[Mono-winforms-list] Theming in MWF

[Pedro Martínez Juliá]

Hi all,

I think that, reading all the posts, the best solution at this moment is
to write a full managed System.Windows.Forms 100% compatible with MS.NET
and provide or recommed, for example, Gtk# or Qt# in linux look and
Cocoa# in MacOSX look.

After we have a 100% compatible System.Windows.Forms, we can start the
work to provide integration with Linux ands OSX desktops. But I think
that the Theming implemented in MWF is not needed and there could be
other solutions.

For example, if I have a SWF application and I want it to have Gnome
desktop features I need access to Gconf, gnome-vfs, evolution (contacts,
tasks, mails, etc...), sessions and the same look and feel. I think it's
better to write this application in Gtk# (Gnome#).

The hard work is to integrate an application written for Windows to a
linux or OSX desktop (with its sessions, configuration, vfs, etc). I
think we need a way to manage SWF applications with native services, for
example, if it is running on Gnome, use gnome services (and for KDE,
MacOSX, Windows, etc). For me, the less important is the apperance but
it can be done in the same way are done other services.

In Java, Swing has one hierarchy for each supported platform. We can use
hierarchies of controls of this kind (a control for each platform, not a
control painted in two distinct ways) and a thin layer to provide
external services that will be adapted to the underlying desktop (with a
service provider for each supported desktop). This way MWF can be faster
than have full theme support.

My idea is to have a different MWF for each supported OS and a common
one for all the OS where can run MONO. The first thing we need is to
have a full implemented MWF, without any theming support, and then guide
the people to have the other theme implementation. I can draw a UML
diagram with the class hierarchy of this design but it's the same design
used in Swing.

Regards,

    Pedro

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Pedro Martínez Juliá
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