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Is there any open source alternative for the Visual Studio WinForms Designer?

I checked SharpDevelop, but the project is dead and will be unusable on Windows in a while.

The Mono designer for Winforms is also not (I think) developed anymore, or maybe already dead, due to Microsoft's business tactics.

MonoDevelop is only for Gtk # and is not available for Windows (I tried to compile but failed)

Is there any designer for Winforms that would be open source?

Maniues
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  • Hi Maniues, any reason why you are looking for an open-source alternative? The community editions of Visual Studio are free to use - unfortunately not open-source though. – Johan Aspeling Nov 11 '20 at 19:11
  • Hi. Yes, I know there is VS Community. I even have it downloaded. However, I need an alternative that is MS-independent and that I can run under Linux (with Mono). MS has got a monopoly on .NET. What IDE do you know for .NET that will compete with VS? SharpDevelop - dead; MonoDevelop - Belongs to Xamarin (which is ultimately to MS.) As if using code editors is the most popular VS Code - MS, Atom - Github (belongs to MS). Only Jetbrains Rider spoils this monopoly. Additionally .NET implementations: Mono - Microsoft; DotGNU - suspended. – Maniues Nov 11 '20 at 19:37

1 Answers1

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SharpDevelop WinForms Designer

It is still your best chance to get an open source implementation. You'd better define what is "unusable".

JetBrains Rider's WinForms designer is probably built upon this code base, but they might have upgraded a lot but won't release the code.

An open source project like that won't die and you can see people work in their forks https://github.com/icsharpcode/SharpDevelop/network . If a new maintainer steps in, such can be revived.

Keep in mind that WinForms is rather complex a framework, so SharpDevelop's designer might work for many cases but not all.

Microsoft is currently working on a new designer (primarily for WinForms on .NET Core, but later might also support .NET Framework), so Visual Studio's designer is still the best in the market.

Mono

Pay attention to your words like "due to Microsoft's business tactics".

Mono WinForms could not continue as Linux is not Windows, and technical barriers block its development. There isn't an ecosystem on Linux either as you cannot port Windows dependent controls (open source or commercial) to Linux.

Thus, there was never a visual designer for WinForms on Mono side, but a GTK# visual designer. The Mono guys moved their focus to other areas and successfully discovered the new landscape of mobile and built new stuffs there.

So you shouldn't waste your time digging MonoDevelop code base.

Lex Li
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