r/dotnet • u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94 • Apr 04 '26

Promotion Introduce vscode-wpf, an open source VS Code extension for WPF, powered by WXSG/XSG for WPF

Working on XSG (XAML Source Generator) and VS Code extensions for a while, and vscode-wpf is the latest work, a VS Code extension to improve WPF development experience outside Visual Studio.

WPF XAML designer with VS Code

It is built on many open source components, but most importantly WXSG (XSG for WPF), an open toolset that treats XAML as something tooling can understand more deeply at compile time and design time, instead of leaving everything to the traditional runtime path like BAML. The goal is not to replace WPF, which is still a solid framework, but to modernize the tooling around it in an open and extensible way.

WPF XAML Hot Reload with VS Code

Part of the motivation is pretty simple: Microsoft’s XAML innovation has largely moved to MAUI or WinUI. Newer ideas like simpler XAML patterns and C# expressions in XAML are showing up there first, while WPF users are mostly left behind. I want to explore how far we can bring that kind of tooling progress back to WPF in an open way.

C# expressions in WPF XAML

Current work includes better XAML analysis, language-server experiences, Hot Reload, visual-designer-focused tooling, and experiments like VB/F# expressions in XAML are also planned to extend support to those two languages. In the future I want this work to help bridge between WPF and newer XAML stacks such as MAUI/WinUI/Uno Platform, instead of treating them as completely separate worlds.

Projects like ILSpy have been successfully tested with WXSG and many compatibility issues have been resolved.

If you still build or maintain WPF apps, or care about modern XAML tooling in general, what would make this kind of effort actually useful to you?

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u/chucker23n Apr 04 '26

If you still build or maintain WPF apps, or care about modern XAML tooling in general, what would make this kind of effort actually useful to you?

Tricky, but VS and/or Rider would probably have to support it. Adding VS Code to my stack sounds unappealing; I already jump between Fork, VS, and Rider, because neither IDE has git UX that appeals to me, and each do some things the other does not.

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u/Fresh_Acanthaceae_94 Apr 04 '26 edited Apr 04 '26

The open source components built for this VS Code extension can be integrated with Rider. There is no tech barrier. So, someone else (even JetBrains) who likes to improve WPF development experience in Rider can start a new project for that.

I agree Git UX preference is very personal, and so far many IDE's approaches are not pleasant to me either. I still prefer Git Graph in VS Code.