I Hate: Programming Wayland Applications
Summary
A passionate developer's rant about the challenges of programming native Wayland applications. The author contrasts the simplicity of libraries like raylib with the nightmare of Wayland development.
Key Problems
- Callback Hell: Everything uses callbacks - no main event loop like X11 or Win32
- 1300+ Lines for Window: Simple OpenGL window requires massive boilerplate
- Object-Oriented Protocol: Control flow is unpredictable due to callback-based architecture
- Fragmentation: Different compositors support different protocol extensions
- No Documentation: Official docs don't mention wayland-scanner; XML files scattered
Core Insight
"Wayland does not care for the simple use-case at all. Getting any example application to work is so incredibly ridiculous... I have no idea why they didn't stick to 'main event loop' instead."
Quote
"This is sheer insanity. There are so many obstacles you have to get over in order to produce just a blank window."