Question

Why doesn’t the designer work if you inherit from an own written genericform?

Suppose I’ve got the following genericform

public class GenericForm<T> : System.Windows.Forms.Form {     public T Test     {         get;         set;     } } 

When I go to the designer I get errors.

The only workaround I made up is using compiler directives.

#if DESIGN         public partial class Form1 : System.Windows.Forms.Form #else     public partial class Form1 : GenericForm<string> #endif      {         public Form1()         {             InitializeComponent();         }     } 

Answer 1

I believe that’s because the designer tries to instantiate the form (or UserControl) to host it in the designer. If you have a generic (or abstract) form, the designer cannot instantiate it.