I have this confusion to develop this application in Win32 or WPF (.NET). This application primarily consists of a text editor (think of similar to the one in MS OneNote) with lot of customized requirements compared to a general text editor.
I was thinking to use VC to work on this as lots of custom drawing is required. What do you guys suggest? Is WPF is a best deal for this sort of applications? Or Win32 is better to go?
If you want to write any sort of GUI app on Windows, I would recommend not using C++. .NET is much, much better for creating a GUI than all of the various C++ GUI libraries that are on Windows. I could see using WPF for writing an app like OneNote working out fairly well, since WPF is very easily extensible.
If you want to use a commercial WPF Text Editor you can check out one from ActiPro: http://www.actiprosoftware.com/Products/DotNet/WPF/SyntaxEditor/Default.aspx
Related
Windows.Forms library contain many bugs which effectively prevent applications from working. WinForms Designer is unable to put WebBrowser control on form. NotifyIcon class doesn't work under LXDE (see the bugtracker of KeePass). Clipboard class is incompatible with default manager of Calculate Linux. Drag and Drop have problems in DockPanelSuite. WinForms Designer is not finished because of opacity problems. WPF was never implemented and no plans to do it.
And mono team says "we don't want to develop WinForms, because this is old technology."
How should one port desktop C# application from Windows to Linux? Rewriting it with Gtk# seems to be too hard...
What is easier - to fix mono WinForms, to implement WPF, or to rewrite all applications in the world to Gtk# ?
As you have already found out Mono WinForms implementation is suitable only for very simple applications. Take a look at "Cross-Platform Desktop UIs" blog post from Xamarin employee Mike James who summarizes available solutions:
Traditional approach
WPF or WinForms frontend on Windows, GTK# frontend on Linux and Xamarin.Mac on Mac OS X. IMO this is the best way to go and it may be easier than it looks if you have correctly separated business and presentation layers in your app.
XWT
XWT toolkit uses the same API and provides native look on all platforms but only a limited subset of components is implemented. Its usability for your projects depends on what components you really need.
HTML frontend
Create HTML frontend using simple WebView component or Awesomium HTML UI Engine. This may be a viable option in some cases but I am not sure whether it is possible to implement systray icons with this approach.
QTSHARP
Open source project which aims to implement .NET bindings for multiplatform QT toolkit. I have never tried it but according to project website it seems to be in early stage and currently tested only on Windows.
BTW I am currently using WinForms for Pkcs11Admin application but I plan to use traditional approach as soon as I hit a blocker bug on any of the supported platforms.
Recently I'm working on a game project, and we need to develop some editors for designers to use. While other programmers are all working on Windows, I'm working on Mac OS X. I'm familiar with WPF and Windows Forms development and I'm looking for some GUI frameworks that support data bindings similar to WPF or Windows Forms development.
The GUI framework should satisfy these:
Cross platform
Support data bindings to object (like WPF or Windows Forms)
It's best that it support XML serialization because XML is our data format
By the way, I don't care about the programming language, GUI frameworks based on any programming language are all welcome.
Silverlight runs on MacOS.
It also runs out of browser so you can create an application that doesn't require the browser to be run and hence looks like a regular desktop application.
Depends on the platforms that you want to support, but you could have a look at Moonlight the mono port of silverlight. Have a look at the alternative section of this page:
http://www.mono-project.com/WPF
Knockout.js is said to be good. My colleagues prefer it over Wpf and Silverlight bindings. For instance if you have a fullname prop, which is a result of firstname and lastname, you have to hassle in Wpf with propertychanged, in Knockout.js you define it observable and the runtime makes it correctly notify its observers. It also supports validation.
Although it doesn't have data binding like WPF or Windows Forms, Real Studio does works wonderfully for creating cross-platform applications. And XML is supported, of course.
Try JavaFx, it supports binding better than Java Swing. Also styling is based on CSS instead of Microsoft proprietary style logic.
