WPF would be GUI (XAML)... WCF is for communications between service layer boundaries. For cross-platform C#, would look into GTK# for GUI applications.

There's also Cocoa# if you want a native OSX UI, or can do GTK#. See MonoDevelop for example.

That's right, I get WPF and WCF confused sometimes.. As for a cross-platform GUI with C#, I guess I assumed WinForms was part of the standard library in .NET and thus would be available on other platforms too (i.e. with MonoDevelop). The idea of having to use a different GUI library for a different platform with C# seems strange.. And ideally, I'd think it should always look like a native app (similar to the wxWidgets way of doing things). Nightfox

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On 4/19/2011 1:23 PM, Nightfox wrote:

WPF would be GUI (XAML)... WCF is for communications between service layer >> boundaries. For cross-platform C#, would look into GTK# for GUI
applications.

There's also Cocoa# if you want a native OSX UI, or can do GTK#. See
MonoDevelop for example.

That's right, I get WPF and WCF confused sometimes.. As for a cross-platform GUI with C#, I guess I assumed WinForms was part of the standard library in .NET and thus would be available on other platforms too (i.e. with MonoDevelop). The idea of having to use a different GUI library for a different platform with C# seems strange.. And ideally, I'd think it should always look like a native app (similar to the wxWidgets way of doing things).

Winforms woeks okay in mono, but looks more alien than gtk# tends to, and most gfx extensions are native for windows...

Mainly different libraries are about providing a native look/feel... following an MVC/MVVM pattern helps though... also, winforms, and gtk# work well cross platform... there have been efforts to expose wxWidgets in a .Net binding, but none have really panned out, would probably be worth looking into.

I'd probably just use Air or a web interface myself... though I just tend to lean that way, not too many applications need to be desktop bound imho.

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Re: Re: Visual Studio 2010 MFC dialog designer
By: Tracker1 to Nightfox on Thu Apr 21 2011 21:37:07

I'd probably just use Air or a web interface myself... though I just tend to lean that way, not too many applications need to be desktop bound imho.

I usually tend to lean toward a desktop interface, feeling like not too many apps need to be web-based. :) It feels like web apps are harder to develop due to the nature of HTTP being a stateless protocol, etc.. And you also have to worry about differences in web browser implementations and how they follow standards, etc. And web-based languages like PHP, etc. are harder to develop - AFAIK, there isn't an good way to step through the code line-by-line as it executes. I feel like desktop apps are just faster than web apps, too.

Nightfox

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On 4/22/2011 9:01 AM, Nightfox wrote:

I'd probably just use Air or a web interface myself... though I just tend to >> lean that way, not too many applications need to be desktop bound imho.

I usually tend to lean toward a desktop interface, feeling like not too many apps need to be web-based. :) It feels like web apps are harder to develop due to the nature of HTTP being a stateless protocol, etc.. And you also have
to worry about differences in web browser implementations and how they follow standards, etc. And web-based languages like PHP, etc. are harder to develop -
AFAIK, there isn't an good way to step through the code line-by-line as it executes. I feel like desktop apps are just faster than web apps, too.

There's always ASP.Net MVC (line-by-line debugging, razer view engine, easier JS endpoints)... jQuery handles a lot of the DOM inconsistencies, and the UI work isn't too bad.

Deploying on something that isn't windows (Mono) is a bit of a b*tch though.

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Re: Re: Visual Studio 2010 MFC dialog designer
By: Tracker1 to Nightfox on Fri Apr 22 2011 17:41:43

There's always ASP.Net MVC (line-by-line debugging, razer view engine, easie JS endpoints)... jQuery handles a lot of the DOM inconsistencies, and the UI work isn't too bad.

I suppose that's true.. But then, why develop something as a web app when it can be a desktop app? I guess the reasons aren't so clear to me.. Plus, I tend not to like the fact that web-based apps often feel a little slower because of network latency, and also I don't like the idea of my data being stored on someone else's server (and not knowing what they might do with my data, or that my data is properly protected in case their servers crash, etc.).

Deploying on something that isn't windows (Mono) is a bit of a b*tch though.

That seems a bit ironic, considering that .NET was designed to provide a platform-independent virtual machine, similar to Java. :)

Nightfox


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On 4/22/2011 7:40 PM, Nightfox wrote:

There's always ASP.Net MVC (line-by-line debugging, razer view engine, easie >> JS endpoints)... jQuery handles a lot of the DOM inconsistencies, and the UI >> work isn't too bad.

I suppose that's true.. But then, why develop something as a web app when it can be a desktop app? I guess the reasons aren't so clear to me.. Plus, I tend not to like the fact that web-based apps often feel a little slower because of network latency, and also I don't like the idea of my data being stored on someone else's server (and not knowing what they might do with my data, or that my data is properly protected in case their servers crash, etc.).

Well, if it's multi-user, and stored on a database, or other server data store, a web-app makes sense, easier to keep updated/deployed, especially the more people that need access. I've worked on more widely used intranet applications than public-facing stuff though.

Deploying on something that isn't windows (Mono) is a bit of a b*tch though.

That seems a bit ironic, considering that .NET was designed to provide a platform-independent virtual machine, similar to Java. :)

I was actually meaning ASP.Net (WebForms or MVC)... as configuring mono under Apache, nginx etc is a bit of a pain... desktop apps are far easier, as long as they're tested for the environment (Linux, OSX over Windows).

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