this post was submitted on 11 Feb 2024
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What's the current way of programming Windows? (programming.dev)
submitted 9 months ago by uliwitness@programming.dev to c/learn_programming@programming.dev
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I'm a seasoned programmer on Mac/Linux/iOS, and want to get into Windows application programming. Problem is, every time I try, Microsoft comes in a week later and discontinues the current framework in favor of something else. Because I need to use a C++ library, I started with C++/CX, just to be told C++/WinRT was the way to go etc.

I've lost track of what the current one is now and what has been discontinued, and can't for the life of me find recent information on the web.

Anyone here know where I can find info on what's the current one? It seems C# is still the main language, but what UI framework does one use? It used to be UWP, but now it seems WPF is back ... ?

My constraints are: I'm making Windows desktop applications, I need to be able to call into C++, and I want it to look like a modern application. I also need to create my UI from code (based on files provided by the user), not from XAML files.

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[–] BatmanAoD@programming.dev 5 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Are you sure the frameworks you've tried are actually "discontinued"? C++/CX is still supported, it's just not recommended because WinRt is standard-compliant (CX uses compiler extensions) and has some other advantages. UWP is also still supported.

[–] uliwitness@programming.dev 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Win32 is also still supported on Windows, and I cobbled together half an implementation using that (but had to do way too much work to have my app not look like Windows 95), but on all other platforms, when the platform vendor makes announcements of moving away from a technology, you don't start a new project on an old platform. So I'd rather use whatever gets attention from MS, and new features, and looks right.

[–] BatmanAoD@programming.dev 0 points 9 months ago

Win32 is the foundational Windows OS interface on which WinRT, C++/CX, MFC, etc are all built. It's not deprecated, it's just very low-level. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_API