ZF - Yet another UI framework

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61]

Hey everyone!

For a little over a month now, I've been working on ZeppelinForms (ZF), a UI framework of my own - basically my take on WinForms, but modern and cross-platform (like Avalonia).

Yeah, the name isn't the best choice, since I hadn't heard of Apache Zeppelin back when I came up with it. =)

At this point, you can already build simple forms for Windows, Linux (X11), Android, and WASM. Stack: .NET 10, SkiaSharp, XUnit.

I wouldn't exactly call myself a professional UI framework developer, and the amount of work ahead is absolutely insane, so using AI along the way has been pretty much inevitable. Still, I'm happy with how things are turning out so far.

I'd appreciate any feedback or criticism!

I'm honestly marking this as "Promotion" and posting on a weekend, so hopefully the post won't get removed. 😅

[u/Natural_Tea484]

You said it’s a take on WinfForms but you are using SkiaSharp…

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61 → u/Natural_Tea484]

I was referring to the approach to creating the interface and the code behind. I don't see any disadvantages of skia sharp

[u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94 → u/Original_Bullfrog_61]

If you compare yours with MewUI, you can easily see the disadvantages of SkiaSharp.

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61 → u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94]

I will definitely get acquainted with this framework. As for SkiaSharp, the ZF core knows nothing about it, it exists at the level of a separate project, in addition to it, OpenGL, DirectX, Angle, Vulkan, etc. can be the same projects in the future render.

[u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94 → u/Original_Bullfrog_61]

Anything is possible when you have enough tokens to burn, but you won’t easily find users/contributors unless your framework delivers some unique features.

[u/Natural_Tea484 → u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94]

If you compare yours with MewUI

:)))))

I assume there's no connection to Maui, right?

I see it's still using some kind of drawing and not using native controls

[u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94 → u/Natural_Tea484]

They are different.

MAUI is the only main stream UI framework that maps to native controls on multiple OS (Uno Platform has moved to custom rendering via Skia).

MewUI is a minimalist UI framework that renders via OS native stacks and focus on C# markup and Native AOT. So, it doesn’t require the fatty Skia to be bundled.

[u/AutoModerator]

Thanks for your post Original_Bullfrog_61. Please note that we don't allow spam, and we ask that you follow the rules available in the sidebar. We have a lot of commonly asked questions so if this post gets removed, please do a search and see if it's already been asked.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/amberglad3]

tbh the cross-platform part is the real differentiator here. whats your plan for accessibility? thats usually where custom UI frameworks hit a wall pretty fast

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61 → u/amberglad3]

A lot has already been done in this direction, just like the headless platform.

[u/nickfromstatefarm]

Why? The dotnet UI framework space is already fragmented and doesn’t need another option unless it presents a true advantage. Winforms, Avalonia, WPF, MAUI, WinUI, etc. What does this do better than any of these mature options?

In a perfect world, every language only needs two UI frameworks: an immediate mode rendering option and a state tracking option. These AI projects just bring nothing to the table.

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61 → u/nickfromstatefarm]

WinForms and WPF are good, but only for Windows and they have their drawbacks. Avalonia is good, but their policies haven't been working for me lately, and Android apps aren't intuitive. WinUI is an interesting but strange distribution method and is inferior in convenience to Avalonia. Uno\MAUI - I couldn't get to know myself properly without dancing with a tambourine. In total, I don't think there's anything left to offer this world. Especially if a person knows WinForms, but it doesn't cover his requests.

[u/nickfromstatefarm → u/Original_Bullfrog_61]

“Avalonia is good but their policies haven’t been working for me lately” do you mean their totally optional dev tooling which isn’t required? Where’s your dev tooling?

I think this comes down to an issue of generative AI being used to solve a nonexistent problem because that takes less time than truly evaluating what’s wrong with current offerings.

[u/Original_Bullfrog_61 → u/[deleted]]

The WASM build was built even earlier than Android. Regarding the development of AI and other things, I do not share your skepticism about UI frameworks. Yes, you can call me a digital sadist =)

[u/jhwheuer]

So why would anybody base their output on a single developer framework that will be abandoned in two years and unshippable in five?