How do you build a Visual Studio like UI?

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+6 Q:

How do you build a Visual Studio like UI?

I'm looking to build a .Net application that has a UI similar to that of Visual Studio. Is there a name for that paradigm? Or does anyone know of a tutorial to do so...or even an OSS project that utilizes that paradigm? I'm looking for like the docking aspects and the interaction between panels...

99% of my experience is in the web space...so this sort of application is a new effort for me.

Thanks!

+7 A:

Take a look at sharpdevelop. Its OpenSource, there is even a book on its design/implementation and how to extend it.

That should get you going, and even give you code to start with.

Infamy 2009-02-20 23:42:23

I think the question is how to build a VS-like UI, not an alternative to VS...

Dave Swersky 2009-02-21 00:10:44

I think Imfamy's point is that you could use the source to see HOW they built the UI, which would answer the question.

Joe 2009-02-21 07:24:54

Joe K is correct, its more about the source then the app. #develop is open source, so you can download it and take a look at how they implemented it. There is also an amazing book on its design.

Infamy 2009-02-23 18:03:09

Poked around in it...but then I found the Telerik suite...either way both is a good start.

Webjedi 2009-02-23 23:06:04

+2 A:

Component Factory makes a number of controls to create Visual Studio like UI's. You could always try to figure out how they do it. There are any number of similar commercial controls.

As far as open source goes, i'm not familair with any robust open source projects to do this.

EDIT: Yeah, I guess sharpdevelop is a good choice also.

Mystere Man 2009-02-20 23:42:59

+3 A:

If you're building an application that also needs some of VS's behavior, then you might want to consider extending VS IDE itself. See MSDN Visual Studio Extensibily. Note that starting with VS 2008 you can ship IDE extensions as stand-alone (I think it's called shell mode).

Asaf R 2009-02-20 23:43:11

+2 A:

There are plenty of 3rd party control that will give you dockable panels and what not. I know Infragistics provides one. I think Component factory does too, but I'm not sure about the docking panels on that one.

Have you looked into the VS IDE Shell?

Joe 2009-02-20 23:46:04

+2 A:

For the docking aspects, you could try Dock Panel Suite. It's a free and open source project, hosted on SourceForge. It hasn't had a new release for a couple of years by the looks of it, but it claims to be in a production/stable state, so maybe that's no issue.

Jon Rimmer 2009-02-20 23:52:31

There is (used to be?) a project on SourceForge that provided just the DockingManager you need to build the MDI and docking caracteristics of Visual Studio-like UI

Try here : http://sourceforge.net/projects/dockpanelsuite

Or google for WeifenLuo Forms Docking

Radu094 2009-02-20 23:58:08

+1 A:

You might want to take a look at MonoDevelop (as well SharpDevelop, which has been mentioned already)

Aputsiaq 2009-02-21 01:18:46

ansaurus

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