Win Forms, WPF, WinUI 3
-
Okay, I don't think this is a rant, but there may be some ranting. I've been a developer for a very very long time (I won't say how long, but let's just say I used to use Borland OWL). I understand that languages and libraries progress, morph, and change over time. That is natural. However, being someone that came from the days where you can drag a button onto a window, double click it and add the code (Forms), and when you want to modify it, you just do it in the editor, to this last application I am making using WinUI 3, which I find painful to make. Is it just me, or have we taken a massive step backwards? Not having a GUI editor for making GUIs, and then having to download an application (WinUI 3 Examples) that shows how components and code need added, is just stupid to me. Not to mention that when you use panels, stack panels, grids and all that in XML, and then you realize you have to introduce another set of controls into an existing GUI....and see that it takes like hours of rework to get it not to be a mess again...WTF? Why are we moving in this direction? Not to mention, WinUI 3 seems wonky and lacking in performance relative the predecessors. So, my general question is... Why does WinUI 3 bring to the table that is so good that you would abandon the ability to have a GUI editor, and hand jam everything in. This is no better than the first days of windows when we all had to make GUIs by editing the resource files. So again. Why is Windows Forms falling out of favor, Why is WPF even being replaced by something that seems more obtuse? I am going to build another App soon, and I would like someone to tell me why Windows Forms is not a good choice over WinUI 3.... Anyone? Thanks.
-
Okay, I don't think this is a rant, but there may be some ranting. I've been a developer for a very very long time (I won't say how long, but let's just say I used to use Borland OWL). I understand that languages and libraries progress, morph, and change over time. That is natural. However, being someone that came from the days where you can drag a button onto a window, double click it and add the code (Forms), and when you want to modify it, you just do it in the editor, to this last application I am making using WinUI 3, which I find painful to make. Is it just me, or have we taken a massive step backwards? Not having a GUI editor for making GUIs, and then having to download an application (WinUI 3 Examples) that shows how components and code need added, is just stupid to me. Not to mention that when you use panels, stack panels, grids and all that in XML, and then you realize you have to introduce another set of controls into an existing GUI....and see that it takes like hours of rework to get it not to be a mess again...WTF? Why are we moving in this direction? Not to mention, WinUI 3 seems wonky and lacking in performance relative the predecessors. So, my general question is... Why does WinUI 3 bring to the table that is so good that you would abandon the ability to have a GUI editor, and hand jam everything in. This is no better than the first days of windows when we all had to make GUIs by editing the resource files. So again. Why is Windows Forms falling out of favor, Why is WPF even being replaced by something that seems more obtuse? I am going to build another App soon, and I would like someone to tell me why Windows Forms is not a good choice over WinUI 3.... Anyone? Thanks.
I develop in WPF and (mainly) UWP. I have developed in Windows Forms. WinUI2 and WinUI3 look very similar to me. I use WinUI2 in UWP via a "using" to get some extra features that don't stand out in my mind at the moment. To use WinUI3, I have to do something I can't be bothered with for now. I use the Visual Studio "GUI editor" in any case; prefering to work in XAML directly. XAML (and UWP) is more "fun" for me than the alternatives. My app also "fits" on "mobile", tablet, PC, XBox and can run on ARM. My second choice would be WPF. But you can do a lot with (any) .EXE these days.
"Before entering on an understanding, I have meditated for a long time, and have foreseen what might happen. It is not genius which reveals to me suddenly, secretly, what I have to say or to do in a circumstance unexpected by other people; it is reflection, it is meditation." - Napoleon I
-
Okay, I don't think this is a rant, but there may be some ranting. I've been a developer for a very very long time (I won't say how long, but let's just say I used to use Borland OWL). I understand that languages and libraries progress, morph, and change over time. That is natural. However, being someone that came from the days where you can drag a button onto a window, double click it and add the code (Forms), and when you want to modify it, you just do it in the editor, to this last application I am making using WinUI 3, which I find painful to make. Is it just me, or have we taken a massive step backwards? Not having a GUI editor for making GUIs, and then having to download an application (WinUI 3 Examples) that shows how components and code need added, is just stupid to me. Not to mention that when you use panels, stack panels, grids and all that in XML, and then you realize you have to introduce another set of controls into an existing GUI....and see that it takes like hours of rework to get it not to be a mess again...WTF? Why are we moving in this direction? Not to mention, WinUI 3 seems wonky and lacking in performance relative the predecessors. So, my general question is... Why does WinUI 3 bring to the table that is so good that you would abandon the ability to have a GUI editor, and hand jam everything in. This is no better than the first days of windows when we all had to make GUIs by editing the resource files. So again. Why is Windows Forms falling out of favor, Why is WPF even being replaced by something that seems more obtuse? I am going to build another App soon, and I would like someone to tell me why Windows Forms is not a good choice over WinUI 3.... Anyone? Thanks.
I started programming before OWL existed (my first IDE was Turbo Pascal for CP/M on an Apple //e back in the early 80's). I went through Pascal (OWL), C++ (MFC), and then C# (WinForms, and currently WPF). I refuse to code for WinUI, simply because I have no desire to learn it. It took me a while to accept WPF (and I fought it HARD), but I find it easy to do (easier than WinForms in a lot of ways). I do all of my design work in the XAML editor (you can drag from the Toolbox pane to the XAML to get a new control on the page, and intellisense guides you when you start changing properties in the XAML, so it's not TOO bad). After two years away from desktop apps, I spent the last weekend doing a WPF version (proof of concept) of our web app from work, and the hardest part was making the app allow the user to adjust font size with Ctrl+ and Ctrl- like a web browser (we have to comply with Section 508 by allowing the font in an application to be increased by up to 200%). A few years ago, I wrote a custom message box library that allows the developer to specify text size and custom colors (among other features), and with a little tweaking, my message boxes use the increased font size.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010
-----
You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010
-----
When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
