[Mono-list] Gtk# or the future Windows.Forms Mono

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> Should developers consider Gtk# or the new Mono
> Windows.Forms (or whatever it will be called) in
> planning and design phases for new GUI projects?

Gtk# will continue to be developed, and will continue to track the Gtk
and Gnome development platforms.  

Windows.Forms should be considered a library for bringing developers
from Windows to Linux easily.

Windows.Forms has a number of limitations imposed by the commitment to
API compatibility with Windows which are particularly annoying for
developing international application (and by extension any open source
apps that have to be localized).

Also keep in mind that Microsoft will move developers to a third
toolkit, so Windows.Forms is effectively a toolkit that will not likely
grow to address its limitations in next few years.

If you are developing a new application today, and you do not mind the
Gtk+ dependency, it is a better path to follow as Gtk+ blends nicely to
internationalization and is being upgraded to add vector-based rendering
with its current API.

Windows.Forms is still a useful tool if most of your development will
happen on Windows and you will target mostly Windows systems.

Miguel.