Zinc.Bootstrapper

This repo builds the dependent libraries and bindings for Zinc

It uses Zig to compile the libraires, and ClangSharpPinvokeGenerator for the bindings.

The only thing you need to install is ClangSharpPInvokeGenerator (and this is only if you want bindings):

dotnet tool install --global ClangSharpPInvokeGenerator --version 18.1.0

Running

This uses Bullseye/SimpleExec for everything. Targets are split up such that they cascade from least to most specific.

Generally there are four options:

1. Everything (./build with no args or default)
2. Everything for a lib (./build sokol|cute|stb)
3. Everything for bindgen (./build [sokol|cute|stb]:bindgen)
4. Specific bindgen (./build [sokol|cute|stb]:bindgen:[filename])

See all the options by running ./build --help

Bindings

Bindings require that your running platform have Visual Studio (or Build Tools for Visual Studio 2022 - select "Desktop Development with C++") installed or Xcode

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/#remote-tools-for-visual-studio-2022 (bottom sctoll for "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2022)

NOTE: IMGUI bindings are a little wonky and need to be manually updated See the "Fix Imgui" commit in the bindings repo to see what needs to change

• _iobuf needs to map to void*
• __arglist needs to map to params string[] args
• the bitfield logic needs to map to proper ints

DLL vs. Static

Switch between dynamic and static builds in libs/sokol/build/sokol.c by toggling the DLL_BUILD / STATIC_BUILD defines at the top of the file. DLL_BUILD enables SOKOL_DLL; STATIC_BUILD injects the __stack_chk_guard shim until that workaround is no longer needed.

Sokol

libs/sokol/src/sokol points at the zinc-framework/sokol fork, branch zinc. As of the Aug-2026 bump that branch carries no patches — it is a straight mirror of upstream floooh/sokol master. The fork stays in place so we have somewhere to land a patch if we need one again, not because we currently have one.

The patch it used to carry forced CAMetalLayer.displaySyncEnabled = NO to work around macOS Tahoe input lag (floooh/sokol#1344). It was dropped once upstream shipped the same knob as a supported option, sapp_desc.metal.disable_display_sync, in the Jul-2026 swapchain update — consumers that want the old behaviour set that field to true.

To move the fork to a newer upstream, from inside the submodule:

git fetch origin                    # origin = floooh/sokol (upstream)
git checkout zinc
git reset --hard origin/master      # or rebase, if the branch has patches again
git push --force-with-lease zinc zinc   # zinc = zinc-framework/sokol (the fork)

Note the local remote layout: origin is upstream and zinc is the fork, matching how sokol_gp is wired. A fresh clone gets origin = the fork instead, per .gitmodules.

libs/sokol/src/sokol_gp points at zinc-framework/sokol_gp (sokol-view-objects), which is upstream edubart/sokol_gp plus one commit porting it to sokol's view-object API. That one is a real patch — re-port it if upstream sokol_gp moves.

ImGui

We consume floooh/dcimgui (docking variant) directly — this provides Dear ImGui + the dear_bindings-generated C API with the ig prefix that sokol_imgui.h expects by default. The previous hand-rolled cimgui submodule and imgui.cpp stub have been removed.