Our life is now completely dependent on the internet. From performing banking transactions, to paying bills, from creating software to ordering food online, we need internet at every step of our life. In such a time, the importance of cloud-based applications, web applications, smartphone applications have increased enormously, and desktop applications have been replaced by them in many areas. But, there are certain applications which need humongous portion of the CPU memory, such as Graphics, Editing applications, movie production applications, data recovery applications, educational software applications, for e.g., AutoCAD, Xylinx ISE, Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. It is not possible to render robust and seamless performance with web-based applications. So, the popularity of desktop software product is always high and thus, desktop application development is a great option to choose.
For developing a desktop application, you need to choose a framework. Choosing a framework is a rigorous process because there are a plethora of options and requirements to consider before making the final decision. Not every framework can serve your needs. Hence, making a smart, educated choice is more important than anything else.
Types of Desktop Applications
There are various types of Desktop applications, based on utility and function. The main types are Standalone desktop apps, client server application, utilities and plug ins, collaborative applications, system apps, multimedia apps, network apps, etc.
Standalone business application: This is your typical application, and is like applications like Word, Excel, Outlook and more. Anything that can be used by someone to make their work more efficient would fall into this category.
Client-Server Application: This application that runs on the PC and accesses information from a remote server.
Collaborative Application: When a large number of people work together using the same app.
Network Applications: This type of applications run over a network.
Utilities and Plug-Ins: Apps that aid smooth functioning of a PC
System Apps and Services: Apps to aid the internal functioning of the PC.
Multimedia Applications: Applications that can play podcasts, movies, video, music. Example: iTunes.
What Are The Types of Desktop Frameworks?
Desktop Frameworks can be classified into three broad divisions, such as Desktop Frameworks for Windows, for macOS and cross platform Desktop Frameworks.
Desktop Frameworks for Windows Applications
Microsoft has created a robust and efficient framework for desktop-based applications for Windows. The development community set up by Microsoft, has an extensive toolkit, which is user-friendly, enriched with advanced features. There are various models, based on the requirement and the prices vary accordingly. The most appealing aspect of Desktop Frameworks for Windows platform is that, it is very simple. So, for a beginner, the Windows based framework is always a great choice. If you are working for developing an app on Windows Store or for regular run, UWP framework or Universal Windows Platform framework is commendable.
Desktop Frameworks for macOS
Apple has been trying to consolidate the OS architecture and development tools for all of its operating systems, such as iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. So, creating applications for macOS has become a lot easier than before. But if you are comparing the versatility of Windows frameworks and macOS frameworks, then former surpasses the latter in diversity.
Cross Platform Desktop Frameworks
Nowadays, most of the popular desktop applications are available for all major operating systems. It is not possible to develop the same application from scratch for each platform. For cross platform frameworks, developers create unified codebase. This codebase can be used later also for the SaaS version of the application.
These are some basic information about Desktop Application Development. Hope you like the article.
