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Application Domain

Current usage

What types of applications is the language actually being used mostly? Show samples.

Currently, C# has a widespread use in

  1. desktop applications, using various technologies like
  2. web sites, web applications and web services, primarily using ASP.NET

WinForms

WinForms, or Windows Forms, is graphical class library included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework. Its popularity can be seen though the sheer amount of commercially-available custom user interface controls:

  1. DevExpress WinForms
  2. Windows Forms UI Controls by Infragistics
  3. Syncfusion Essential Studio for Windows Forms
  4. Xceed for WinForms
  5. Telerik UI for WinForms
  6. … and lots more

However, WinForms is now in maintenance mode as no new features will be added (Allen, 2014). Developers are also advised to move forward to its successor – the XAML based UI frameworks, like WPF and UWP.

One thing to note is that even if WinForms is nearly “dead”, there are still a lot of legacy WinForms applications in production till this date (Corey, 2018; Heath, 2014).

WPF

Almost all of the newer .NET desktop applications are written using WPF, some of the notable examples are:

  1. Microsoft Visual Studio
  2. Expression Blend, for designing XAML-based interfaces

and a lot more, compiled from (StackOverflow, 2011):

  1. Autodesk AutoCAD
  2. Nero
  3. Lenovo ThinkVantage
  4. HP Total Care Advisor
  5. Intel Rapid Storage Technology
  6. AMD Fusion Media Explorer
  7. Nokia Music
  8. HP TouchSmart
  9. …

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is an open-source (Microsoft, 2017) framework for building modern web apps and services with .NET. According to BuiltWith (BuiltWith, 2018), there are more than 40 million websites using ASP.NET.

Some of the prominent examples are:

  1. StackOverflow (Craver, 2013)
  2. Bing, and other Microsoft websites
  3. namecheap
  4. W3Schools
  5. Dell

References

  1. Allen, J. (2014, April 3). A WPF Q&A. Retrieved from https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/04/WPF-QA
  2. Corey, T. (2018, April 13). IS WINFORMS DEAD? Retrieved from https://iamtimcorey.com/ask-tim-is-winforms-dead/
  3. Heath, M. (2014, June 5). Is Windows Forms Dead Yet? Retrieved from http://mark-dot-net.blogspot.com/2014/06/is-windows-forms-dead-yet.html
  4. StackOverflow. (2011, June 5). What real world WPF applications are out there? Retrieved from https://stackoverflow.com/a/4456279
  5. Microsoft. (2017, July 25). SP.NET MVC, Web API, and Web Pages (Razor) are Open Source Projects. Retrieved from https://www.asp.net/open-source
  6. BuiltWith. (2018). Websites using ASP.NET. Retrieved from https://trends.builtwith.com/websitelist/ASP.NET
  7. Craver, N. (2013, November 22). What it takes to run Stack Overflow. Retrieved from https://nickcraver.com/blog/2013/11/22/what-it-takes-to-run-stack-overflow/