Quick Start

The easiest way to get started with Eto.Forms is to use the Visual Studio extensions or dotnet new. These provide a way to create new Eto.Forms projects very easily, either with a single project or separate launcher projects per platform.

Visual Studio for Windows

Make sure you have installed the latest Visual Studio updates. Then, install the extension by following these steps (or download for VS 2019 or VS 2022):

1. Open Extensions > Manage Extensions
2. Select Online > Visual Studio Marketplace
3. In the search box, type Eto.Forms
4. Select Eto.Forms Visual Studio Addin and click Download
5. Restart Visual Studio to install the extension.

Now you can easily create a new project using the Eto.Forms Application template.

Visual Studio for Mac

First, install the extension by following these steps:

1. Download the latest Eto.DevExtension.VisualStudio.Mac.*.mpack from here, depending on your VS version.
2. Open Visual Studio > Extensions... (Mac)
3. Click Install from file...
4. Select the .mpack file and click Open
5. Click Install to install the extension
6. Restart Visual Studio for Mac

Now you can easily create a new project using the Multiplatform > App > Eto.Forms > Application template.

Note You must also install the latest version Xcode if you want to use the Xamarin.Mac or macOS platforms.

Note Debugging .NET 5+ applications only works on VS 2022.

Command Line with dotnet new

With the .NET Core SDK installed, run the following from the command line:

> dotnet new -i Eto.Forms.Templates
> dotnet new etoapp --help  # shows project creation options
> mkdir MyApp
> cd MyApp
> dotnet new etoapp -m xaml  # create a project xaml definitions
> dotnet build MyApp.Mac/MyApp.Mac.csproj
> dotnet build MyApp.Wpf/MyApp.Wpf.csproj
> dotnet build MyApp.Gtk/MyApp.Gtk.csproj

You can then run using dotnet run in the target folders for the platform you are on.

Note you currently cannot build .NET Core based WPF or WinForms apps on non-windows platforms. Instead, you can build each of the .csproj's directly or create solution configurations for each platform.

VS Code

VS Code is a great alternative to using VS for Mac or Windows and supports .NET Core and mono debugging.

For Eto.Mac targets, you need to set the "program" variable to the executable within the .app bundle, something like ${workspaceFolder}/MyApp.Mac/bin/Debug/net6.0/MyApp.Mac.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp.Mac

JetBrains Rider

JetBrains Rider is a great cross-platform alternative for Visual Studio.
With the .NET Core SDK installed, run the following from the command line: dotnet new -i "Eto.Forms.Templates::*"

Now you can easily create a new project using the Eto Application template.

For Eto.Mac targets, you need to set the startup program to the executable within the .app bundle, something like bin/Debug/net6.0/MyApp.Mac.app/Contents/MacOS/MyApp.Mac.