Windows WPF Boilerplate

.gitignore

*.exe

App.cs

using System;
using System.Windows;

public partial class Viewer: Window {
	public Viewer() {
		this.Title = "Simple Window";
		this.Width = 300;
		this.Height = 300;
	}
}

class App {
	[STAThread]
	static void Main(string[] argv) {
		Viewer view = new Viewer();
		new Application().Run(view);
	}
}

build.bat

:: Windows, as ever, is a bit persnickety to build on if you want to avoid IDEs. It took
:: me about a day to figure out how to properly reference the libraries in use below - eons
:: in developement time. It's a bit bizarre to me that assemblies - the windowian alias for
:: libraries - lack a standardized addressing scheme (like a shared directory) such that
:: they could all be referenced with ease. Theoretically I think this may have been the
:: historical purpose of C:\Windows\system32. As its turned out libraries, the broader Windows
:: development environment, and documentation thereof is totally haphazard. The prominence
:: of GitHub lets me mask over these difficulties by directly consulting the source code of
:: others. But it would be nice if Microsoft could make the developer experience a bit more
:: cohesive.
::
:: Regardless, the correct build command (for this simple program) varies in flavor based on
:: whether you're using the 'raw' command prompt (cmd.exe) or the developer command prompt
:: as instantiated by Visual Studio (VsDevCmd.bat) [1]. In the former case, the first command
:: will build the program. In the latter, an additional reference to 'System.Xaml.dll' must
:: be included.
::
:: Lastly, by default I'm using the C# compiler (csc.exe) included with .NET at [2]. I suspect
:: VsDevCmd.bat uses whichever compiler is included with Visual Studio.
::
:: [1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/ide/reference/command-prompt-powershell?view=vs-2019#developer-command-prompt
:: [2] C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\<version>\csc.exe

:: Builds with cmd.exe
csc /r:WPF\PresentationFramework.dll /r:WPF\PresentationCore.dll /r:WPF\WindowsBase.dll /r:System.Xaml.dll App.cs

:: Builds with VsDevCmd.exe
:: "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Microsoft Visual Studio\2019\Community\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat"
:: csc /r:WPF\PresentationFramework.dll /r:WPF\PresentationCore.dll /r:WPF\WindowsBase.dll App.cs