Darrell Norton's Blog [MVP]

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Windows Forms getting short shrift in .NET

Windows Forms are getting shortchanged in version 2 of .NET.

In ASP.NET, the DataGrid control is already much better than the Windows Form DataGrid control. And in ASP.NET 2.0, the DataGrid is getting automatic sorting and paging. Yet there is nothing at all on the Developer Tools Roadmap that shows any work is being done on the Windows Forms DataGrid.

Many of the Windows Forms improvements are in deployment, with the new ClickOnce technology. Web apps already have deployment figured out, and I guess the ASP.NET team can then concentrate on stuff like making development easier (Master Pages, DataGrid enhancements, themes/skins, et al). On current winforms projects, we have to resort to third-party tools like SyncFusion. While good, and definitely better than coding all this functionality ourselves, it’s weak compared to what you get for free in the land of webforms.

I really want to like Windows Forms. I want to write slick, full-featured UIs with .NET. But it's just so hard to do so, with the allure of the ASP.NET siren's song.

Published Dec 23 2003, 07:57 AM by darrell

Comments

Paul Laudeman said:

"I really want to like Windows Forms. I want to write slick, full-featured UIs with .NET. But it's just so hard to do so, with the allure of the ASP.NET siren's song."

+1 I agree with you completely. Winforms today generally suck unless your willing to invest a ton of time and energy in building your own framework for custom controls, a robust form validation package like what is offered by ASP.NET, etc (and don't even get me started on the "xcopy" deployment mess).

It almost seems like Winforms were thrown in for the heck of it to complement the ASP.NET offering. Hopefully we'll be able to look forward to a fully baked version in v.2.

# December 23, 2003 3:15 AM

Mark said:

+1. I enjoy developing Web applications. I'm glad to see what is on the horizon.

Maybe the Orcas release will beef up the Windows components.

I especially like Webform development because I do not have to use any Sync Fusion controls:
http://dotnetjunkies.com/weblog/markdigiovanni/posts/4508.aspx.

# December 23, 2003 3:33 AM

Mark Bonafe said:

Windows Forms got short shrift in all versions of .Net. It seems an afterthought to MS. MS must be aiming to quash any Windows development in favor of the internet. Is there any other way to read it?

Ha! SyncFusion. I feel your pain, Mark.

# December 23, 2003 3:49 AM

Anonymous said:

Stynkfusion, anyone?

# December 23, 2003 4:25 AM

Mark Bonafe said:

Hey, Anonymous. We all know who you are, Paul.

# December 23, 2003 5:31 AM

JosephCooney said:

I know this was posted over a week ago now, but doesn't the windows forms datagrid already have automatic sorting?

# January 1, 2004 11:58 PM

Darrell said:

Joseph, I'm not sure. It's been a while since I worked on the UI portion of a winforms project. The example was really meant to show how much the ASP.NET model abstracts out, so that the developers can concentrate on business functionality, versus UI functionality.

I believe this is the reason why there are so many Excel/Access apps in production. The company developers can just go in and work on business functionality, versus toolbars and dropdown menus for example.

# January 3, 2004 10:55 AM