Andrea Mancuso

Imagine being able to use a powerful C++ GUI library in over a dozen different programming languages without rewriting a single line of code. This is possible thanks to the Foreign Function Interface (FFI) — a bridge that allows programs written in one language to call functions written in another. In this post, I'll walk you through how I leveraged FFI to make XFrames, a high-performance, GPU-accelerated GUI library, work seamlessly across a diverse ecosystem of languages.

We'll explore how FFI can unlock cross-language functionality, discuss the specific challenges I encountered, and share key lessons learned. Whether you're a developer curious about cross-language interoperability or someone tackling real-world FFI issues, this guide has something for you.

Bring your Raspberry Pi projects to life with XFrames! You can now create sleek, high-performance GUIs using your favourite programming language even on arm-x64.

Building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) has always been a balancing act—developers want performance, flexibility, and simplicity, yet most tools force compromises. That's why I created XFrames, a library designed to address these challenges and empower developers to build high-performance, cross-platform applications without relying on traditional web engines.