How can I enable a WinForms or WPF project in F#?

Question

I have the very latest version of Visual Studio 2017 installed. I selected F# language support and F# desktop support. After restarting and going to File -> New Project I was ex

Answer 1

You can create both WPF and WinForms applications in F#. There is no template for it, but it is certainly possible and many people do this. To create a simple WinForms application, you can do the following:

• Create a new console application. Go to project properties and change "Output type" in the "Application" page from "Console application" to "Windows Application"

• Right click on "References" in the project and add reference to "System.Windows.Forms" and "System.Drawing" (in the "Framework" tab).

• Replace the code in Program.fs with the following:

  open System.Windows.Forms
  
  let f = new Form()
  f.Controls.Add(new Label(Text="Hello world!"))
  Application.Run(f)
  

For anything bigger, you will probably want to use a nice F# GUI library such as the FsXaml project mentioned by Isaac or Gjallarhorn, but the basic first steps will be the same - create a console project, make it a windows project and then add relevant references to GUI frameworks.