.NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI • Hacker News Board

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#21

Post by aidenn0 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:49 PM UTC

tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Any direct experiences using this? I've been looking for a good multiplatform UI for desktop that does Mac/Linux/Windows. Mobile is a nice side benefit. It would be nice to use C# again No, I'm not interested in Electron. Blegh.

IMO, Tk is by far the best for targeting multiplatform desktop. Qt is a close second and Gtk is "sticks out like a sore thumb, but works"

I don't think Tk runs on iOS, which is why Tk is usually disqualified in "multiplatform" recommendations

MAUI and Xamarin.Forms both have "okay" linux support last time I checked.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#22

Post by octopoc » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:50 PM UTC

nxc18 wrote: post #19

wvenable wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! But also with desktop targets instead of just mobile targets.

Xamarin.Forms also had desktop targets, including WPF and UWP, although I think only UWP was officially supported. Support is perhaps too strong a word...

Yes, but this time:

- They're going to support MVVM and MVU (MVU is similar to JSX with React).

- You'll be able to target all these platforms from a single C# project. With .NET 5 and earlier, Xamarin required you to have a separate project for each target. This will result in a simpler codebase.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#23

Post by Mertax » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:51 PM UTC

ghuntley wrote: post #9

wvenable wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! But also with desktop targets instead of just mobile targets.

Xamarin Forms was not good tech.... :-)

Hopefully a chance for them to take what they learned through years of experience and cut away from the cruft/technical debt that built up with Xamarin.Forms.

I think there is potential for redemption here -- although I do worry the native widget binding approach still comes with a lot of friction that adds unavoidable complexity. However, Maui's new "handler" pattern for native widgets seems like it could be adapted to support Skia/manually rendered widgets if someone wanted to invest in that non-trivial effort.

From my experience the native widget binding is both the strength and the weakness of the approach. You get to take advantage of battle tested native controls that are fully featured. But if the platforms don't have enough similarity between them to create a cohesive interface then you're battling multiple platforms trying to take advantage of the native features layered in another opinionated model that sometimes can be detrimental to the native performance you're hoping to leverage.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#24

Post by ipsum2 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:53 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #18

tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Any direct experiences using this? I've been looking for a good multiplatform UI for desktop that does Mac/Linux/Windows. Mobile is a nice side benefit. It would be nice to use C# again No, I'm not interested in Electron. Blegh.

Have you looked Flutter? It is mobile-first, but does native desktop applications as well. Very battle tested and natively compiled fast code.

> Very battle tested

Desktop support is very new and still in beta: https://flutter.dev/desktop

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#25

Post by alskdj21 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:54 PM UTC

How likely will it be that F# is supported out of the box?

I understand that this is a push for mobile but hopefully a linux support will be considered.

https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/forms-gtk-progress/issues/31

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#26

Post by airstrike » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:56 PM UTC

alskdj21 wrote: post #25

How likely will it be that F# is supported out of the box? I understand that this is a push for mobile but hopefully a linux support will be considered. https://github.com/jsuarezruiz/forms-gtk-progress/issues/31

+1. F# deserves a lot more love

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#27

Post by alskdj21 » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #18

tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Any direct experiences using this? I've been looking for a good multiplatform UI for desktop that does Mac/Linux/Windows. Mobile is a nice side benefit. It would be nice to use C# again No, I'm not interested in Electron. Blegh.

Have you looked Flutter? It is mobile-first, but does native desktop applications as well. Very battle tested and natively compiled fast code.

I don't see the hate around Flutter here on HN. Yes, it's Google, it's bound(?) to die. But for now, people are productive with it.

> battle tested

Desktop support is far from the ideal situation(alpha). As far as I'm aware, the iOS jank is still an issue.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#28

Post by bitwize » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 10:59 PM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #21

tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Any direct experiences using this? I've been looking for a good multiplatform UI for desktop that does Mac/Linux/Windows. Mobile is a nice side benefit. It would be nice to use C# again No, I'm not interested in Electron. Blegh.

IMO, Tk is by far the best for targeting multiplatform desktop. Qt is a close second and Gtk is "sticks out like a sore thumb, but works" I don't think Tk runs on iOS, which is why Tk is usually disqualified in "multiplatform" recommendations MAUI and Xamarin.Forms both have "okay" linux support last time I checked.

Tk also looks like ass in today's environment of ｍｏｄｅｒｎ apps with their abundance of white space and dearth of affordance. Your Windows 9x-like Tk app will stick out like a sore thumb.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#29

Post by eggy » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 11:02 PM UTC

miohtama wrote: post #18

tomc1985 wrote: post #2

Any direct experiences using this? I've been looking for a good multiplatform UI for desktop that does Mac/Linux/Windows. Mobile is a nice side benefit. It would be nice to use C# again No, I'm not interested in Electron. Blegh.

Have you looked Flutter? It is mobile-first, but does native desktop applications as well. Very battle tested and natively compiled fast code.

I prefer C#/F# over Dart, but Flutter is promising, and I continue to check in once and a while. I usually overcome PL preferences when the platform or toolkit is compelling. I remember Notch (of Minecraft fame) adopted Dart very early on, and I actually tried it out back then. Somebody had written a Lisp in Dart. I really like F#, and it seems to be sidelined all the time with .NET. There are more and more ways to write C# in a functional way, and it has become the lingua franca of many game engine/3D media creation tools like Unity, Wave Engine, Flax, and Stride to name a few.

Re: .NET MAUI: .NET Multi-Platform App UI

#30

Post by vyrotek » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 11:04 PM UTC

I'm an absolute huge fan of all things .NET but I'm honestly a little hesitant about MAUI for now. Just feels a little early and duct-tapped? I also had a poor experience with Xamarin years ago...

Flutter is such a good experience for us right now. I'd love "Flutter but in C#" which I think is what they want to do with Xamarin.Forms. Is it ready?