Winforms Best Practice number of tabs/grids?

[sullyman]

Starting to design an application and wondering if its ok to have only one form as the application which could hold up to 15 gridviews seperated in tabs etc. with a navbar as navigation on the left

Is this too much or ok? Is it better to have one gridview per form? What is the norm?

 

[jmcilhinney]

It really depends what's most appropriate for the application. There is no one way to design an application because each one has different requirements.

That said, 15 tabs on a TabControl could be a little unwieldy. Also, too many controls on a single form can make your UI a bit sluggish. Only testing can tell you how your app will behave.

 

[sullyman]

Thanks J. I ask as i am new to forms etc.

Can you tell me when you hide a form, does this release resources for the application and ui for the next form that opens or is implementing threads the only way to control this.

Many thanks

 

[JuggaloBrotha]

Thanks J. I ask as i am new to forms etc.

Can you tell me when you hide a form, does this release resources for the application and ui for the next form that opens or is implementing threads the only way to control this.

Many thanks

Hiding something doesn't release the resources at all, it simply makes the control not visible, so if you hide a form it's simply not visible.

To release the resources call it's Dispose() method, in the case of the form call the Close() method then dispose on the object.

 

[sullyman]

Thanks J. How can i show another from and then close the previous form.

When i try the following the whole application closes

Form1.Show()
Me.Close()

 

[sullyman]

I have the application set to "when last form closes" and the startup form is the login form which is still open for testing in the background

I also tried

Me.close()
Form1.Show()

 

[sullyman]

Sorry J. I had application.exit() in the form closing event of that form. Apologies. Many thanks for your help