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Rapid GPUI: Component-Based Desktop Development — Part 4
Advanced Layouts
Part 3 demonstrated data-heavy interfaces with scrollable lists, filtering, and export functionality. The biorhythm history view displays 365 entries efficiently with sorting and statistics. But the interface remains single-purpose: one view showing one type of information.
Consider how you actually use desktop software. When writing code, you glance at the file tree to locate modules, scroll through documentation in a side panel, and watch compilation output stream past. These activities happen in parallel, not sequence. The power of a desktop application lies in presenting related information simultaneously, letting your eyes move between contexts faster than any click or tab switch could manage.
Professional desktop applications embrace this principle by presenting multiple views at once. An IDE shows file explorer, editor, terminal, and output panels. A design tool shows layers, canvas, properties, and timeline. A data analysis application shows data tables, visualizations, query builders, and results. Users expect to resize these panels, rearrange them to match their workflow, and have layouts persist between sessions. The spatial arrangement itself becomes part of the mental model. You know the terminal is “down there” and the file tree is “over there” without…
