picoe/Eto

Provide a UI designer

Open

#20 opened on Feb 21, 2012

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 (8 comments) (7 reactions) (0 assignees)C# (3,387 stars) (320 forks)batch import
enhancementhelp wanted

Description

What bugs me a little bit about this new (and really cool!) UI toolkit is the fact, that there is no designer available.

I really like WinForms designer and to minor extent the Xcode Interface Builder.

It makes life so much easier in many cases, if you simply can drag widgets to a form and change their properties in a property panel.

I see these options:

  • Implement a new designer app
  • Create a converter, e.g to convert XIB files, WinForms Designer code etc
  • Use existing designers, eg wxFormBuilder or Stetic GTK Designer

This would greatly improve productivity

Contributor guide

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
desktopdesign
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
5
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
over 1 week
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
needs investigation
Prerequisites
C#Eto framework basicsGUI programming
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
15
Research direction
Start by reading the existing 8 comments to gather additional context and constraints. Then investigate existing UI designers for cross platform frameworks (e.g., wxFormBuilder, Stetic GTK Designer) to understand their architecture. Review the Eto framework source code, particularly the widget system and property model, to determine feasibility. Finally, propose a concrete design or proof of concept for maintainer feedback.