2.9 KiB
:ui-preview — desktop UI iteration harness
A JVM-only Compose for Desktop module for iterating on presentational composables on the PC with hot reload — edit, see it live, no build/deploy/test loop on a device. It belongs only to the quarantined Quest experiment and is not shipped: nothing in the production app, plugin, or CLI release builds depends on it.
Why this exists
The Android edit→build→install→test loop is slow for visual polish. This module renders portable composables in a desktop window backed by Compose Multiplatform, which (1.10+) bundles Compose Hot Reload — recompiled UI swaps into the running window without a restart.
Run it
Hot reload (recommended): in Android Studio / IntelliJ, open Main.kt and use
the run-gutter action "Run 'MainKt' with Compose Hot Reload". Edits to this
module or to the shared MorphingSphereCore.kt reload live.
Cold run (no hot reload):
./gradlew -p experiments/quest :ui-preview:run
First-sync check: this experimental tooling pins a Compose Multiplatform version (
org.jetbrains.compose1.12.0inbuild.gradle.kts) against the Quest build's Kotlin (2.4.10). If a future Kotlin bump breaks the pairing, realign per the Compose compatibility matrix. The module is fully additive inside the quarantined build.
What can live here
Only composables that take plain values and use androidx.compose.* APIs
that exist in Compose Multiplatform — no Android Context, no @Preview /
androidx.*.tooling, no Android framework types. Anything wired to a ViewModel or
the network must be fed fake state from the gallery controls.
The single-source-of-truth pattern
Inside this experiment, the sphere algorithm lives in
relay-ui/.../MorphingSphereCore.kt (pure kotlin.math) and is source-shared
into this module. The production Android and web sphere implementations remain
separate sources of truth outside the experiment.
| Surface | Renderer | Lives in |
|---|---|---|
| Quest experiment | MorphingSphere.kt (Canvas + @Preview) |
:relay-ui |
| Desktop experiment | DesktopSphere.kt (Canvas, no @Preview) |
this module |
To add a component: hoist it to a value-only @Composable, add it to
PreviewGallery in Main.kt, and drive it from controls. If it needs logic that
isn't portable, extract that logic to a pure (Android-free) function — the same
move that made the sphere Core shareable — and call it from both sides.
Files
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
Main.kt |
application { Window { PreviewGallery() } } — state selector + live sliders |
DesktopSphere.kt |
Thin Compose-Desktop renderer calling the shared forEachSphereCell Core |
build.gradle.kts |
Kotlin/JVM + Compose Desktop; source-shares the Core, excludes the Android renderer |