Modernizing .NETpad: Project Update (Premium)

Last week, a reader asked me why I wasn't posting the source code for the .NETpad modernization work I'm working on and writing about. This is by design, but I didn't explain this well (or at all). So that's on me, apologies. This initial phase of the project is about me figuring out what I can do to modernize .NETpad given Microsoft's unexpected, renewal of formal support for WPF. This change delighted me to no end: Of all the app frameworks I've used over the years, WPF is by far my favorite. And of the several .NETpad versions I've created, the WPF version is likewise my favorite.

So this is very exciting (to me, at least). But after announcing its sudden turnaround on WPF and then releasing the initial support in .NET 9 Preview 4 the week of Build 2015 back in May, Microsoft has been largely silent. I expected and hoped for new rounds of updated documentation and improvements to the basic Windows 11 theming support in WPF, but there's been nothing. It's almost three months later, Microsoft has since issued .NET 9 Preview 5 and 6, and we're at the halfway point between the announcement and the final release of .NET 9 in November. But there is very little news, and no meaningful documentation of any kind, and Microsoft hasn't updated WPF support in .NET 9 at all since May.

So I've plowed forward. I've reacquainted myself with WPF, C#, .NET, and Visual Studio. I've built the app, updated the app, ventured off into more side projects than I can count, and experimented with alternatives and add-ons that I could maybe use to add functionality that pure WPF doesn't address. I've improved the code quality. I've been learning, basically, and my excitement at unexpected progress here and there has triggered more articles about this work than I'd expected to write during this phase of the project.

And that's an important point. I am a writer, and so the articles I've written so far are in many ways me working through the problems I'm experiencing. But I am not a programmer, not a "real" or "professional" programmer anyway, and so I make mistakes. I go down the wrong path sometimes. I look at things from some high level, make assumptions, get some work done, and then realize I need to start over. And so I do. And this has happened many times over the summer. But I'm enjoying the work, enjoy flexing this muscle again. And I share it with you because it's difficult for me not to, and maybe a handful of you enjoy it too. Also, I don't see anyone out there writing about this topic at all. Maybe I'm filling a small void of some kind. I don't know.

Regardless, I should have been more explicit about my plans. Though the truth is, they're in flux. Here's where I'm at.
The schedule: When
I have a rough schedule in mind thanks to the timing for .NET 9, which is a requirement to do this work: Microsoft will launch .NET 9, and thus formal WPF support for Windows 11 theming, on November 12, 2024 at its annual .NET Conf event. So my rough (and...