This Maui Controls will be the Most Popular Someday

[nextcodelab]

I just discovered it now,, I really dont know that this library exist long time ago.. Why this project is not promoted?

[RChrisCoble]

I'm not a contributor here or have a crystal ball, but I agree this project is obviously important enough to eventually be included in .Net, hopefully in the .Net 7 release. .Net 6 is RC and now branched for .Net 7 development on main, so as this repo matures I hope it gets included alongside Maui.Graphics.

As Maui.Graphics does not have a dependency on anything else "Maui", it's a fantastic way to write controls that can be used cross platform, and it's my understanding from watching a Xamarin community standup video there are Maui controls built on top of Maui.Graphics shipping in the .Net 6 timeframe.

[saint4eva]

As Maui.Graphics does not have a dependency on anything else "Maui", it's a fantastic way to write controls that can be used cross platform, and it's my understanding from watching a Xamarin community standup video there are Maui controls built on top of Maui.Graphics shipping in the .Net 6 timeframe.

Maui.Graphics.Controls is built on top of Maui.Graphics. It would make it possible to write an app that looks the same on all platforms. And it would provide a performance boost since it is a drawn UI developed on top of a high performance graphichs library.

[sacdevops]

To release the Maui Controls with .NET 7 would be already to late. The community is giving the last chance for this project and team at 2Q22. When MAUI gets not better at this date as XF then the most people will switch to Flutter or other tools.
This is the last chance.of Microsoft.
And the Drawn Controls are the key for success. It has to be a part of .NET 6 and not 7, because it's a LTS. Many companies are not upgrading on Short Time Supports. When the Drawn Controls come with .NET 7, then it has not to be published anymore because the rest of the few thousands community will go also.

@jsuarezruiz know also that I'm one of the biggest critism for the .NET Maui Project and biggest Fan of the Drawn Controls + MVU. The only reason why my company and me not leaved already this community is the hope on these two features at 2Q22.

[jsuarezruiz]

Thanks for the feedback! At the moment it is only an experimental project where progress sometimes with the aim of doing tests and receiving feedback. However, it could be part for .NET 7 and have more support in the future.

[RChrisCoble]

Count me in as a request to productize this repo in .Net 7. I'd like to start using it early next year to mix graphics and controls on the same canvas as we need that support directly with MAUI.Graphics.

[robloo]

Yes, this was the pretty wide consensus in dotnet/maui#43. Devs have been asking for this forever. If Xamarin was designed like this from the start Flutter wouldn't be nearly as big as it is either. I kind-of doubt it will get any official traction until David Ortinau is replaced though -- he's blind to any feedback that doesn't follow his pre-existing viewpoints.

It's also unfortunate this is coming in so late considering the Uno Platform (which follows existing UWP XAML) and Avalonia which are doing wonderful work in this space already. A third entrant at this point will muddy things up a bit going forward. Still directionally this is finally the correct architecture from a Microsoft-led cross platform UI framework. 10 years late.

[sacdevops]

I share your opinion. David is the main reason Xamarin went under and .NET Maui will go under as well. I have been blocked by David, my comments have been deleted on Youtube just because I do not share his opinion and focus on the real problems of the project.
Just having Maui postponed to 2Q22 is a mess. Now should the Drawn Controls become part of .NET7? Do you want Maui to die out before it starts? The project grows on crap as long as you don't address the real problems.
I wish David would step down and someone more experienced and with vision would take the post.

[saint4eva]

I share your opinion. David is the main reason Xamarin went under and .NET Maui will go under as well. I have been blocked by David, my comments have been deleted on Youtube just because I do not share his opinion and focus on the real problems of the project. Just having Maui postponed to 2Q22 is a mess. Now should the Drawn Controls become part of .NET7? Do you want Maui to die out before it starts? The project grows on crap as long as you don't address the real problems. I wish David would step down and someone more experienced and with vision would take the post.

Haven't your projects been postponed before? It seems you are complaining. If you feel other platforms are better for you, you could use them.

[wubalubadubdub55]

Yes, this was the pretty wide consensus in dotnet/maui#43. Devs have been asking for this forever. If Xamarin was designed like this from the start Flutter wouldn't be nearly as big as it is either. I kind-of doubt it will get any official traction until David Ortinau is replaced though -- he's blind to any feedback that doesn't follow his pre-existing viewpoints.

