default
   -> Subscription
       :on() --Turns an inactive subscription on
       :off() --Turns an active subscription off
       
   subType:
       Advanced:
        "clicked" --Gets called whenever the subscribed area is pressed, with an optional return callback
        "dragged" --Gets called whenever the subscribed area is dragged, with an optional 'finish' callback
       Basic events:
        "mousepressed" --Gets called whenever the subscribed area gets pressed
        "mousereleased" --Gets called whenever mouse is released in the subscription area
        "mousepressed_outside" --This type gets called when mouse is pressed outside the subscription area
        "mousereleased_outside" --This type gets called when mouse is released outside the sub area
        "keypressed" --Basic keyboard input

Basic overview:

Helium is practically more like a UI framework than a fully fledged UI library. The idea is to build custom, build simple and build fast, encapsulate.

Getting started:

Load helium with helium = require 'helium' Create a new file for your awesome element, say 'helloWorld.lua'

The basic structure for an element file is:

return function(param,state,view)
	--Setup zone
	return function()
		--Rendering zone
	end
end

That's it, it's now a correct helium element

So lets make a simple button!

In helloWorld.lua:

local input = require "helium.core.input" 

return function(param,state,view)
	--Press state
	state.pressed = false
	--The callback for the input subscription
	local callback = function() state.pressed = true end
	--The actual input subscription 
	input.subscribe(0,0,view.w,view.h,'clicked',callback)
		
	return function()
		if state.pressed then
			love.graphics.setColor(0.3,0.3,0.9)
		else
			love.graphics.setColor(0.3,0.3,0.5)
		end
		love.graphics.rectangle('fill', 0, 0, view.w, view.h)
		love.graphics.setColor(1,1,1)
		love.graphics.printf("Pressed? "..tostring(state.pressed),0,view.h/2-5,view.w,'center')
	end
end

And in main.lua:

local buttonFactory = HeliumLoader('helloWorld.lua')
local button = buttonFactory({}, 200, 100)
button:draw(10,10)

Now theres a lot to explain, but its fairly simple, so lets take it by chunks Here we import the input module of Helium, so that we can later subscribe to an event:

local input = require "helium.core.input" 

---

Here we create a state field called pressed, think of state as a helium elements self It works like a regular table, with the caveat that you shouldnt overwrite it directly like state = {}

state.pressed = false

---

Then we overwrite that state.pressed inside a callback which will be called every time our button is pressed

local callback = function() state.pressed = true end

---

This is creating an input subscription for the event of your choice

input.subscribe(0,0,view.w,view.h,'clicked',callback)

---

Is the rendering code, it works more or less like a mini window of a love.draw()

return function()
	if state.pressed then
		love.graphics.setColor(0.3,0.3,0.9)
	else
		love.graphics.setColor(0.3,0.3,0.5)
	end
	love.graphics.rectangle('fill', 0, 0, view.w, view.h)
	love.graphics.setColor(1,1,1)
	love.graphics.printf("Pressed? "..tostring(state.pressed),0,view.h/2-5,view.w,'center')
end

Additional details:

view is a table that holds the information about the position and size of an element x, y, w, h Setting this from inside the element works as expected(so you can dynamically resize and reposition the element from inside)

param is the table that you pass in buttonFactory({}, 200, 100), it can be anything you need

there's a configuration table inside of helium, which has a couple of default settings AUTO_RUN if true will give you a basic 11.3 version love.run if autorun is off then you NEED to place helium.update(dt), helium.render() somewhere

and if you need input, hook it up to the eventHandlers in your own love.run:

if not(helium.input.eventHandlers[name]) or not(helium.input.eventHandlers[name](a, b, c, d, e, f)) then
	love.handlers[name](a, b, c, d, e, f)
end