How to write a desktop application properly?

Question

I am a web and mobile application developer and I prefer to use MVC frameworks for development. I have just started to a desktop application (in C#). Application development is not a problem. I had written various desktop application before but they were for personal use or for small companies.

Is there a good open source project that I can download and read the source to learn how to write a desktop application to achieve easy maintenance, good error handling etc...

Answer 1

I think the best source for this is the Patterns & Practices website from Microsoft. They even have a small section dedicated to desktop applications: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/practices/bb969054.aspx#win_apps

Answer 2

I'm a big fan of MVC, and for desktop applications I use the MVP (supervising controller) pattern, which is really similar. You can read about it on Martin Fowlers blog:

http://martinfowler.com/eaaDev/SupervisingPresenter.html