Question: ResourceDictionary and Styles like WPF

[mbedded]

Hello,

as first thank you very much for your good work to provide a WPF-Like Framework to create cross-plattform applications. So far it works very good on Linux even if there are some minor issues.

I would like to know if there is something like "WPF-Like styling" planned in the future. In classic WPF you write something like

<Style x:Key="MyKey" TargetType="{x:Type Button}">
  <Setter Property="Foreground" Value="Red" />
</Style>

<Button Style="{DynamicResource MyKey}" />

Those styles can be written in separate ResourceDictionaries so you have a some files for your styles (e.g. ButtonStyles.xaml, TextboxStyles.xaml...)

Currently the documentation says that "Styles like WPF are not supported".

Note that unlike WPF/UWP, styles will have no effect if they're added to a control or application ResourceDictionary. This is because the order that styles are defined in Avalonia is important and ResourceDictionary is an unsorted dictionary.
(https://avaloniaui.net/docs/styles/styles)

I see that some people like the CSS-Like styling. I'm just wondering why a different kind of "use styles" was added because there is already a way to style your application in WPF with good documentation. Furthermore i think that the "WPF way" is more intuitive for people which switched from Windows to Linux or Mac, because the tooling/syntax is already known.
Do you plan to support Styles and ResourceDictionaries in a later version or do you want to support CSS-Styling only? Is there some ETA for a basic-support of WPF-Styles? I know this project has no 1.x version yet but i think you're on a very good way :)

If there is already a issue for this particular question feel free to close this ticket. The references (see below) didn't helped me.

Thank you very much for your help and keep up the good work :)

References:

• Add Resources property to Application #462 (comment)
• WPF compatibility layer #2309 (comment)
• WPF-style styles #2765

[kekekeks]

The plan is to implement #2769 somewhere this year.

However those will not be resolved from resource dictionaries automatically for x:Key="{x:Type Button"}. You'll have to do something like

<Style Selector="Button">
    <Setter Property="ControlTheme" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonStyleResourceKey}" />
</Style>

or <Button ControlTheme="{DynamicResource ButtonStyleResourceKey}"/>

We still haven't decided on "ControlTheme" name and might use "Style" instead.

[grokys]

I see that some people like the CSS-Like styling. I'm just wondering why a different kind of "use styles" was added because there is already a way to style your application in WPF with good documentation.

To answer this question: because when I started Avalonia, it was for fun and I didn't really expect it to get to the state where people are wanting to port WPF applications to it ;)

[mbedded]

Thank you both for clarification. It sounds to me that I have to stick with this "Selector" attribute and CSS-like-definitions for styling (when I understood everything correctly).
It feels different for me because I develop WPF application since some years. On the other hand WPF != AvaloniaUI :)

Thank you for clarification