Cross platform UI module that plays nice with C# / Mono backend

Question

EDIT 1 2017/01/29 - At the moment our choice has gone to electron in combination with EdgeJS and all the power of NodeJS and the packages/resources on npm there.. There is no better alternative for us to create cross platform apps for all three plyers (macOS, linux and windows). Thanks everyone for their input.

---

ORIGINAL Question:
TL;DR - Backend code written in C# (.Net/Mono). Writing a desktop application that needs low level access to the system (cross platform OSX, Linux, Windows 7 to 10). In search of a one-stop cross platform UI tool/framework that can interface with the status of the backend-code, either by polling/messaging or calling into the code of the backend code. This "backend" includes for example the scanning & listing of process info, taking screenshots, etc.. Sending network information (which websites were visited etc..) It's in essence an exam monitor for students when they're doing an online exam in classrooms.**

Options we are exploring:

• electron (formerly known as atom shell) looks nice, but we have no idea whether it can interop/call into/kickstart a C#/Mono application. Posted this as well on their official forum for feedback, and whether it is a good use case for electron. In an ideal world, we'd like to use electron fully, but unfortunately I think we need platform specific logic (which now we handle in C# w/ .net & mono).

• Eto.Forms is what we work with now, but is limiting in it's UI's capabilites - as sometimes it still renders differently (sizing of windows) on different platforms. It also has a different look & feel that's tied to the platform of the user - which is a good feature, but it makes it difficult to make dedicated controls to visualise status, which would be easier in html/css.

• Another route, is a mix between Eto.Forms (or something else) to bootstrap a native UI that hosts a browser in it's window that cross platform and not dependent on the locally installed browsers, such as Awesomium. This would still require Eto.Forms, or any other bootstrapper to kickstart the application, but all other navigation would go through the Awesomium rendered html.

Thanks, Yves

Answer 1

AvaloniaUI (A cross platform XAML Framework for .NET Framework, .NET Core and Mono) would be a perfect choice if you are familiar with WPF.

There are many other frameworks to develop cross-platform desktop apps. You can checkout my github repo electron-alternatives for more cross-platform desktop development options.