WinUI and XAML Islands

[ghost]

Has anyone tried compiling test code with MinGW-w64?

It seems possible to develop with WinUI using MinGW-w64, but since there’s no XAML GUI designer, we have to write the XAML by hand. Visual Studio generates and automates a lot of stuff.

I’m completely unfamiliar with modern Visual Studio and Windows development. My knowledge is stuck at Visual Studio 2010 and Windows 7. Now, even though I’m running Windows 11 and can download and try the latest tools whenever I want, I still feel hesitant to give it a try. There have been so many changes that it feels overwhelming to me.

[ghost]

WinUI with MinGW-w64:

microsoft/WindowsAppSDK#3532

microsoft/microsoft-ui-xaml#8321

https://github.com/driver1998/WinUI-MinGW

[ghost]

Hello World with WinUI3 in plain C:

https://github.com/mmozeiko/hello-world-winui3-c

[ghost]

@skeeto @Peter0x44 None of you are interested in modern frameworks introduced by Microsoft?

[skeeto]

Every single time I'm presented with a WinUI window I know I'm in for a poor, frustrating experience. It's not clear to me it's possible to build anything decent with these frameworks. Maybe it's good but all the WinUI apps in Windows are written and maintained by summer interns, I don't know.

It would be nice if w64dk could build software written for it, but it's not something that personally interests me.

[stianhoiland]

Before one can make a good Windows GUI application, one has to dig deeper than the herd perception of the Win32 API as bad and find that it is superbly capable and that it was never a disqualified contender to begin with. Then one can make a choice–and possibly make a good Windows GUI application.

[Peter0x44]

https://domenic.me/windows-native-dev/
Here's one review of how it works in practice (apparently, not very well).

At my job, I use electron. Though, what I work on also has to be cross-platform, and I didn't pick the tech stack.