C++ ports of CommunityToolkit WinUI components

[lgztx96]

I’ve ported a set of CommunityToolkit controls to C++/WinRT (it also supports .NET), making them usable in C++ WinUI projects:

CommunityToolkit.WinUI (C++/WinRT)

The port currently includes the following controls:

Control
MarkdownTextBlock
Marquee
OpacityMaskView
ColorPicker / ColorPickerButton
ImageCropper
LayoutTransformControl
Segmented
SettingsCard / SettingsExpander
ContentSizer / GridSplitter / PropertySizer
StaggeredLayout
SwitchPresenter
UniformGrid
AttachedCardShadow

⚠️ Note: There are still many controls not ported. Let me know if you need any!

[HO-COOH]

Hi @lgztx96 , I just noticed your work and I am very appreciated of it. I think us C++ devs should really make our projects more known so that other devs don't waste their time over and over again re-implementing the same stuff.

I also have a similar project for WinUI3, it's more focused on common helpers that almost all winui3 projects need, not necessarily about community toolkit controls (although we already have duplicate implementations like Segmented and SettingsCard etc.) And I think we can kind of combine into one project.

Tell me about what you think, and maybe we can get into touch :)

[lgztx96]

Yeah, I completely agree. There’s so much repeated work around C++/WinUI, it’d be awesome if we could unify things a bit.

[mdtauk]

Maybe there could be some WinAppSDK effort into allowing C++ apps to consume C# WinUI/WinRT components - without having to always port it to C++ - maybe a subset of C# API calls for controls which would make it consumable?

[HO-COOH]

It never makes sense to consume C# components from C++ in the first place. There are still issues of using AOT on winui3 official controls so it is not an option. Bringing .net runtimes to C++ is also not acceptable for C++ devs. Existing C# components should ideally be rewritten in C++, then consume from C#.

[pjmlp]

Unfortunely that was yet another set back from UWP => WinUI/WinAppSDK.

Integration between .NET Native and C++/CX worked just fine across both stacks.

I would agree if C++/WinRT tooling wasn't so pre-historic, throwing us back to the glory old days of doing COM in Visual C++ 6.0 with ATL, and zero Visual Studio tooling integrtion other than calling into command line tools.

[hoshiizumiya]

It works, see my sample. But cswinrt has many problems to fix. issue link.