PyVista ImGui Repo

[adam-grant-hendry]

@akaszynski @tkoyama010 @larsoner @adeak I like pyimgui. As an immediate mode renderer, it has performance benefits over retained mode renderers and can make some pretty great interfaces.

Qt/PyQt/PySide are a bit trickier to work with and have had licensing woes and variations across bindings that have caused headaches. Dear imgui is open-source MIT.

If you agree, I'd like to take a crack at combining it with pyvista and vtk like was done here. What do you think?

[adeak]

I don't want to vote due to my usual disclaimer of not being a pyvistaqt (or any other GUI) user. Just a few musing remarks:

1. It's harmless to experiment, so if you have time to invest/waste you can see how it works for you. With an existing (even half-complete) prototype it might be easier to weigh pros and cons. Just make it clear that the repo is an experimental work in progress and is not meant to be used (yet).
2. Are the Qt stuff retained mode renderers then? If yes, how would the paradigm shift impact performance of apps, especially with or without dedicated GPUs?
3. pyimgui might have some maintenance issues: the repo has a note saying that master is obsolete, dev/version-2.0 prepares a new major version for newer DearImGui, but both branches were last committed to in April. I don't know how the Qt dependencies are maintained, but this makes this seem a bit risky.

[tkoyama010]

It's harmless to experiment, so if you have time to invest/waste you can see how it works for you. With an existing (even half-complete) prototype it might be easier to weigh pros and cons. Just make it clear that the repo is an experimental work in progress and is not meant to be used (yet).

FYI. It is possible to create a repository on your account and later move it to the PyVista organization. When I create an experimental repository, I first create it under my own account and then move it to the PyVista organization once it is stable.

[akaszynski]

Sure! I agree with (1-3) from @adeak, but I can't promise support on my end as I'm swamped with real work as well as pyvista work.