OpenWindow is a project that aims to offer a simple C# API that calls into the running native windowing backend without any layer in between. It targets .NET Standard 1.3 and 2.0.

• Intuitive API
• Only C#, no C/C++ or any other language for interop
• Support for keyboard, mouse and touch input
• No dependencies other than the native libs that come installed with the windowing backend
• Multiple backends
  • Win32 (Windows)
  • X11 using XCB (Linux)
  • Wayland (Linux)
  • Cocoa (macOS)

• Rendering. No graphical backend will be implemented whatsoever. OpenWindow does allow passing parameters to window creation for OpenGL support (e.g. surface format, depth buffer) and there's a helper library called OpenWindow.GL to get started with OpenGL in a cross-platform way.
• Mobile platform support. This might change in the future, but currently the API is targeted for desktop, so a large chunk wouldn't be usable on mobile platforms.

The project is very much a work in progress. The Win32 backend is pretty far along, but the others cannot be used yet. The API is not final, but I don't expect major changes.

The Win32 backend has most of what you'd expect from a library like this. Check out the HelloOpenWindow sample or the Window API to see what's supported.

To do:

• Touch
• Drag and drop
• Clipboard
• Cursor appearance

The X backend requires a generator to generate the client-side library from xml files that define the protocol. I'm working on parsing the files and generating the bindings.

Wayland bindings are generated and the implementation is in a usable state. Needs a lot more testing though.

Not started. I don't have a Mac device to test with. Any help would be most welcome :) If you have a Mac and want to help implement the macOS backend, please open an issue for discussion.

Install .NET Core 2.0+ and dotnet CLI, and run dotnet build on any of the projects.

OpenWindow is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE.txt file.