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  3. People here using WinForms in .NET Core?

People here using WinForms in .NET Core?

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  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

    I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

    D Offline
    D Offline
    dandy72
    wrote on last edited by
    #6

    I still haven't made the jump to .NET Core, and I've been telling myself I won't do that until WinForms is there and ready and usable. Your post tells me I made the right decision.

    1 Reply Last reply
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    • M Marc Clifton

      Nope. For someone (as in moi) that was admittedly anti-web a few years ago, I pretty much write everything as a web app nowadays, even small utilities. Crazy.

      Sander Rossel wrote:

      Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core.

      You're brave :)

      Latest Articles:
      DivWindow: Size, drag, minimize, and maximize floating windows with layout persistence

      R Offline
      R Offline
      Rich Shealer
      wrote on last edited by
      #7

      This is a serious question. If you make small utilities as web apps, doesn't that mean you have to have access to a web server? I do a lot of WinForms tools, and it seems that getting a web service installed on a customer's server is a hurdle I've never tried to jump for small things. I may be missing something important though.

      Sander RosselS M 2 Replies Last reply
      0
      • M Marc Clifton

        Nope. For someone (as in moi) that was admittedly anti-web a few years ago, I pretty much write everything as a web app nowadays, even small utilities. Crazy.

        Sander Rossel wrote:

        Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core.

        You're brave :)

        Latest Articles:
        DivWindow: Size, drag, minimize, and maximize floating windows with layout persistence

        R Offline
        R Offline
        Rich Shealer
        wrote on last edited by
        #8

        This is a serious question. If you make small utilities as web apps, doesn't that mean you have to have access to a web server? I do a lot of WinForms tools, and it seems that getting a web service installed on a customer's server is a hurdle I've never tried to jump for small things. I may be missing something important though.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

          I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

          Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

          B Offline
          B Offline
          BillWoodruff
          wrote on last edited by
          #9

          Sander Rossel wrote:

          I thought Microsoft released a stable version,

          The MS teams that are throwing out preview this and preview that ... Web this and WebApp that, Maui this and Xamarin that ... imho, none of the stuff is usable, or reliable. i think there's some kind of "publish or perish" culture-thing at play ... sacrifice of quality for flag-hoisting.

          «The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch

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          • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

            I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

            Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

            L Offline
            L Offline
            Lost User
            wrote on last edited by
            #10

            Use the WinAPI and the old common controls. It be fast and predictive.

            Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

            B 1 Reply Last reply
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            • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

              I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

              Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

              S Offline
              S Offline
              Super Lloyd
              wrote on last edited by
              #11

              I spent a whooping 10 minute with WinForm on .NET 5... It all seem to work fine.... That was just out of curiosity, using WPF. As a side note, if by .NET Core you mean .NETCore 3.1 or less, that might be the reason why. It was not yet fully supported by then. Try again with .NET 5!

              A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!

              Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                R Offline
                R Offline
                Rene Balvert
                wrote on last edited by
                #12

                I jumped in on .Net 1.1 and in .Net 3.5 I would say the baby was born :-) As it is a small tool I would stay in WinForm, for major developments chose a different stack. Rene

                Sander RosselS 1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                  I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                  Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                  P Offline
                  P Offline
                  Private Dobbs
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #13

                  I have a small utility for reading log files from Azure blob space, all works as expected. I had no particular problems but it's a single window very simple application.

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                  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                    I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                    S Offline
                    S Offline
                    Stefan_Lang
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #14

                    I've used .Net to open and read from an excel file and also suffered some crashes until I made it work. The main problem was (AFAICT) that once you create an Excel instance, it becomes a sink for input events, and if any other thread in your application also eats Windows events, this can lead to conflicts. I solved these problems by opening the sheet, reading whatever I needed into a data structure, and immediately closing it again. I. e. not just closing the excel file, but also the excel application instance! Put all that into a try ... catch block and you're golden.

