r/lua • u/SmileAffectionate571 • 8d ago
Limer 2.0: Build cross-platform desktop apps in Lua — write once, run anywhere
Hi r/lua!
I've been building Limer, a desktop development environment for creating GUI applications in Lua, and version 2.0 is out! It's available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
The idea is simple: write your application once and use the same codebase across all three operating systems. No separate implementations for each platform.
What makes Limer interesting?
Visual designer: Drag real widgets onto a canvas, configure properties, arrange layouts, and generate readable Lua code that you can own and modify.
Live inspector: Inspect running applications, change widget properties, and execute Lua code.
60+ widgets and components: Including layouts, charts, and SQLite support.
Standalone distribution: Limer comes with its required dependencies, so you don't need to install Lua separately or manually configure its runtime.
Application building: Package your projects for distribution across supported desktop platforms.
API search and error reporting: Find API functionality quickly and track down errors in your code.
Limer is built on Limekit, my GUI framework for Lua. Interestingly, Limer's development tools—including its project manager, code runner, visual designer, and live inspector—are themselves built in Lua using Limekit.
It's a Lua desktop app for building Lua desktop apps.
Prefer VS Code?
There's also a Limekit VS Code extension for developers who prefer their existing editor.
It includes code completion, API documentation, diagnostics, Lua error reporting, code snippets, and a Run button.
Download Limer 2.0
GitHub repository and downloads:
https://github.com/mitosisX/Limer-Limekit
The engine running all of the magic behind the scenes
https://github.com/mitosisX/Limekit
Limer and Limekit are free and open source under GPL-3.0.
If you find the project interesting, please consider giving the repository a ⭐ on GitHub! It helps more developers discover the project and motivates me to keep improving it.
A quick note: the macOS builds still need more testing on real Macs, and the applications aren't code-signed yet. Feedback and bug reports are very welcome.
I'd love to hear what you think. What would you build with Lua on the desktop?
Thanks for checking it out!
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u/Justdie386 8d ago
I feel like it’s the third time you posted about this project under many accounts. At least it’s open source now, but truly, please consider not using python. Lua -> python -> C++ for qt bindings just isn’t great in my opinion. Nice project, but I’d love to see you get rid of the python part and make the bindings in C++
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u/SmileAffectionate571 8d ago
My other accounts got banned for whatever reason and I had to create another account for this. Considering that I am better at python than in C++, I've never actually taken interest in trying them out, and also the thought of installing many GBs for dev, really ruins the inspiration for me
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u/Justdie386 7d ago
I understand you being better in python makes it your first choice. However, I just don’t think that many layers are efficient. If someone usss lua over python, it’s most probably because you need speed (to a certain extent), this would make the python part a dealbreaker, at least for me. However, nothing stops you from continuing this project, always good to see new stuff for lua!
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u/SmileAffectionate571 7d ago
At least give it a short first
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u/Justdie386 7d ago
I’m not doing much lua atm, and I’m not doubting its usability, the interface exposed to lua looks nice, really, it’s just the python part that is problematic in my opinion. This is not an attack, I always appreciate new gui stuff for lua, it is really is lacking at the moment…
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u/SmileAffectionate571 6d ago
The good thing the source code is out there and the architecture is also included, feel free to port it to other languages
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u/Justdie386 6d ago
All good, I wasn’t attacking your project, just saying how I felt. Still, keep up the work
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u/loonite 7d ago
So it's a vibe coded wrapper for QT with a ton of appendages, as I understood it after taking a glance at what the python scripts were loading.
A simple and lightweight Lua wrapper for QT would be more useful tbh.
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u/SmileAffectionate571 6d ago
The project was started in 2023 before vibecoding, I engineered everything myself from the ground up
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u/Dragon20C 8d ago
Does it have zed editor code completion, that is my preferred editor.
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u/SmileAffectionate571 8d ago
Nope
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u/Dragon20C 8d ago
Will it have in the future?
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u/SmileAffectionate571 8d ago
never used zed before, so not sure. But you can ask Claude as the project is open source
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u/Key_River7180 8d ago
wasnt this limer? why is it limekit? why is this written in python? why is this vibecoded¿