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And most of them are now deprecated. In fact, on .NET 5, there is no good desktop UI framework at all. It seems to me that if you wrote a Windows Desktop app in

And most of them are now deprecated. In fact, on .NET 5, there is no good desktop UI framework at all. It seems to me that if you wrote a Windows Desktop app in the last 30 years, the only way it would still be supported today (i.e. possible to maintain using non-deprecated frameworks) is if it was based directly on the old Win32 API (or the MFC wrapper).

dleslie 5y ago
This is mostly correct, I think. Just imagine all those SilverLight apps that are languishing.
judge2020 5y ago
Someday: https://github.com/dotnet/maui https://github.com/dotnet/maui
sjmulder 5y ago
> if you wrote a Windows Desktop app in the last 30 years, the only way it would still be supported today ... is if it was based directly on the old Win32 API I thought the same and did just that to see if it holds true: https://github.com/sjmulder/netwake https://github.com/sjmulder/netwake By default you get Windows 95 styling and Windows 3 fonts. You have to opt into 'visual styles' (introduced in XP) with a declaration in the app manifest and have to manually query and use the system font. DPI awareness is also opt in and puts all the work (sizing/positioning, scaling/reloading fonts) on you. But when you do that, it does look fine on Windows 10. Not so much on Windows 11. Some of the widgets have been updated to mimic the new style but when you put it together it looks messy and old fashioned (e.g. fonts + you don't get the new context menus). I'm curious to learn how one would create a 'proper' Windows app without having to reimplement the system's widget styling.
- jcelerier 5y ago
  That shit makes me so happy to use Qt
WorldMaker 5y ago
.NET 5 saw renewed development in WPF, including some useful improvements over WPF in .NET 4.x. They've given the impression that WPF is fully "undeprecated" and current documentation points to WPF as the best way to utilize WinUI 3.0 controls (modern Windows controls) in .NET today. (WinForms also saw a bunch of reinvestment in .NET 5 and also has a road to migrate to WinUI 3.0 controls if you really want, but I would argue that WinForms was never a "good desktop UI framework".)
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Go to their github issues and have fun reading through them. Basically Microsoft had to rampup Windows Forms and WPF teams (most likely ramped down to maintenance modus), as otherwise many companies would just ignore .NET Core. The designers, which were redone to be out of process in .NET 5, still have lots of issues. Basically, the future is UWP/WinUI, but just like with VB 6, there are plenty of big shot customers that want their apps to keep running and aren't open to rewrites. And in what concerns WinUI, MAUI is being built on top of WinUI (with incompatible XAML) and then there is Blazor. Plenty of political wars going on currently in Redmond UI teams.

dleslie 5y ago

This is mostly correct, I think. Just imagine all those SilverLight apps that are languishing.

judge2020 5y ago

Someday: https://github.com/dotnet/maui https://github.com/dotnet/maui

sjmulder 5y ago

> if you wrote a Windows Desktop app in the last 30 years, the only way it would still be supported today ... is if it was based directly on the old Win32 API I thought the same and did just that to see if it holds true: https://github.com/sjmulder/netwake https://github.com/sjmulder/netwake By default you get Windows 95 styling and Windows 3 fonts. You have to opt into 'visual styles' (introduced in XP) with a declaration in the app manifest and have to manually query and use the system font. DPI awareness is also opt in and puts all the work (sizing/positioning, scaling/reloading fonts) on you. But when you do that, it does look fine on Windows 10. Not so much on Windows 11. Some of the widgets have been updated to mimic the new style but when you put it together it looks messy and old fashioned (e.g. fonts + you don't get the new context menus). I'm curious to learn how one would create a 'proper' Windows app without having to reimplement the system's widget styling.

jcelerier 5y ago
That shit makes me so happy to use Qt

WorldMaker 5y ago

.NET 5 saw renewed development in WPF, including some useful improvements over WPF in .NET 4.x. They've given the impression that WPF is fully "undeprecated" and current documentation points to WPF as the best way to utilize WinUI 3.0 controls (modern Windows controls) in .NET today. (WinForms also saw a bunch of reinvestment in .NET 5 and also has a road to migrate to WinUI 3.0 controls if you really want, but I would argue that WinForms was never a "good desktop UI framework".)

pjmlp 5y ago
Go to their github issues and have fun reading through them. Basically Microsoft had to rampup Windows Forms and WPF teams (most likely ramped down to maintenance modus), as otherwise many companies would just ignore .NET Core. The designers, which were redone to be out of process in .NET 5, still have lots of issues. Basically, the future is UWP/WinUI, but just like with VB 6, there are plenty of big shot customers that want their apps to keep running and aren't open to rewrites. And in what concerns WinUI, MAUI is being built on top of WinUI (with incompatible XAML) and then there is Blazor. Plenty of political wars going on currently in Redmond UI teams.