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Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

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Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#91

Post by hacker_9 »

j_s wrote: post #83
hacker_9 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DOM interaction and Garbage Collectors are still a heavy research topic within the WebAssembly community, and aren't part of the MVP [1]. Plus MS would need to create a custom C# -> WASM compiler as they don't use LLVM internally. All this means you are probably going to be waiting at least another 5 years before you can compile .Net GUI apps straight to the web. [1] http://webassembly.org/docs/future-features/

> C# -> WASM compiler https://github.com/kg/ilwasm/ [2015] Unfortunately, more proof of concept than anything

No doubt you'll find lots of attempts on github, but no business will touch it unless it's an offical compiler with Microsoft's backing, who continue to release updates and provide support for it.

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#92

Post by hacker_9 »

manilafolder wrote: post #89
lwansbrough wrote: post #20

I think this highlights the need for Microsoft to open source Edge’s new rendering engine. I’d love to be able to use the renderer in .NET Core for a whole host of applications (including rendering dynamic HTML to OpenGL) but unfortunately EdgeHTML has remained closed source! With many components of the .NET stack being open sourced, and even some of the Edge stack, I had high hopes for seeing the rendering engine op…

Regarding native cross-platform UI frameworks, isn't this what Xwt is supposed to be ( https://github.com/mono/xwt )? There's no XAML non-sense and it's an object-oriented approach to building your UI, similar to Windows.Forms. The primary benefit to it over something browser-based is start-up time. Since it's ultimately using native assemblies and there's no web server that needs to be spun up causing start-time lag…

Not XWT, but it's worth checking out Eto.Forms as it's very robust, uses native components, and you can build UIs using straight C#.

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#93

Post by rpeden »

bsaul wrote: post #47
pjmlp wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the latest Windows Developer Day, Xamarin.Forms is that framework in what concerns Microsoft. As for the rest, sorry for being so blunt, but it is just not wanting to learn. We we were writing applications across multiple OS and hardware architectures for ages now. It is easy, no, as it requires actually putting some effort into a proper architecture and OS/hardware abstractions, but it is surely doable.…

"It feels like devs now want to write apps without spending any real effort on them." I think what people are fed up with, is to spend effort learning the "method du jour" of putting a button on a screen and updating the view on a click. This is pretty much a solved problem, and has been since MVC was invented in the 70s (not saying it's perfect, but it does the job). So there should be an easy an portable way of doi…

If you use Qt and QML, you can write most (or all) of your application using JavaScript.

I was experimenting a few weeks back, and was able to put together a Hacker News reader app using only JavaScript and QML.

Granted, it was a fairly simple app; but once I knew what I was doing, the QML/JS combo didn't feel any slower to develop with than the React-based web stack I'm familiar with.

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#94

Post by roryisok »

cm2187 wrote: post #26
roryisok wrote: post #12

I was really excited when I saw this because I thought someone had finally brought us a .net alternative to electron, using xaml. Unfortunately this seems to be electron but with a .net webapp running in the background? You still need node and webkit for the UI it seems. If that's what this is, it was already possible to do with edge.js and electron so I'm not sure what advantage there is here.

Agree. To me the solution will be webassembly. I entertain the hope that there will be a .net runtime for webassembly, in which case you will be able to write a full cross platform application without having to write a line of JavaScript. Won’t be XAML+.net but will be HTML+.net.

Even web assembly would still require a full webkit / browser instance though. UWP or WPF apps that run XAML don't have a browser instance (unless they use webview) and the memory footprint is much much lower than the equivalent electron app. I'd like to see cross platform xaml so I can build a .net core app with a GUI that will run on Mac or Linux.