It's also unfortunate this is coming in so late considering the Uno Platform (which follows existing UWP XAML) and Avalonia which are doing wonderful work in this space already. A third entrant at this point will muddy things up a bit going forward. Still directionally this is finally the correct architecture from a Microsoft-led cross platform UI framework. 10 years late.

@davidortinau You need to either listen to the developers or let someone with a vision replace you.

[tcsaddul]

Maybe Microsoft doesnt want to compete with UI vendors like Telerik or Syncfusion?

[najak3d]

We concur 100% with the sentiment, and view this library as what should be promoted as a "primary method for UI development" in MAUI. Having a UI that looks identical on all OS platforms is ideal, for perhaps a majority of apps. Plus it also enables integration into "games".

One of our primary objectives here is to enable MAUI to be rendered to a Bitmap rendered to an OpenGL surface as the HUD/UI. Each MAUI layout (panel, stack, window) - would be associated to it's own Bitmap, which is then handed off to OpenGL to render to screen like a simple fast-updating Picture box (with transparency and click-through). It's about time that Game Engines stop trying to re-invent their own custom UI's, and just allow everyone to use a common UI package, like MAUI. MAUI rendering to a Unity3D app, is one of the home runs we hope to achieve here.

Note: We've already accomplished this feat with Avalonia and Urho3D.NET. But realize that the Home-Run solution isn't Avalonia -- but instead is MAUI.Graphics.Controls.

Maui.Graphics.Controls -- is the key to this success, for Msft/MAUI.

We may be intending to help you complete the missing controls (e.g. List View, Tree View, Scroll View, ComboBox, ...).

Please - someone inside Msft, please shout at the Msft MAUI team, to see what it takes to put more priority onto this Graphics.Controls lib! It's a VERY big deal!

===
NOTE: As quickly as we can do it, our intent is to produce a POC of this "rendering MAUI inside an OpenGL surface", to help boost the energy/priority of this concept. We believe it should be a "front-page" feature of MAUI, with raised priority for development. In conjunction with this, our current aim is to also make use of Comet.

Headline: Maui.MVU rendering to Graphics.Controls Anywhere. (even Games, and web pages)

[najak3d]

First success - the GraphicsControlSample Console App deploys FINE to Android API 31 (Pixel 5) emulator.

So at least now we can view/edit these controls. It's clear that the controls existing have some issues -- such as the sliders don't retain MouseDragFocus if the mouse goes outside of their bounds (this is not how these work everywhere else) -- so the fixes seem easy, and then need to add in the TreeView, dropdown, List view, etc.

We do want to be working on Windows, not Android for this, so we'd like to get the previous post's exception fixed (InvalidCastException).

[jsuarezruiz]

Updated dependencies, the sample project and Windows issues. Could you try again?

[najak3d]

It's on my agenda for tonight.

[najak3d]

After re-updating to the latest VS2022 Preview and .NET 6.101 (specifically was needed, and was not installed by VS2022 so got it manually).

Now it runs cleanly on Windows. Very nice.
Bugs: The Editor and Entry boxes did not work -- couldn't focus/type anything. All behaved disabled.
(I tried both the C# and XAML alternatives.)

I also noticed that the XAML makes use of styles:
Style="{StaticResource InfoLabel}"

While for the C#, it just manually sets the properties. It might be good to have the C# make use of something similar to Styles, rather than repeating the properties for FontSize and TextColor on every line.

Also - I think it would be very good to show a few types of data binding in this example code.

[jsuarezruiz]

Glad to read it works for you now on Windows. Will include C# styles and some data binding samples. Also, feel free to send PRs with changes in the samples, etc.

[timahrentlov]

I think the new Avalonia v11 delivers on the drawn controls promise. Especially with their "Avalonia MAUI Hybrid" sneak peak: https://youtu.be/qcZSr2ejH5I

This is pretty much what I've been waiting for.

[Pouria7]

I deployed the "Hello world" project of Avalonia (current stable version) on my Android phone yesterday.
I got the "Force close" Android error message.
Also the apk file size on single cpu architecture in release mode (default config) is about 30mb.

[coderbasket]

More avalonia here
https://coderbasket.github.io/framework/Avalonia

[coderbasket]

START UP SPEED COMPARISON

Avalonia => 3.90 seconds (Debug empty)
Maui => 5.32 seconds (Debug empty)
Flutter => 1.55 seconds (Release not empty) Link https://play.google.com/store/app