pynetforms

A Pythonic entry point for the .NET Forms libraries.

The two major UI libraries for Python are Qt and Tkinter. This library serves as an alternative, allowing for the use of .NET Forms in a Python-friendly manner.

Converting Forms

The code can be quite close to the C# code, or optionally can be more closer to Python. For instance, consider the following autogenerated InitializeComponent for a very simple form with a button that does nothing:

private void InitializeComponent()
{
    this.button1 = new System.Windows.Forms.Button();
    this.SuspendLayout();
    // 
    // button1
    // 
    this.button1.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(12, 12);
    this.button1.Name = "button1";
    this.button1.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(75, 23);
    this.button1.TabIndex = 0;
    this.button1.Text = "button1";
    this.button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = true;
    // 
    // Form1
    // 
    this.AutoScaleDimensions = new System.Drawing.SizeF(6F, 13F);
    this.AutoScaleMode = System.Windows.Forms.AutoScaleMode.Font;
    this.ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(800, 450);
    this.Controls.Add(this.button1);
    this.Name = "Form1";
    this.Text = "Form1";
    this.ResumeLayout(false);
}

This can be converted to a .NET form in Python by converting the class/method definitions to Python, remove semicolons, use class definitions from the netforms module, title-case booleans and convert floats from 6F to 6:

import netforms

class MyForm(netforms.Form):
    def InitializeComponent(self):
        self.button1 = netforms.controls.Button()
        self.SuspendLayout()
        # 
        # button1
        # 
        self.button1.Location = netforms.drawing.Point(12, 12)
        self.button1.Name = "button1"
        self.button1.Size = netforms.drawing.Size(75, 23)
        self.button1.TabIndex = 0
        self.button1.Text = "button1"
        self.button1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = True
        # 
        # Form1
        # 
        self.AutoScaleDimensions = netforms.drawing.Size(6, 13)
        self.AutoScaleMode = netforms.forms.AutoScaleMode.Font
        self.ClientSize = netforms.drawing.Size(800, 450)
        self.Controls.Add(self.button1)
        self.Name = "Form1"
        self.Text = "Form1"
        self.ResumeLayout(False)

The default __init__ for Form will call InitializeComponent. There are a few tricks we can use though, for instance, Size and Point are both a namedtuple, so the type calls for them are entirely optional.

Further all C# names have an alternative Python name. For example, button.TabIndex is the same as button.tab_index. InitializeComponent takes this one step further and provides options for initialize_component and initialize_components. Implementing these suggestions, we get closer to Python:

class MyForm(netforms.Form):
    def initialize_components(self):
        self.button1 = netforms.controls.Button()
        self.suspend_layout()
        # 
        # button1
        # 
        self.button1.location = (12, 12)
        self.button1.name = "button1"
        self.button1.size = (75, 23)
        self.button1.tab_index = 0
        self.button1.text = "button1"
        self.button1.use_visual_style_back_color = True
        # 
        # Form1
        # 
        self.auto_scale_dimensions = (6, 13)
        self.auto_scale_mode = netforms.forms.AutoScaleMode.Font
        self.client_size = (800, 450)
        self.controls.add(self.button1)
        self.name = "Form1"
        self.text = "Form1"
        self.resume_layout(False)

Furthermore since this is such a simple form, and does not require any event handlers, we do not even need to create a subclass to accomplish this:

my_form = netforms.Form(
    client_size=(800, 450),
    auto_scale_dimensions=(6, 13),
    auto_scale_mode=netforms.forms.AutoScaleMode.Font,
    name="Form1",
    text="Form1",
    controls=[netforms.controls.Button(
        location=(12, 12),
        name="button1",
        size=(75, 23),
        tab_index=0,
        text="button1",
        use_visual_style_back_color=True,
    )],
)

Notice that the controls can take in attributes as keyword arguments as well.

Running Forms

Everything from System.Windows.Forms.Application is available by both original and Python-friendly names. Simply provide run with a Form instance, as you would in C#:

netforms.run(my_form)

The base netforms module will shadow methods from System.Windows.Forms.Applicatoin, meaning both Run and run are available.

Events

Events work similarly to C# in that you must add a callable to the event handler. For example, lets take the simple form from above, and add an event handler that will make the button serve as a counter, displaying how many times it has been clicked.

class MyForm(netforms.Form):
    def initialize_components(self):
        self.suspend_layout()
        # 
        # button1
        # 
        self.button1 = netforms.controls.Button(
            location=(12, 12),
            name="button1",
            size=(75, 23),
            tab_index=0,
            text="0",
            use_visual_style_back_color=True,
        )
        self.button1.click += self.button1_click
        # 
        # Form1
        # 
        self.auto_scale_dimensions = (6, 13)
        self.auto_scale_mode = netforms.forms.AutoScaleMode.Font
        self.client_size = (800, 450)
        self.controls.add(self.button1)
        self.name = "Form1"
        self.text = "Form1"
        self.resume_layout(False)

    def button1_click(self, sender, e):
        sender.text = int(sender.text) + 1
        sender.update()

First we define an event handler button1_click. This handler needs 2 arguments, sender and e. Notice that the sender is already wrapper, allowing for usage of Python style names and implicit type conversion.

Next notice the line where we add button1_click to the EventHandler click. This is exactly like C# except without the converting to another type.

That is it! button1_click will be called when the button is clicked!

Optionally, event handlers can be provided in the __init__ as well:

self.button1 = netforms.controls.Button(
    ...
    click=self.button1_click,
)

Multiple handlers can be provided this way using an iterable

self.button1 = netforms.controls.Button(
    ...
    click=[self.button1_click, self.generic_button_handler],
)