Good panel interface component for C#?

Question

Any nice Paneled user interface component COM/ActiveX/Source-code for C#/VB?

Like what VS has internally:

• Dock to screen edges
• Slide open/close (unpinned)
• Pin open
• Group in tabs

And if possible, open-source/free.

Well, because otherwise I'd have to develop an interface system myself.

Answer 1

I've just been evaluating a few.

Crownwoods DotNet Magic (Discontinued Product)
This has been around for a long time, and was initially one of the best docking managers out there, but its a bit long in the tooth now, we had quite a few crashes, it doesn't allow floating windows to be docked vertically and horizontally, and the tooltips on the tabs have a habit of hanging around.

Telerik
Visually great, but there a quite a few bugs in it, and its got a pretty big foot print (8MB). The event model is a bit difficult to work with as well. I integrated this into our application, only to discard the changes.

Actipro
I recon this is the best of the 3, it supports all the functionality you would expect, and I didn't come across any bugs. It doesn't look quite as good as the Telerik stuff, but at least it works properly, with a sensible object model and event structure.

Answer 2

We use the DevExpress (devexpress.com) Component Suite, which has a Docking Manager that does that sort of thing.

Answer 3

DockPanel Suite! Its an open-source docking library for .NET Windows Forms development which mimics Visual Studio .NET.

Answer 4

OpenTheme is too fancy with styling support, but not paneled.