Both WPF and JavaFX will target the GPU for extra fast rendering; they are comparable and competitor technologies. But JavaFX is cross platform and less likely to be abandoned given Microsoft's track record.
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/overview/javafx-overview-2158620.html
Also, other answers here say Silverlight but Microsoft has abandoned this.
I am a 6-years .Net Developer, and want to know which is better to start learning first, Silverlight or WPF.
I know this question seems a little-bit argumentative but since Silverlight is a mini-version of WPF. I think this takes away the argumentation.
So in the light of that, if I considered start learning:
Silverlight First: Because it would be easier to learn than its big brother.
WPF First: Because it would be easier to know the basic concepts and event-model of WPF before moving to SL.
Learn Silverlight first so you won't be annoyed that you cannot use useful things like RelativeSource and x:Static in Silverlight :P
Silverlight will be fused with WPF in a couple of years.
Study Silverlight first, i recommend the book Pro Silverlight 4 in C# from Apress, the unique that have color pages.
If in future you'll need some extra Windows functions, go to the much complete WPF.
With Silverlight you can also develop Windows phone 7 applications, and Xbox 360 (rumored). In windows 8 will be a Silverlight Marketplace (valid rumor), and you can create very rich applications / part of website / full websites instead of using the slow, crappy and "browser inconstistent" JQuery+Canvas that have no tools at all for design (and when it will have, Silvelight 5 will have real 3D and better tools).
Also the fact to use the same language for client and server is priceless.
Well Silverlight and WPF is "pretty much" the same actually. As you said Silverlight has only a subset of the .NET framework but it doesn't make it "simpler" than WPF.
The biggest leap you will have to make in order to learn those languages is learning XAML, which is the same in both.
It all depends on what you need to do. Do you want to publish your project to the web, then go with silverlight (you can do a XBAP project in WPF to publish it to the web, but clients will need Full .NET Framework). If you need advanced .NET functionnality, then use WPF.
Silverlight first. It is easier to add the extra WPF features than to unlearn things when doing WPF first.
Having said that, it doesn't matter that much. There is more on Silverlight on the web these days.
What kind of applications do you want to write ? Desktop applications that need local access or web based applications ?
If it is a matter of learning, I would learn both in parallel. Keeping your application consistent to run in both run times will force you to learn all of the little differences. Once you get past the main SilverLight features, shift into the features only provided by WPF (though I would start with the libraries likely to be included with SL5, first, such as 3D).
Go with Silverlight first, although it is not as feature rich as WPF it is simpler. Also Microsoft are actively evolving the platform. Silverlight is not a true subset of WPF as it had things like a DataGrid control first.
Good learning resource: http://www.silverlight.net/learn/ together with the Pro Silverlight book which you already have.
The further advantage of starting with Silverlight is that it will be easier to develop for the new Windows phone (broadly it uses an older version of Silverlight).
Learn both at the same time! Not one or the other, but both. There's plenty of overlap between the two technologies which should make it more practical to focus on both at once.
Given the list of new features announced in Silverlight 4, when is WPF still required?
WPF still has a lot fuller 3D rendering capabilities.
Also even though they announced enhancements to the commanding and binding capabilities, that's no guarantee that it will have the full ability that WPF currently has or will have in the next version
Edit: After playing around with Silverlight 4 beta, it looks like pretty much all of the new features (webcam, file access, full screen keyboard, COM interop, etc) only work when the application is elevated trust, and elevated trust can only be enable when running out of browser. Some of this may change by RTW, but for now, WPF still looks like the only way to do these things inside of a browser window
I've been using mostly XBAPs for browser deployments while waiting for a Silverlight version that includes WPF's full templating and data binding capabilities. Perhaps Silverlight 4 will do it.
Several things that Silverlight 4 definitely won't be able to do are:
Allow you to seamlessly integrate your WinForms and MFC user interface components with your application
Efficiently work with data file structures originally defined in C/C++ (with WPF you can simply copy the code across and easily replicate the original C++ code using unsafe and StructLayoutAttribute)
Include unmanaged C++ code in your application
I have not actually downloaded the Silverlight 4 beta yet, so this list is necessarily incomplete.
