What is .NET MAUI?

MAUI, also known as Multi-Platform App UI, is a powerful cross-platform framework for creating mobile and desktop applications using C#.

There are multiple options when it comes to developing desktop applications using C#, for example, using the Windows Forms (WF) library, or the more advanced Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). However, WF and WPF are somewhat older as compared to MAUI, moreover, WF and WPF only support application development for Windows, however, with MAUI, it is possible to create desktop applications for all popular platforms: Windows, Mac, and Linux. Apart from that, it is also possible to create applications for Android and iOS using MAUI.

Since MAUI applications are cross-platform, an app created for Windows can be exported to be runnable on MacOS, or even for Android and iOS, without making any changes to the code. This makes MAUI very robust.

This is why we will be using MAUI to develop Desktop Applications. We will also cover some important C# concepts along the way as we learn to develop some cool desktop applications.

In MAUI, we define the application's UI (User Interface) using XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) and program the functionality and logic of the application using C#.

XAML is a Markup Language that has a very similar syntax to HTML, which is very convenient as we can define the structure and components of our application using XAML similar to how we would define the structure and components of a web page using HTML.