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Related question. How to start to develop desktop applications? In contrast to web applications there are not many resources out there and most seem outdated.

by makz 5y ago

exdsq 5y ago
I've not worked on a desktop app in a while but when I did, maybe 4 years ago, I found a lot of resources googling "MVVM C#" and following tutorials there. Microsoft tends to have a lot of decent tutorials on WPF Gui development. More recently I've been playing with C++ and Qt which has decent documentation too, but to me is far more complicated than Visual Studio and WPF. Most C# textbooks tend to have sections on GUI development too.
HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
Download Visual Studio Community Edition and go to New Project -> WPF project and start learning C#. That's probably the path forward with the best chance of overall success.
- ramoz 5y ago
  This as opposed to cross-platform? Any general use case or for a targets Windows user base?
  - fsloth 5y ago
    Afaik .net is cross-platform nowadays - Windows dev tools are likely to be most approachable though.
  - HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
    I'm answering in terms of what I know best. I, personally, don't see the point of supporting non-Windows desktops. User base isn't large enough for me to bother.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      my cross-platform DAW, Ardour, has as many Linux downloads as Windows downloads (on the order of 5k per month). Is it the DAW niche? Or are you possibly wrong about this?
      - HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
        It's always going to be application-specific. In my case, the kind of software I'm likely to write is going to have a majority-Windows user base, at least in the US.
semireg 5y ago
Use Electron and leverage your web skills. Learn as much as you can about the architecture before you start. For example, an Electron app has two main processes: main and renderer. The main process is like your backend API and the renderer(s) are the browser windows. Once you get the hang of it, the world opens up and you can really start cranking out code/features by bending the entire architecture to the will of the developer... until it breaks, but then you get to fix it!
mikewarot 5y ago
Try Lazarus/Free pascal. It's an open source clone of Delphi, and targets a wide variety of systems. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/

Related question. How to start to develop desktop applications? In contrast to web applications there are not many resources out there and most seem outdated.

by makz 5y ago

Related question. How to start to develop desktop applications? In contrast to web applications there are not many resources out there and most seem outdated.

exdsq 5y ago

I've not worked on a desktop app in a while but when I did, maybe 4 years ago, I found a lot of resources googling "MVVM C#" and following tutorials there. Microsoft tends to have a lot of decent tutorials on WPF Gui development. More recently I've been playing with C++ and Qt which has decent documentation too, but to me is far more complicated than Visual Studio and WPF. Most C# textbooks tend to have sections on GUI development too.

HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago

Download Visual Studio Community Edition and go to New Project -> WPF project and start learning C#. That's probably the path forward with the best chance of overall success.

ramoz 5y ago
This as opposed to cross-platform? Any general use case or for a targets Windows user base?
- fsloth 5y ago
  Afaik .net is cross-platform nowadays - Windows dev tools are likely to be most approachable though.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
  I'm answering in terms of what I know best. I, personally, don't see the point of supporting non-Windows desktops. User base isn't large enough for me to bother.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    my cross-platform DAW, Ardour, has as many Linux downloads as Windows downloads (on the order of 5k per month). Is it the DAW niche? Or are you possibly wrong about this?
    - HeyLaughingBoy 5y ago
      It's always going to be application-specific. In my case, the kind of software I'm likely to write is going to have a majority-Windows user base, at least in the US.

semireg 5y ago

Use Electron and leverage your web skills. Learn as much as you can about the architecture before you start. For example, an Electron app has two main processes: main and renderer. The main process is like your backend API and the renderer(s) are the browser windows. Once you get the hang of it, the world opens up and you can really start cranking out code/features by bending the entire architecture to the will of the developer... until it breaks, but then you get to fix it!

mikewarot 5y ago

Try Lazarus/Free pascal. It's an open source clone of Delphi, and targets a wide variety of systems. https://www.lazarus-ide.org/ https://www.lazarus-ide.org/