[Mono-winforms-list] Mono-winforms-list Digest, Vol 110, Issue 2

[Shannon Barber]

I don't understand how WinForm can be deprecated?

The whole point is to get to easily cross-platform deployment and fracturing the GUI element wrecks that capability.

I was gearing up to work on a Wayland back-end to WinForms ... is this a lost cause now?


________________________________
From: mono-winforms-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com <mono-winforms-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com> on behalf of Dan Gray <grayarea56 at gmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, March 30, 2016 3:43 PM
To: Baltasar García Perez-Schofield
Cc: mono-winforms-list at lists.ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-winforms-list] Mono-winforms-list Digest, Vol 110, Issue 2

Thanks a million, this is probably what I'll do in the future.

Thanks again,
Dan

On Wed, Mar 30, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Baltasar García Perez-Schofield <baltasarq at gmail.com<mailto:baltasarq at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi, Dan,


Thanks Baltasar,
Since it's deprecated, what do you suggest I use instead?

Ufff... here be dragons.
http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/

Winforms would be ideal if it was finished, since you would not have to write any other code. Unfortunately, it is not. Take into account that there is not support for WPF.

Okay, probably the best graphic toolkit available, when talking about completeness, for C#/mono, is Gtk#. Gtk# is able to show windows and graphics of any kind (Cairo), in Windows, Mac and Linux. It's a good option, I think the best one currently, though it is also maybe temperamental and capricious in how to show widgets to the user (it thinks it knows better than you). Since you would paint in the window canvas though Cairo, I think you're safe, though. You also have an installer for each platform.
http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/gtksharp/tutorials/

You can use Stetic, included in the MonoDevelop/Xamarin Studio environment, or still use Visual Studio if you're ready to code the GUI by yourself (this what I personally recommend).

QtSharp is cool, since it gives you access to Qt, a great toolkit, for C#. However, I don't know how easy is to distribute a cross-platform application with it.
https://github.com/ddobrev/QtSharp

Xwt is an effort to create a truly toolkit which is native for each platform. I don't know about its maturity, though.
https://github.com/mono/xwt

As you can see, there are lots of options, none of them totally good. I'd stick to Gtk#: either create a specific UI for Linux, or even replace your curent view with a Gtk# one, which will be cross-platform. I mean, provided you are ready to "re-code".

Anyway, you app with Cairo (included with Gtk#) could be interesting.

-- baltasar





Disclaimer: This message and any files or text attached to it are intended only for the recipients named above and contain information that may be confidential or privileged. If you are not an intended recipient, you must not forward, copy, use or otherwise disclose this communication or the information contained herein. In the event you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately by replying to this message, and then delete all copies of it from your system. Thank you.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.ximian.com/pipermail/mono-winforms-list/attachments/20160331/2c58306b/attachment.html>