                    GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)

                    Sander RosselS F 2 Replies Last reply
                    0
                    • S Stefan_Lang

                      I've used .Net to open and read from an excel file and also suffered some crashes until I made it work. The main problem was (AFAICT) that once you create an Excel instance, it becomes a sink for input events, and if any other thread in your application also eats Windows events, this can lead to conflicts. I solved these problems by opening the sheet, reading whatever I needed into a data structure, and immediately closing it again. I. e. not just closing the excel file, but also the excel application instance! Put all that into a try ... catch block and you're golden.

                      GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)

                      Sander RosselS Offline
                      Sander RosselS Offline
                      Sander Rossel
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #15

                      I'm using Spreadsheetlight for this, so I have none of those issues :D

                      Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

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                      • R Rene Balvert

                        I jumped in on .Net 1.1 and in .Net 3.5 I would say the baby was born :-) As it is a small tool I would stay in WinForm, for major developments chose a different stack. Rene

                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander RosselS Offline
                        Sander Rossel
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #16

                        Yeah, mainly doing WinForms as I have no hosting, nor does this party have hosting or money for it. So a good old desktop application it is, and WinForms is still the simplest IMHO :D

                        Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • S Super Lloyd

                          I spent a whooping 10 minute with WinForm on .NET 5... It all seem to work fine.... That was just out of curiosity, using WPF. As a side note, if by .NET Core you mean .NETCore 3.1 or less, that might be the reason why. It was not yet fully supported by then. Try again with .NET 5!

                          A new .NET Serializer All in one Menu-Ribbon Bar Taking over the world since 1371!

                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander RosselS Offline
                          Sander Rossel
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #17

                          Super Lloyd wrote:

                          As a side note, if by .NET Core you mean .NETCore 3.1 or less, that might be the reason why. It was not yet fully supported by then. Try again with .NET 5!

                          This may the reason! I'm on .NET Core 3.1. I thought WinForms Core was already LTS, which would mean .NET Core 3.1 as .NET 5 isn't LTS :-O Doesn't matter anymore though, switched to .NET Framework as I needed a library that was incompatible with .NET Core :sigh:

                          Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                          O 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • R Rich Shealer

                            This is a serious question. If you make small utilities as web apps, doesn't that mean you have to have access to a web server? I do a lot of WinForms tools, and it seems that getting a web service installed on a customer's server is a hurdle I've never tried to jump for small things. I may be missing something important though.

                            Sander RosselS Offline
                            Sander RosselS Offline
                            Sander Rossel
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #18

                            You're right, although once you have access to a web server and deploy automatically using CI/CD, adding an extra service is not so difficult anymore. If it's a small utility for your own purposes, I guess you could run it directly from Visual Studio (which is what I do with some stuff).

                            Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • S Stefan_Lang

                              I've used .Net to open and read from an excel file and also suffered some crashes until I made it work. The main problem was (AFAICT) that once you create an Excel instance, it becomes a sink for input events, and if any other thread in your application also eats Windows events, this can lead to conflicts. I solved these problems by opening the sheet, reading whatever I needed into a data structure, and immediately closing it again. I. e. not just closing the excel file, but also the excel application instance! Put all that into a try ... catch block and you're golden.

                              GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)

                              F Offline
                              F Offline
                              frontlinegeek
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #19

                              In the team I work in, we always pull all the data out of files into memory and close the file out. We also avoid using an external app to pull the data, so in this case, we would use ACE or INTEROP to rip the data directly from the spreadsheet, close the file and then do whatever else it is we would need or want to do.

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                              0
                              • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                                Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                G Offline
                                G Offline
                                gervacleto
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #20

                                I have some programs I made in NET Framework. Some have 180,000+ lines of code, including "in-house" controls, PDF generator and "visor", intensive graphics and lots of forms and controls. I compiled the DLLs having the in-house controls in NET 5.0 without changes. Then I linked them to my programs and compile everything. 2 or 3 errors in calls not supported yet by NET Core, that I must rewrite and after that, everything worked OK. No Visual Studio crashes, no problems, no hidden controls... I do not know what could be wrong with your program.

