I’m not sure if I am happy I won or sad that it was so obvious it was not built in Xojo.
I’ve thought about that myself. In the current state it would be impossible because the only option is to add a static picture to sub-classed canvas controls.
Would you draw multiple ‘controls’ on a single canvas (like WPF) or would you try to use multiple canvas sub-classes with one canvas per control?
I’ve even thought about having a canvas sub-class that is a ‘baseControl’. Then sub-classing the base control for each type of control.
At run time all the controls would be hidden and there paint events directed to the window paint. When clicking on the window the clicks would be directed to the appropriate control to be handled by individual control.
Several problems with this approach.
- It won’t be possible to do visual design in the IDE unless a control paint event is added to allow design time rendering of controls using the properties set in the inspector.
- Separate drawing routines would be needed for each platform and OS version to give a native look.
Such an approach would definitely increase the value of Xojo. As it is, it gets tiresome trying to create complex apps that look professional.
WPF basically reimplements the entire UI SDK for Windows, uses no Win32 controls, and gives you a compositing drawing model like macOS
It is designed, like macOS, to be flicker free
I’d expect it to not flicker - just like macOS
[quote=352874:@Norman Palardy]WPF basically reimplements the entire UI SDK for Windows, uses no Win32 controls, and gives you a compositing drawing model like macOS
It is designed, like macOS, to be flicker free
I’d expect it to not flicker - just like macOS[/quote]
That’s what makes it so appealing (visually at least).
And yet…
In the IDE, everything we see for our layout is done using ‘DrawInto’, apparently
Isn’t that the same kind of technique?
Wouldn’t that make for a great cross platform experience if Xojo implemented their own UI, rendering ‘controls’ to the OS/platform it was being run on? The the same UI ‘controls’ could be used on all projects, Win, Mac,Linux, Web, IO, Android…
Xojo would take care of rendering the controls to look native for each platform. The you could have a selector to show the UI design for the desired platform when designing in the IDE.
OK I didn’t claim it would be easy, but that would deliver what Xojo is advertised to be. I’m not sure how well that would work with web apps.
Sorry I’m just dreaming.
In a loose hand wavey kind of way its sort of the same - but not
Ship it. 
Ship what ?
There is NO Xojo framework that uses WPF
And certainly not one that would use DrawInto to draw your UI
The IDE does what it does using a lot of “drawinto” (for desktop stuff at least) and we’ve MANUALLY implemented the compositing
Basically there is nothing to “ship” that you could use
I don’t understand the meaning of this thread.
Posting here what can be done with another development environment is totally unrelated with any kind of result you can expect from Xojo.
So, what?
I was attempting a joke.
Not for a second suggesting there is anything for Xojo to implement in that way.
I had memories of being asked to demonstrate complete smoke-and-mirror ‘software’ in the past, and then being asked to ship what was basically a set of mocked up screenshots by a level of management that wasnt aware that it was a mockup.
Quite correct. It was a tease by the OP
That’s right. And if you try to make orange juice with apples you end up with cider.
It wasn’t my intention to upset anyone.
Neil… I started using Xojo back in 2002…
And, for the record, I was never afraid of .Net like some VB refugees. I actually used it to overcome Xojo’s limitations, especially with DLLs.
I also used .Net to create half a dozen apps in the Windows Store, back in 2013 or so.