4 ms·

Win Forms was always just a clunky wrapper around the aged Win32 APIs, and while WPF is extremely impressive, its performance still appears to be an issue for l

Win Forms was always just a clunky wrapper around the aged Win32 APIs, and while WPF is extremely impressive, its performance still appears to be an issue for large-scale desktop applications. I've been away from the Windows world for going on 6 years now, so my question is: what the heck are people using to write Windows apps these days? I'm sure there is still a mountain of .NET developers writing a mountain of crappy WinForm apps for the enterprise, but what about consumer software? Is it still Win32 and GDI?

phillco 15y ago
I've really never felt that WinForms was "clunky". Compared to Win32, it's amazingly consistent and intuitive - you can learn 75% of it just with the form designer and IntelliSense. Doing anything in Win32, by comparison, almost always requires a trip to Google and a paragraph of code. I don't know why anyone would willingly write a Win32 or MFC app over .NET unless they were simply unfamiliar with it, or overly worried about performance, framework availability, or code security.
hvs 15y ago
Either Win32 or MFC.
gigantor 15y ago
Based on personal enterprise consulting experience, Enterprise Windows apps are still widely developed using WinForms, VB6, Delphi still exists more than what's comfortable, and if you're lucky enough to work with a cutting edge enterprise, there's some WPF, Expression Blend, or Silverlight sprinkled in there. I don't have stats but I presume Win32/MFC/GDI dominates the consumer software world, judging by how many Windows apps I've installed over the years that didn't require the prerequisite .net framework installation.
kenjackson 15y ago
Depends on the type of app. With UI heavier apps that are new WPF is very popular. Sony Vegas, VS 2010, Expression Blend, HP Touchsmart shell, are some examples of apps that use WPF. If you're writing a new app, and you can deal with the WPF restrictions (can't run too far downstream or on underpowered computers) then its hard to go with anything else. With that said, I do wish it had better perf.
ww520 15y ago
Most of my Windows apps use WTL for UI. Just a thin-OO wrapper on top of the Win32 API. Works great.

phillco 15y ago

I've really never felt that WinForms was "clunky". Compared to Win32, it's amazingly consistent and intuitive - you can learn 75% of it just with the form designer and IntelliSense. Doing anything in Win32, by comparison, almost always requires a trip to Google and a paragraph of code. I don't know why anyone would willingly write a Win32 or MFC app over .NET unless they were simply unfamiliar with it, or overly worried about performance, framework availability, or code security.

hvs 15y ago

Either Win32 or MFC.

gigantor 15y ago

Based on personal enterprise consulting experience, Enterprise Windows apps are still widely developed using WinForms, VB6, Delphi still exists more than what's comfortable, and if you're lucky enough to work with a cutting edge enterprise, there's some WPF, Expression Blend, or Silverlight sprinkled in there. I don't have stats but I presume Win32/MFC/GDI dominates the consumer software world, judging by how many Windows apps I've installed over the years that didn't require the prerequisite .net framework installation.

kenjackson 15y ago

Depends on the type of app. With UI heavier apps that are new WPF is very popular. Sony Vegas, VS 2010, Expression Blend, HP Touchsmart shell, are some examples of apps that use WPF. If you're writing a new app, and you can deal with the WPF restrictions (can't run too far downstream or on underpowered computers) then its hard to go with anything else. With that said, I do wish it had better perf.

ww520 15y ago

Most of my Windows apps use WTL for UI. Just a thin-OO wrapper on top of the Win32 API. Works great.