Other Graphics library for C#/.NET on FreeBSD?

[calande]

Hello,

I was browsing the topics on development on FreeBSD in this section of the forum. This is not a common situation, but I have some code in C#/.NET that I'm thinking about porting to FreeBSD, however I'd have to refactor a whole portion of it to use a different graphics library. I did some research on the web and found Avalonia that works on Linux (and maybe on FreeBSD too?). I also found Gtk# but it looks like it's not actively maintained... I'm still in the analysis phase right now. If some of you are using .NET and C# development on FreeBSD, I'd be interested in your graphics library of choice, and what pitfalls you've faced on FreeBSD. From my findings, there has been rough edges around the .NET framework with FreeBSD... Here's an interesting XAML Framework Comparison. I'd be happy to exchange on this topic.

 

[taiwan740]

Graphics library? Like a UI implementation? When I hear graphics library, I think Vulkan or OpenGL.

The direction of .NET is kind of more web server and then browser/web UI, as this effectively enables easiest cross-platform implementations across any operating system which runs a browser. Or ElectronJS for the UI.

If you are creating a specific .NET UI application for FreeBSD then that'd be probably a lot of work and a bit of a pain, as it would need to run on Mono or something, or would have to install the unsupported (from Microsoft) FreeBSD .NET redistributable for it to work on the clients machine.

 

[Alain De Vos]

gtksharp should work.

using Gtk;
using System;
 
class SharpApp : Window {

        Entry entry;
        Button button;
    Label label;

....

csharp_gtk_fahrenheit/entry.cs · master · Alain De Vos / fahrenheit · GitLab

GitLab.com

gitlab.com

Compile with :

mcs -pkg:gtk-sharp-3.0   myprogram.cs

Run with:

mono ./myprogram.exe

 

[calande]

Thank you guys. I'll try the Gtk# snippet. Yes, .NET is more developed toward the web. Not everybody likes to use a webapp, though.
.NET is said to be cross-platform, but only to some extend...
Electron.JS is heavy. It does work, but at a cost.

 

[Alain De Vos]

I find electron overly complex as compared to gtk or qt.
gtksharp should also work on Windows,

Download - Stable | Mono

www.mono-project.com

Another lightweight gui library is fltk,

FLTK 1.3.3.33

FLTK (pronounced "fulltick") is a cross-platform C++ GUI toolkit for UNIX®/Linux® (X11), Microsoft® Windows®, and MacOS® X. FLTK provides modern GUI functionality without the bloat and supports 3D graphics via OpenGL® and its built-in GLUT emulation.

www.nuget.org

 

[calande]

Thank you Alain. It looks like FLTK isn't maintained anymore ("I am no longer supporting this"). I think your suggestion for Gtk# is a good idea and it's worth a try.

 

[Alain De Vos]

A more complex ui but under active developemnt is,

Install | Avalonia UI

Install Avalonia UI Templates

docs.avaloniaui.net

 

[kpedersen]

C Bindings tend to rot (for any language). I don't even think MonoGame is particularly well maintained anymore on FreeBSD. I think it became FNA and that changed to IndieRunner? A bit of a mess.

How much coverage of a graphics API do you need? If it is 2D and relatively simple, I would recommend just writing manual bindings against SDL (A C library) for the 10 or so functions you need.

Does Mono not provide WinForms based on libgdiplus? That should be good enough for most things.

 

[calande]

Yes, just regular 2D graphics.