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Java desktop applications using the Swing toolkit are notorious for non-native look and feel compared to native OS X apps using Cocoa or even Carbon. To a lesser extent this problem affects Java apps on Windows, and all other cross-platform GUI libraries, from Qt to Tk.

Does the newly announced .NET port to OS X take any new steps to avoid this situation and get closer to the goal of "write once, run anywhere" with native look and feel? Or will OS X .NET apps have a non-native "Windows-y" feeling to them?

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dodgethesteamroller
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  • No no... The ported .NET doesn't include Winforms nor Wcf, so no graphical interface. Look at the image from here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/archive/2014/12/04/introducing-net-core.aspx Only ASP.Net for Linux and OsX . [This](http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-12-34/5488.Pic2.png) picture – xanatos May 18 '15 at 21:21
  • @xanatos: http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/ – SLaks May 18 '15 at 21:23
  • @SLaks *Does the newly announced .NET port to OS X* He isn't speaking of Mono, he is speaking of .NET core – xanatos May 18 '15 at 21:24
  • Can the GUI toolkits listed (on the Mono page SLaks linked to) be used on top of the new .NET Core port? – dodgethesteamroller May 18 '15 at 21:26
  • @dodgethesteamroller: Probably not. But why bother? Mono works fine. – SLaks May 18 '15 at 21:27
  • @SLaks "Mono works fine" and "GUI" are difficult to put in the same sentence. But this is my uninformed opinion.... Winforms hasn't ever been a main "target" for the Mono project, Gtk# is nearly abandoned (it is supporting Gnome 2.* and only on 32 bits if I remember correctly), MonoMac I don't know. – xanatos May 18 '15 at 21:31
  • @xanatos: If the frameworks don't work fine, running them on a different runtime won't help. (I've never actually used Mono) – SLaks May 18 '15 at 21:32

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.NET Core 5 for OS X does not support desktop application development.

If you refer to Mono, Xamarin.Mac provides bindings to native OS X APIs such as Cocoa, so your app works just like any other Cocoa apps.

Update: I also made a blog post on .NET cross platform UI framework.

Lex Li
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