4 ms·

What is the winforms simple (ie, drag and drop form designer, click through for code) current windows development recommendation. I've seriously lost all track

What is the winforms simple (ie, drag and drop form designer, click through for code) current windows development recommendation. I've seriously lost all track of how to just get up and going. I've tried UWP/WPF etc - they felt like a bit of nightmare for quick and go, but the tooling now seems to have dropped winforms? I couldn't get the form designer to actually show up even on a WinForms project?

hnrodey 6y ago
I'm no longer close to .NET desktop GUI development but even today, if I had to do something I'd start a new WinForms project.
- mgamache 6y ago
  For simple utility apps, it's lighting fast and easy. Now with .net core high and DPI support it's even better.
Traubenfuchs 6y ago
It seems to be alive and well: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/windows-forms-designer-for-net-core-released/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/windows-forms-designer... Sadly only in Visual Studio and not Visual Studio Code. And yes, there is probably no one who used winforms that wouldn't be shocked by WPFs steep learning curve.
- thoraway1010 6y ago
  Wow - GREAT news. This was EXACTLY my issue, no forms designer. I'm mostly developing server on linux so I'm not enough of designer to even begin to wrap my head around XAML / MVVM / WPF / UPF (?) new world order on windows. SO glad they are going to allow for some simpler approaches - and no, I don't want to build skinnable apps for business - I actually LIKED that all the apps looked / worked basically the same in the old world even though that's no longer cool. We now have some silverlight apps, some IE only apps, some WPF / UPF apps. But the old winforms apps still get lots of use and still work. I've found the "better" WPF / UPF stuff to kind of lag and stutter even sometimes - I've got no idea why. The winforms apps on new machines are snappy.
Ididntdothis 6y ago
You can write Winforms like code in WPF and get better layout capabilities. If you stay away from MVVM then WPF is pretty straightforward.
- tigershark 6y ago
  Please don’t, if I happen to work on it I’ll burn it to the ground. I’ve worked on plenty of WPF applications written like it was winforms and they all sucks.
  - Ididntdothis 6y ago
    For quick one offs I still prefer WPF over Winforms even without MVVM and thereby avoiding the learning curve. In the long run MVVM is probably better (although I am not so sure on that either. I have seen plenty of nightmarish “proper” WPF apps too)
- fomine3 6y ago
  +1. Winforms like code in WPF is still takes some advantages from WPF.
zubspace 6y ago
I still love Windows Forms and the designer. Sometimes some solutions are a bit hacky and the designer can do really weird stuff, but I can manage. I think, the standardized look and feel really works well for complex business applications. WPF is nice for fully customized UI where you want your application to look modern, but xaml can really be daunting. And it's not only xaml, but that whole MVVM thing can be a nightmare to teach and stick to in a large team and project. Moreover you probably need some designers or an external company to design your UI's to really shine. I would keep a close eye on MAUI [1] and where it will go. The Model-View-Update (MVU) pattern looks interesting and the cross platform aspect could be really nice. [1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/introducing-net-multi-platform-app-ui/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/introducing-net-multi-...

hnrodey 6y ago

I'm no longer close to .NET desktop GUI development but even today, if I had to do something I'd start a new WinForms project.

mgamache 6y ago
For simple utility apps, it's lighting fast and easy. Now with .net core high and DPI support it's even better.

Traubenfuchs 6y ago

It seems to be alive and well: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/windows-forms-designer-for-net-core-released/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/windows-forms-designer... Sadly only in Visual Studio and not Visual Studio Code. And yes, there is probably no one who used winforms that wouldn't be shocked by WPFs steep learning curve.

thoraway1010 6y ago
Wow - GREAT news. This was EXACTLY my issue, no forms designer. I'm mostly developing server on linux so I'm not enough of designer to even begin to wrap my head around XAML / MVVM / WPF / UPF (?) new world order on windows. SO glad they are going to allow for some simpler approaches - and no, I don't want to build skinnable apps for business - I actually LIKED that all the apps looked / worked basically the same in the old world even though that's no longer cool. We now have some silverlight apps, some IE only apps, some WPF / UPF apps. But the old winforms apps still get lots of use and still work. I've found the "better" WPF / UPF stuff to kind of lag and stutter even sometimes - I've got no idea why. The winforms apps on new machines are snappy.

Ididntdothis 6y ago

You can write Winforms like code in WPF and get better layout capabilities. If you stay away from MVVM then WPF is pretty straightforward.

tigershark 6y ago
Please don’t, if I happen to work on it I’ll burn it to the ground. I’ve worked on plenty of WPF applications written like it was winforms and they all sucks.
- Ididntdothis 6y ago
  For quick one offs I still prefer WPF over Winforms even without MVVM and thereby avoiding the learning curve. In the long run MVVM is probably better (although I am not so sure on that either. I have seen plenty of nightmarish “proper” WPF apps too)
fomine3 6y ago
+1. Winforms like code in WPF is still takes some advantages from WPF.

zubspace 6y ago

I still love Windows Forms and the designer. Sometimes some solutions are a bit hacky and the designer can do really weird stuff, but I can manage. I think, the standardized look and feel really works well for complex business applications. WPF is nice for fully customized UI where you want your application to look modern, but xaml can really be daunting. And it's not only xaml, but that whole MVVM thing can be a nightmare to teach and stick to in a large team and project. Moreover you probably need some designers or an external company to design your UI's to really shine. I would keep a close eye on MAUI [1] and where it will go. The Model-View-Update (MVU) pattern looks interesting and the cross platform aspect could be really nice. [1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/introducing-net-multi-platform-app-ui/ https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/introducing-net-multi-...