I just wonder a bit whether or not GDI+ is still a technology worth using, especially in a .net sense.
Granted, GDI+ is still THE technology to handle Images in Windows, but it is also unmanaged code (obviously). Now, after discovering that GDI+ is actually not supported on ASP.net¹, I just wonder: Is it actually feasible to have Image Manipulation Libraries that run completely in Managed Code? XNA does it if i remember correctly, albeit it uses the graphics card for it.
Is there maybe even any .net Image Library that implements a sort of managed GDI+?
¹ Source, also Microsoft just offered something for ASP.net that uses GDI+.
It’s still a technology worth using. There are lots of Windows Forms and unmanaged apps around that use GDI+ that either won’t be upgraded, or that will be upgraded, but that don’t need more advanced rendering capabilities. GDI+ is a good bolt-on solution for older applications, and for new applications written in Windows Forsm. That’s the primary reason GDI+ wasn’t axed in Vista in favour of a totally DirectX solution.
There’s not specifically anything wrong with GDI/GDI+. True, it’s not as advanced as Aero et al, but that doesn’t always matter. Particularly in LOB applications (in companies that probably don’t even have machines capable of running Vista – mine certainly doesn’t), GDI+ is an extremely important technology.
The fact that it’s not supported (for drawing, at least… you CAN still use it for image manipulation) in ASP.NET is a red herring, since other drawing technologies are not supported for web applications either (plugin-based ‘applications’ notwithstanding).