The next version of Visual Studio will not be written in Silverlight ;) I can't wait to write an Audio utility in WPF---and Silverlight must be sand-boxed away from the incredible Windows Audio subsystem. However, I can see the day when WPF will be called Silverlight (or perhaps the other way around).
When you don't want to depend on a browser to do your work, when you need full and fast access to the file system without prior confirmation, when doing interop with unsafe bits of code. These are the few I can think of, but they might be other reasons as well, depending on what features Silverlight 4 will really have and how well will they really work.
The applications we (in our company) write today use nothing that is not supported by Silverlight except for local TCP/IP connections without limitations.
This is the only reason we are using WPF.
If we could use Silverlight instead (desktop mode) we'd be able to give our customers
the choice of working on Mac (and linux) systems as well instead of being forced (by us?)
to use a recent version of Windows (you'd be surprised how many companies still use old (partially) unsupported versions).
Even in WPF we try to limit access to the system, we create our own sandbox and
try not to go outside of it. (Never require admin rights, never access stuff you don't have to)
So for what we do, Silverlight + real tcp/ip support would be more than enough...
but there is absolutely still room for WPF and I'm pretty sure it's here to stay.
It all depends on what you're building.
Silverlight will always favor small payloads over functionality. Strategically, Microsoft will attempt to out feature Adobe's offerings using Silverlight, while WPF will be competing against other heavy platforms. If you look at WPF 4 you'll notice a push towards heavier weight features. I try to keep in mind that WPF started out as Avalon which was intended to permanently displace Win32. I won't be surprised if one day Windows XX is "native" WPF and Win32 will be emulated.
If you want to do direct database access through ADO.NET that's not something you'll be able to do in Silverlight 4. Access to devices will still be limited although you will now have some printing support and webcam/microphone. I haven't heard anything about 64 bit support so if you want to offer a 64 bit version of your app you'll need WPF. I also think even if Silverlight 4 makes better use of the GPU, it still won't be to the level that WPF utilizes it.
There are also a ton of other assemblies in the .NET framework that Silverlight doesn't include so if you need any of those you'll need to go WPF.
Just like HTML5 will reduce the need for a plugin like Flash or Silverlight in some cases, Silverlight will reduce the need for WPF but there are still plenty of cases where you'll need it.
WPF is still required if you need to do extensive Rich Text (FlowDocument) editing. Silverlight 4 has the new RichTextBox, but it is limited to very basic content, and doesn't provide the full set of features that are available in FlowDocuments in WPF. A FlowDocument can effectively do what the WinForms RichTextBox can do; but if you only need the basics, a RichTextBox in Silveright may do what you need.
The bottom line is that silver light is limiting. So, if you are going to use a less capable technology you should have a compelling reason for doing so. The only one I can come up with, and it is a big one in some circumstances, is that Silverlight is more platform indifferent. I just can't imagine anyone wanting to bring the browser and all of it's headaches into a solution. There must be a good reason.
Is the general advice re windows apps technology to develop in "aim to develop WPF unless you need to drop back to Windows Forms".
I known there are some specific pros/cons for particular scenarios/requirements (e.g. assumptions about what version of .net is available on the desktop) however I'm just after overall general advice. Like is Windows Forms on the way out so, if all else is equal, you should be learning/building in WPF?
SO already has lot of discussion on this issue.
Is it better to use WPF over WinForms?
When is Winforms the correct choice vs. WPF?
Will WinForms be deprecated in favor of WPF?
It depends on lots of factors (even if they all else is equal), in particular presentation. Eg. If you are distributing the interface through citrix, windows forms may be a more robust solution. What about your user base? They may be more familiar with the windows forms controls and would like a "comfortable" familiar interface.
They're just a couple of thoughts.