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#95

Post by CodeCube »

roryisok wrote: post #12

I was really excited when I saw this because I thought someone had finally brought us a .net alternative to electron, using xaml. Unfortunately this seems to be electron but with a .net webapp running in the background? You still need node and webkit for the UI it seems. If that's what this is, it was already possible to do with edge.js and electron so I'm not sure what advantage there is here.

https://www.xamarin.com/forms

Mac desktop support is in preview (https://blog.xamarin.com/preview-bringing-macos-to-xamarin-f...), and Linux and WPF backends are in development. So ... almost there!

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#96

Post by steveklabnik »

lwansbrough wrote: post #68
hacker_9 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This would allow any components built in any language to interface and work together using a common protocol No it wouldn't? How would a C++ app run my managed control built in C#? Or my JS page run components written in Rust, Java and Clojure? Unless you are expecting all of the runtimes to be bundled with the app/page too, in which case good luck with your file size and startup time...

This is obviously true. That being said, it would enable opportunities for developers to use controls where a bridge can be made. For example, if your C# library can be made into a Windows Runtime component then it could be run by C++, and I'm sure there are other ways of running C# code in C++ as well. JS would obviously be limited - it would be as limited as it ever has been. It won't be long before one can write R…

You can already compile Rust to webassembly today!

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#97

Post by rippsu »

alkonaut wrote: post #21

Can't we just make a proper, easy to use portable desktop application framework please? I really don't care what language is used so log as JS is avoidable (It can still be a compilation target so it could even be JS), and I can make a snappy desktop app that takes 10 not 100mb. I'm not even sure which one I'm hoping for at the moment. Xamarin seems to have bet fully on mobile. Avalonia looks nice but feels like it w…

try Qt

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#98

Post by jagger27 »

ttd wrote: post #78
alkonaut wrote: post #21

Can't we just make a proper, easy to use portable desktop application framework please? I really don't care what language is used so log as JS is avoidable (It can still be a compilation target so it could even be JS), and I can make a snappy desktop app that takes 10 not 100mb. I'm not even sure which one I'm hoping for at the moment. Xamarin seems to have bet fully on mobile. Avalonia looks nice but feels like it w…

I've had good luck so far with Xamarin.Mac + traditional WPF for macOS and Windows respectively, with a PCL containing 90% of the shared code. Xamarin.Mac doesn't seem neglected to me, and the forums are decently active for support.

Maybe I'm confused, by Xamarin.Mac do you mean Visual Studio for Mac?

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#99

Post by Const-me »

lwansbrough wrote: post #20

I think this highlights the need for Microsoft to open source Edge’s new rendering engine. I’d love to be able to use the renderer in .NET Core for a whole host of applications (including rendering dynamic HTML to OpenGL) but unfortunately EdgeHTML has remained closed source! With many components of the .NET stack being open sourced, and even some of the Edge stack, I had high hopes for seeing the rendering engine op…

> open source Edge’s new rendering engine

I don’t think they’ll be useful for anything.

AFAIK, Edge’s rendering engine relies on DirectX 11, Direct2D and DirectWrite. These are huge and depend on other Windows-specific stuff. There are open alternatives (OpenGL/GLES, OpenVG, Pango, Skia, etc.) but these are not as good.

Re: Electron.Net: Build cross platform desktop apps using .NET core and ASP.NET core

#100

Post by ttd »

jagger27 wrote: post #98
ttd wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had good luck so far with Xamarin.Mac + traditional WPF for macOS and Windows respectively, with a PCL containing 90% of the shared code. Xamarin.Mac doesn't seem neglected to me, and the forums are decently active for support.

Maybe I'm confused, by Xamarin.Mac do you mean Visual Studio for Mac?

Xamarin.Mac is the project emcompassing bindings from Cocoa (i.e. native macOS) to Mono/.NET, the interface with Xcode for building Cocoa UIs, and Visual Studio for Mac (previously called Xamarin Studio). Essentially, Xamarin.Mac allows you to build C# applications that run on macOS with native macOS user interface elements. See e.g. https://blog.xamarin.com/your-app-on-66-million-macs-c-sharp...
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