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Windows native app development is a mess

domenic.me

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Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#91

Post by bob1029 »

HauntingPin wrote: post #23
pjc50 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Winforms is great until you try to make windows dynamically sized, or deal with DPI nicely. In every other regard it's still fine, and for accessibility actually _better_ than many subsequent frameworks. And produces nice small fast executables.

I assume that if Microsoft hadn't abandoned WinForms for the next thing, it would support dynamic sizing and DPI properly. It's mindboggling how much time and effort they've wasted coming up with new GUI frameworks instead of just improving on what they have.

I don't think it's abandoned and it looks like there is a lot of activity around the high DPI concern.

https://github.com/dotnet/winforms/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20sta...

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#92

Post by Conan_Kudo »

rwmj wrote: post #59

This is quite timely as we need to write a simple UI for Windows (a few buttons, status, maybe a file menu). The main constraint is it must compile to a single binary (.exe) with no dependencies such as runtimes, DLLs, languages etc. It also needs to run on some older unsupported Windows systems, probably Windows >= 7, 32 bit. My first thought was MFC. Basic, fast, well understood. But then maybe WxWindows so we can…

> Edit: Some comments mention Qt which could also work although how large is the runtime? Can it be compiled statically?

You need a commercial license for that, but yes you could. But since applications are typically distributed with install bundles that put into application-local program files directories, it's not super-important as long as you only cherry-pick the Qt libraries you need.

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#95

Post by aaomidi »

Sindisil wrote: post #72
aaomidi wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Microsoft themselves use electron to develop apps what expectations can we have on other devs?

To do better? It's demonstrably possible. And further, why does what some portion of Microsoft, a huge, multi-headed beast, does qualify as the bar for what is reasonable for users to expect?

As a user Microsoft is windows and windows is Microsoft.

If doing native apps was realistic then I’d expect windows, Microsoft, etc to also do them.

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#97

Post by odkeidjwidj »

domenicd wrote: post #53
whobre wrote: post #32

Interestingly, no mention of WTL

Ahah, I knew I missed one! I originally had ATL in there, but my proofreading squad (Claude and ChatGPT) told me that ATL was a more niche thing for COM, and looking at the Wikipedia article I was convinced they were right. But WTL was what I was thinking of---the step between the MFC and .NET that I forgot.

> but my proofreading squad (Claude and ChatGPT) told me

With all due respect (seriously): fuck off man

This is why you don’t use these stupid fucking tools for this

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#98

Post by rwmj »

dgxyz wrote: post #75
user____name wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like I'm the only person in the world who would rather write ugly win32 jank for the rest of my days than ever having to touch an "elegant" or "well structured" Cocoa codebase. In win32 if you want a button you call a function and pass a hande, in the Apple world you first subclass 7 interfaces in some unreadable Smalltalk-wannabe syntax and pray you don't need to access the documentation. And of course they c…

After bouncing around GUI toolkits (from win32 to SwiftUI) and web for 30 years I have simply run out of fucks. They all suck. Each in their own unique way. Apple aren't worth singling out - they are just their own special isolated variant of it.

Tcl/Tk is pretty good in terms of rapid development. Unfortunately it has stagnated quite a lot over the years.

Gtk on the other hand is absolutely terrible and its developers don't help by completely rewriting things every few years and breaking all existing code in the process.

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#99

Post by Smalltalker-80 »

Traubenfuchs wrote: post #34
lpcvoid wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter - what Microslop says and what they do are traditionally very distinct things. But in case you want to read yourself: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/03/20/our-com...

"File explorer launch experience" -hard to tell if this is satire…

I did mean these, very recent promises (vaporware at this moment), without satire. https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2026/03/20/our-com...

Re: Windows native app development is a mess

#100

Post by debugnik »

IlikeMadison wrote: post #79
ozim wrote: post #6

That is why everyone even Microsoft themselves does Electron. Running with html/css/js has benefits it really is open and free development based on international standards and not locked into any single big tech.

Electron is the worst thing that happened to quality software. I spoke to two HR guys last year at the company I'm working at and they told me they ditch every single resume mentioning "web technologies" in them. Funny part is when they also told me these "bad" resumes are for the vast majority H1B wannabees.

What's so funny about that? Most electron turds I deal with are American in the first place, they must be trying to appeal to you.
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