Is the future of Windows Forms good? A question was posted on Career Advice forums of C# Corner. Windows Forms, also known as WinForms, is a part of Microsoft’s .NET Framework to build Windows-based client applications.
Bitter Truth: Not good.
There are still plenty of applications being developed using Windows Forms. Wait! Let me rephrase it. I should have used word “maintained” rather than developed. Yes, there are plenty of Windows Forms based applications that need resources to fix bugs, add new features, and to be supported. That work is not going away anytime soon. If you’re already working on a Windows Forms project and have enough work, you continue to do so.
Software development is very tricky field. Unless you’re working in a large corporation, you never know when a project may be called off. I’ve seen this several times in my professional life. I worked with a client on a 12-month contract and within 3-months, new CIO came and killed the project.
As a smart developer, you should be always learning. You should not be living in a comfort zone. You should always be learning. That is what C# Corner community is all about. C# Corner brings you latest news and happenings in software development world. I highly recommend going through the Career Advice on C# Corner and read in your free time what experts and veterans have to advice you.
In 2013, I wrote a blog, Future of Windows Forms, WPF, and ASP.NET that obviously is quite old in today’s perspective but still has good points. ASP.NET is now just being served as ASP.NET MVC and continue to evolve in this new form. So if you’re an ASP.NET developer, you should start exploring ASP.NET MVC. Besides that, the major focus is on HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript (with many other JS libraries).
What Does Google Trends Say
Let’s look at Google Trends for past five years. The below chart is a Google Trends popularity of search keywords.
As you can see clearly from the above chart, Windows Forms are still there but just to be there. That kind of need will always be there to maintain and supporting existing applications. WPF trends are slowly going down but still, there is plenty of work. However, last year and this year, Windows 10 Apps (Windows Store Apps or Universal Windows Platform) popularity has grown and it will continue to grow as Windows 10 grows.
So what happens to Windows Forms developers?
I was a Windows Forms developer when it used to be WinForms. But years ago, I switched to WPF and that handed me ton of work. Now, WPF demand is slowing down, the natural migration for Windows Forms and WPF developers is, Universal Windows Platform (UWP). UWP may sound totally different to a Windows Forms developer but WPF developers will find it quite familiar. It uses XAML and C# for user interfaces and UWP apps run on all Windows 10 devices.
The UWP was introduced with Windows 10 and prior to that, there was Windows Store Apps. Check out What Is The Future Of Windows Store Apps to learn more about it.
To get started with UWP app development, you will need to know XAML, C# and UWP. XAML is a new scripting language that was introduced to build next generation Windows applications as a part of WPF.
Here is basic introductory book that will get you going with XAML.
Programming XAML
If you’re new to C# language, you may want to get started with this book:
Programming C# for Beginners
There is a free book dedicated on UWP app development:
Step Into Windows 10 UWP Development
Check out the following list to download more free books on C#, XAML, WPF and other technologies.
http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/ebooks/
Here are hundreds of code samples and articles on UWP.
Good luck!