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Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
11–20 of 107 posts
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#12Delphi is probably the best, but I can't afford it. Lazarus is pretty good, except for the documentation, which needs a huge refactoring effort. You can put together small applications in minutes.
I had no idea Delphi was even still around.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#13I am using Avalonia. If I were doing windows only I might use MAUI or WPF or something but afaik they are pretty similar, and I want it to be cross platform on mac.
The interface of the app is C#, the core is in CPP (I am tempted to use Zig but haven't worked with it enough to commit to it yet).
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#14Looks like MFC is still a thing.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#15Without more details, this is the way to get the most native Windows 11 look and feel: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/winui/winui3/ Disclosure: I work at Microsoft on a team that works on visual look and feel for Windows.
I tried writing an app using WinUI a few months ago and the widgets that it has are decent, but there are some major gaps compared to older Windows UI frameworks and Cocoa. The one that stands out most is its lack of a proper tableview/datagrid (think NSTableView in Cocoa). I know about the community widget but it doesn’t feel right to have to pull in a third party library for something so elementary.
The look and feel is great though, Win11 is a nice step up from 8/10 in that department. So good to have depth, curves, transparency, etc back again.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#16Delphi is probably the best, but I can't afford it. Lazarus is pretty good, except for the documentation, which needs a huge refactoring effort. You can put together small applications in minutes.
Delphi was quite good at Windows application development last time I used it, probably 2010. I'd probably stay away if you ever need to maintain it or hire people to use it. There's value in using a popular language with staying power.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#17[aardio](https://aardio.com/)
I have been using aardio to develop desktop software for more than 4 years. I have developed many software. It is designed specifically for Windows desktop.
- Based on the syntax of Lua and JS, if you have one of these 2 foundations, you can get started in 1 hour. - Comes with an IDE, developing, compiling, debugging, rich standard libraries and sample code. - Support WYSIWYG UI control drag-and-drop. - Supports WebView2 and native development mixed - Support the use of Python, Go, C#, etc., can be used as a glue language. - The size of the packaged file is very small - The IDE and tutorials, documentation, and IntelliSense are only available in Chinese, but by using translation, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. For experienced programmers, it is easy to understand.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#18Electr..HEY...[gets beaten to a bloody pulp]
Your nerd card has been revoked.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#19Delphi is probably the best, but I can't afford it. Lazarus is pretty good, except for the documentation, which needs a huge refactoring effort. You can put together small applications in minutes.
What does the free personal version of Delphi not give you?
There is no "free" version, only a "if you make less than $X" version, which is a huge red flag for me.
Lazarus is free, but due to the way their help files are build, incremental improvements in it are impossible, so it's just a list of arguments for functions, with no real explanations.
Re: Ask HN: What is the best way to build a desktop app in Windows in 2023?
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
What does the free personal version of Delphi not give you?
There is no "free" version, only a "if you make less than $X" version, which is a huge red flag for me. Lazarus is free, but due to the way their help files are build, incremental improvements in it are impossible, so it's just a list of arguments for functions, with no real explanations.
Ah, interesting. $5000 isn’t a lot for professional software developers but could be fine for hobby projects I guess. $1300 for the professional version is a steep price jump from $0