Comment by codebolt

3 years ago

Coincidentally, Win32 is also the only stable API on Windows.

WinForms and WPF are still half-broken on .NET 5+, WinRT is out, basically any other desktop development framework since the Win32 era that is older than a couple of years is deprecated. Microsoft is famous for introducing new frameworks and deprecating them a few years later. Win32 is the only exception I can think of.

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codebolt

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int_19h  3 years ago

.NET Framework is still there by default out of the box, and still runs WinForms and WPF like it always did.

  • actionfromafar  3 years ago

    Which version of it? 1.0?

    • int_19h  3 years ago

      Ironically, 1.0 is the one that's the most problematic, because it never shipped in any version of Windows by default.

      .NET 4.6 is the version that shipped in Win10 back in 2015. Win11 ships with .NET 4.8. Thus, both OSes can run any apps written for .NET 4.x out of the box. I would expect this to remain true for many years to come, given that Windows still supports VB6.

      .NET 3.5 runtime (which supports apps written for .NET 2.0 and 3.0, as well) is also available in Win10 and Win11, but it's an optional feature that must be explicitly enabled - although the OS will automatically prompt you to do so if you try to run a .NET app that needs it.

FpUser  3 years ago

>"Coincidentally, Win32 is also the only stable API on Windows"

And this is what I use for my Windows apps. In the end I have self contained binaries that can run on anything starting from Vista and up to the most up to date OS.

  • ninkendo  3 years ago

    Honest question, do you get HiDPI support if you write a raw win32 app nowadays? I haven’t developed for windows in over a decade so I’ve been out of the loop, but I also used to think of win32 being the only “true” API for windows apps, but it’s been so long that I’m not sure if that opinion has gotten stale.

    As a sometimes windows user, I occasionally see apps that render absolutely tiny when the resolution is scaled to 200% on my 4k monitor, and I often wonder to myself whether those are raw win32 apps that are getting left behind and showing their age, or if something else is going on.

    • FpUser  3 years ago

      I use Delphi for my "official" windows desktop applications. They have GUI library that wraps Win32. Seem to handles HiDPI just fine.

      I do use raw Win32 but not for GUI stuff.

    • kevin_thibedeau  3 years ago

      GDI32 has always had support for configurable screen DPI. You used to be able to customize it in Win95 but they hid the setting because too many poorly developed applications were written with inflexible pixel based dimensioning. If you lay everything out in twips it will scale without any special effort.

alkonaut  3 years ago

WinForms is just mostly a managed Win32 wrapper so unsurprisingly it’s very stable on the OS frameworks (4.X).

Building for .NET Framework using any APIs is extremely stable as development has mostly ceased. You pick a target framework depending on how old windows versions you must support.

pjmlp  3 years ago

WinRT lives on as WinAppSDK.

  • Longhanks  3 years ago

    Metro lives on as UWP lives on as WinRT lives on as Project Reunion lives on as WinAppSDK.

    Exactly the point the OP was making. Win32 is stable.

    • pjmlp  3 years ago

      It is all COM, all those marketing names only reflect a set of interfaces, using .NET metadata instead of TLB files and processes being bound to an App Container.

      Win32 is stable indeed, raw Win32 is stuck in Windows XP API surface, most stuff that came afterwards is based on COM.

ahtihn  3 years ago

Since when is .NET 5+ part of Windows?

  • codebolt  3 years ago

    Since MS decided to deprecate .NET Framework, making .NET 5+ the recommended basis for C# desktop development going forward. Yes you will still be able to run your old apps for many decades still, but you can never move to a newer version of the C# language and maintaining them is going to be an increasing pain as the years go by. I've already been down this road with VB6.