Bicycle Liquidator: Part 1

With this post, I begin a series of articles that should help each developer get rid of bicycles in his subsequent and current projects. Strengthen the code and increase functionality. Each of us wants to add something to his program that will make it richer, but often the solution is either not found, or laziness to spend time searching… Or there is a stupid confidence inside that it can be implemented quickly and functionally. In any case, I want everyone to run their eyes through the lists of libraries that I will give you for the court, and that each of these libraries are stored in memory. And when their functionality is useful in the future, I really hope that you will remember this post and look for these libraries instead of writing all new and new bicycles full of poles in wheels.
I'll start with the window managers.

Microsoft Office 2007-2010 - like interface. He is also Ribbon, he is Fluent.

On the Internet is represented by a variety of libraries. A huge number of libraries - paid. There is an opinion that they started simultaneously with the free versions, otherwise it is difficult to explain their abundance. After all, often their functionality is poorer than free analogs. Free analogues are represented by two main projects:
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Fluent Ribbon Control Suite

They position themselves as follows: “Microsoft® Fluent ™ user interface for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It provides well-customized controls such as RubbonTabControl, Backstage, Gallery, QuickAccessToolbar, ScreenTip and so on. It is bundled with the most up-to-date Office 2010 styles. ”


Rich functionality, competent implementation.

License: MS-PL
Project start: November 12, 2009
Last commit: today
Frequency of commits: several times a day
Based on: WPF, .NET Framework 3.5, 4.0
Localizability : yes, there are ready localizations for 22 languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Arabic
Support for skins: yes, you can change any component

Project: fluent.codeplex.com

WPF Ribbon

The official library from Microsoft. Theoretically, the MS Office line was built on it, but I did not check it. One of the options for appearance:



I can't say much, I used it, but not for long. It was very easy to launch and build a plug-in application based on the components (hello, MEF).

Rich functionality, implementation at a high level.

The main disadvantage - the license on the site is emblazoned: NOTE: The WPF Ribbon. The WPF Ribbon preview is available at the office site. On special request and through registration on the site you can get a library. The condition of use is NOT writing software, competing with MS-Office ruler.

Support for skins: yes, you can change any component

Project: Included in wpf.codeplex.com

Window Docking Libraries

If you decide to use docking as the basis for your application's UI, then two libraries will come to your aid:

DockPanel Suite (Weifen Luo)

Rich library for WinForms, used in many projects. Among these projects is a monster like SharpDevelop (not including version 4). I will present its screenshot as an example of its use:

• Save and restore window position
• MIT License
• Made to be such that the result was indistinguishable from the Visual Studio interface.
• Localizable
• the only small minus is the last commit 2009-05-08, however this indicates the stability of the library

Project Page: sourceforge.net/projects/dockpanelsuite

AvalonDock

The ultimate docking library for Windows Presentation Foundation. Used in SharpDevelop since version 4, which suggests that it will be fully supported if not authors, then the #develop command.

Screenshot from the site:

• You can change the skins as you like, because it is WPF. Those. it is theoretically possible to build an interface a la VisualStudio 2010.
• License: New BSD License

Project Page: avalondock.codeplex.com

Write what you know, add a review in subsequent articles.