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WinFormMarkup

A more concise, flexible, and extensible syntax for working with .Net Core Windows Forms.

Inspired by TornadoFX and Xamarin Community Toolkit C# Markup. WinFormMarkup is a set of extension methods that make it easier to create Windows Forms in a cleaner, more declarative manner.

Don't be dependent on an IDE designer. Make cleaner forms. Not every UI control needs a member variable.

Problem

In traditional WinForm designer initialization, every control is created and assigned a member variable, then styled and applied to the parent. Although this makes it easier for tooling to parse the code, it is incredible redundant and harder to read through. The generated block must be maintained by the designer otherwise you run the risk of breaking the parsing logic when a designer tries to load it. This makes projects harder to work on in editors that don't support a designer (e.g., VS Code).

A modern more fluent style would be cleaner, easier to read, and not require special tooling.

With WinForms Designer

Designer is verbose, and should only be maintained in a designer. #DoesNotSparkJoy

        #region Windows Form Designer generated code

        /// <summary>
        /// Required method for Designer support - do not modify
        /// the contents of this method with the code editor.
        /// </summary>
        private void InitializeComponent()
        {
            this.menuStrip1 = new System.Windows.Forms.MenuStrip();
            this.fileToolStripMenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem();
            this._newFileMenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem();
            this._openFileMenuItem = new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem();
            this.menuStrip1.SuspendLayout();
            this.SuspendLayout();
            // 
            // menuStrip1
            // 
            this.menuStrip1.Items.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] {this.fileToolStripMenuItem});
            this.menuStrip1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(0, 0);
            this.menuStrip1.Name = "menuStrip1";
            this.menuStrip1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(800, 24);
            this.menuStrip1.TabIndex = 0;
            this.menuStrip1.Text = "menuStrip1";
            // 
            // fileToolStripMenuItem
            // 
            this.fileToolStripMenuItem.DropDownItems.AddRange(new System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripItem[] {this._newFileMenuItem, this._openFileMenuItem});
            this.fileToolStripMenuItem.Name = "fileToolStripMenuItem";
            this.fileToolStripMenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(37, 20);
            this.fileToolStripMenuItem.Text = "&File";
            // 
            // _newFileMenuItem
            // 
            this._newFileMenuItem.Name = "_newFileMenuItem";
            this._newFileMenuItem.ShortcutKeys = ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys) ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Control | System.Windows.Forms.Keys.N)));
            this._newFileMenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(152, 22);
            this._newFileMenuItem.Text = "&New";
            // 
            // _openFileMenuItem
            // 
            this._openFileMenuItem.Name = "_openFileMenuItem";
            this._openFileMenuItem.ShortcutKeys = ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys) ((System.Windows.Forms.Keys.Control | System.Windows.Forms.Keys.O)));
            this._openFileMenuItem.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(152, 22);
            this._openFileMenuItem.Text = "&Open";
            // 
            // Test
            // 
            this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
            this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
            this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(800, 450);
            this.Controls.Add(this.menuStrip1);
            this.MainMenuStrip = this.menuStrip1;
            this.Name = "Test";
            this.Text = "Test";
            this.menuStrip1.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.menuStrip1.PerformLayout();
            this.ResumeLayout(false);
            this.PerformLayout();
        }

        private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem _openFileMenuItem;

        private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem _newFileMenuItem;

        private System.Windows.Forms.MenuStrip menuStrip1;
        private System.Windows.Forms.ToolStripMenuItem fileToolStripMenuItem;

        #endregion

With WinFormsMarkup

Everything can be declared in a single simple flow.

        this.Text("Main Window")
            .Icon(Properties.Resources.AppIcon)
            .MinimumSize(800,600)
            .StartPosition(FormStartPosition.CenterScreen)
            .MainMenuStrip(
                new ToolStripMenuItem("&File")
                    .DropDownItems(
                        new ToolStripMenuItem("&New")
                            .Keys(Keys.Control | Keys.N)
                            .Clicked(_ => CreateFile()),
                        new ToolStripMenuItem("&Open")
                            .Keys(Keys.Control | Keys.O)
                            .Clicked(_=> OpenFile())
                    ))