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                                • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                  I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                                  Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                  S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  Slacker007
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #21

                                  Not sure if you know about this, but our shop uses this assembly to read/write excel files. it handles .xls and .xlsx NuGet Gallery NPOI 2.5.4[^]

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                    I have to make a little application, read an Excel spreadsheet, create some PDF files and send some emails. Thought I'd check out the new WinForms in .NET Core. I thought Microsoft released a stable version, but constant crashes, weird behavior and simply unsupported basic functionality determined that was a lie... X| Visual Studio just crashed so hard I had kill all instances in the task manager because the default "the application crashed you may close it" dialog crashed as well, and VS crashed because it hit a breakpoint... :| Third crash to desktop in about two hours time, not counting the times I had to restart to fix some off behavior :thumbsup:

                                    Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

                                    E Offline
                                    E Offline
                                    Eric Johnson 2021
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #22

                                    I would use .NET Framework instead. Besides the issues you mentioned, I discovered the hard way that .NET Core didn't even allow me to view the Tab Order function. Once I switched to Framework, I was better off. Your results may vary, but I'd say it's worth a shot.

                                    D 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • E Eric Johnson 2021

                                      I would use .NET Framework instead. Besides the issues you mentioned, I discovered the hard way that .NET Core didn't even allow me to view the Tab Order function. Once I switched to Framework, I was better off. Your results may vary, but I'd say it's worth a shot.

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                                      David Carta
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #23

                                      I spent a week building out a fairly small Forms application in .NET core (in VB no less!). While I was able to make it work, I decided after the first week to transition back to Framework for the following reasons: 1. Speed of design - I'm not sure why, but the GUI design is dog-slow for CORE - probably 4x faster in Framework. 2. Build was much slower 3. I could never get my.settings variables to work correctly (seemed to be a known issue) 4. An unreasonable number of IDE crashes or freezes 5. LOTS of little things that just didn't work as expected. My suggestion is to stick with Framework for at least another year. Let people with lots of free time and patience deal with Microsoft bugs.


                                      "Qulatiy is Job #1"

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                                      • Sander RosselS Sander Rossel

                                        Super Lloyd wrote:

                                        As a side note, if by .NET Core you mean .NETCore 3.1 or less, that might be the reason why. It was not yet fully supported by then. Try again with .NET 5!

                                        This may the reason! I'm on .NET Core 3.1. I thought WinForms Core was already LTS, which would mean .NET Core 3.1 as .NET 5 isn't LTS :-O Doesn't matter anymore though, switched to .NET Framework as I needed a library that was incompatible with .NET Core :sigh:

                                        Best, Sander Azure DevOps Succinctly (free eBook) Azure Serverless Succinctly (free eBook) Migrating Apps to the Cloud with Azure arrgh.js - Bringing LINQ to JavaScript

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                                        O Offline
                                        OkieDan
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #24

                                        Control binding isn't working in .Net 5 last I checked (recently). I'd recommend testing. Net 6 Nov 9th and avoid .Net 5 for winforms.

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                                        • L Lost User

                                          Use the WinAPI and the old common controls. It be fast and predictive.

                                          Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: "If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.

                                          B Offline
                                          B Offline
                                          BillWoodruff
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #25

                                          Hi Eddie, for you and i, and, other WinForm "veterans:" i wonder if they are "common" because we have long ago learned their quirks, and work-arounds for their limits. Speaking from my experience teaching bright, mature, students C# and WinForm UI skills, i observe there is a steep initial learning curve. Watching students wrestle with the DataGridView reminds me how i've forgotten how overwhelming its ginormous number pf properties were to me. i find little consistency in how the classic controls evolved from their origins in COM into VB%, and then C# WinForms. When WPF came along, i had high hopes for its controls, but, i just could not get into it. On the upside (?) ... the deficit in native controls imho created a commercial opportunity for 3rd. parties to thrive. My favorite WinForms 3rd. party controls remain the ones from Lidor Systems, the IntegralUI Suite, which i purchased with source code: they are visually beautiful and performant ... of course, i can't compare them with the much more expensive suites from Telerik, and DevXpress, etc., that i have never tried

                                          «The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch

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