C#•4mo ago

✅ Should I use WinForms or WPF for my Windows x32 projects?

I'm an absolute beginner with .Net, VS and C#, but I've a long experience with Delphi and Windows development. So now I'm very excited with this new adventure in C#, but I'm kinda confused about what technology should I use for my Windows project... WPF or WinForms? I feel that WinForms could be the best choice. I only develop Windows native software. Thank you in advance for your help.

22 Replies

leowest•4mo ago

WPF would definitively be my take here then WPF has been around for over 13+ years, it literally have documentation, tutorial and hacks to cover any issues u may encounter on top of that u have some cool $wpfuilibs to make your app looks nice out of the box without having to go around making your own controls

MODiX•4mo ago

MahApps https://github.com/MahApps/MahApps.Metro ModernWPF https://github.com/Kinnara/ModernWpf Adonis UI https://github.com/benruehl/adonis-ui Material Design https://github.com/MaterialDesignInXAML/MaterialDesignInXamlToolkit Biaui https://github.com/YoshihiroIto/Biaui HandyControl https://github.com/HandyOrg/HandyControl WPFUI (Windows 11 inspired) https://github.com/lepoco/wpfui Waves (WPF/Avalonia/More) https://github.com/waves-framework/waves.ui.wpf

leowest•4mo ago

now if u want to stretch it to linux, you have Avalonia that is similar to WPF

Silver Black•4mo ago

WOW, ok thank you. From Microsoft tutorials here I thought this was the most similar to Delphi: https://learn.microsoft.com/it-it/visualstudio/get-started/csharp/tutorial-windows-forms-picture-viewer-code?view=vs-2022&tabs=csharp (it's in Italian page, sorry)

Esercitazione: Aggiungere controlli dell'interfaccia utente a un'ap...

Aggiungere controlli dell'interfaccia utente per una casella di immagini, una casella di controllo e elementi del pulsante a un'applicazione WinForms visualizzatore immagini con Visual Studio.

Silver Black•4mo ago

What they explained seemed to me exactly what I was looking for. But form what you wrote I think I was wrong...

leowest•4mo ago

winforms is easy to moc and get things done but whenever u want more complex things its a nightmare While in WPF for example:

<Grid>
    <Button Content="Click Me" Click="Button_Click"/>
</Grid>

<Grid>
    <Button Content="Click Me" Click="Button_Click"/>
</Grid>

Then on the code behind u would have

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{

}

private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{

}

the above would be WPF you write your UI in xaml which is similar to xml so the only real difference is that with WPF u would be writing your controls in xml whereas in winforms u would be drag and dropping it from the toolbox for basic things that is

Silver Black•4mo ago

Ok, now I'm starting to get it. And yes, WinForms with all the drag&drop to create GUIs is the Delphi way, that's why I was interested in that!

leowest•4mo ago

also winforms use GDI while WPF uses DirectX looks like it wasn't even a question I guess more of I want to winforms, period 😛 well if u decide to try WPF I strongly recommend you do

Silver Black•4mo ago

No no, it is a QUESTION! Because I'm starting now with C# and I want to do it the right way.

leowest•4mo ago

With WPF you can do MVVM which helps a lot presenting your data to your view etc so there is a lot of things to facilitate it the benefit of learning XAML is also big sine its what new microsoft technologies use as well as Avalonia

Silver Black•4mo ago

So even though I develop native Windows applications, system utilities, etc. do you suggest me to use WPF?

leowest•4mo ago

yeah WPF is windows only UWP and WinUI3 are also windows only (these are also window only, except UWP works on xbox as well) MAUI is the crossplatform ui for microsoft unhappily it doesn't support linux all they have in common is that they use a flavor of XAML and Avalonia is a open source UI Framework that works on mobile, linux and web that looks very similar to WPF and have their flavor of XAML called AXAML and its overall very close to WPF in terms of dev

Silver Black•4mo ago

And what about WinUI3? Should I use this? Does it use XAML too?

leowest•4mo ago

Winui3 is very new so I would not advise u to use it now yes it uses slightly different flavor of XAML its just minor changes so learning WPF u will pretty much know how to use the other flavors as they dont differ that much

Silver Black•4mo ago

Oh, ok. So I think I will start learning WPF.

leowest•4mo ago

it might be a bit overwhelming at first but do give it some hours of try and anything #gui

Silver Black•4mo ago

Thank you mate! Your advice is precious.

leowest•4mo ago

you're welcome $close

MODiX•4mo ago

Use the /close command to mark a forum thread as answered

Silver Black•4mo ago

And what about APIs? Can I use them in WPF?

leowest•4mo ago

as in what? calling some web api? or are u talking about win32 api well you can use both regardless of it being wpf or console app if you're talking about web API u would be using HttpClient or a library if u prefer that would do the calls to the api and give u the result so u can use if you're talking about win32 api then u need some extra steps to define the signtura so you can then call it for example if I want to bring a app to front using the windows api SetForegroundWindow

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("processname");
SetForegroundWindow(processes[0].MainWindowHandle);

[DllImport("user32.dll")]
static extern bool SetForegroundWindow(IntPtr hWnd);

Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName("processname");
SetForegroundWindow(processes[0].MainWindowHandle);

Silver Black•4mo ago

Yes, the Win32 API. Ok, it's like Delphi with slightly different sintax.

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✅ Should I use WinForms or WPF for my Windows x32 projects?