Parity status

UnoDock follows the public API and behavior of a widely used WPF docking library (pinned in contracts/reference.json) so that layouts, code and concepts carry over. This page summarizes where it stands. It is measured, not assumed: the numbers come from the gates described in Build and verification.

Public API

tools/check-metadata.sh compares UnoDock's compiled public surface with the reference's resolved metadata (1,031 entries):

Result	Entries
Declared members matching name, signature, modifiers and defaults	883
Inherited members matching	23
Types matching shape	72
Total matched	978 / 1,031

The remaining 53 entries are WPF framework plumbing with no WinUI equivalent:

HWND hosting — FilterMessage(hwnd, msg, …) overrides and HwndHost.BuildWindowCore/DestroyWindowCore on the auto-hide window. UnoDock handles the corresponding native messages internally on Windows and raises LayoutFloatingWindowControl.MessageFilterFailed for diagnostics.
WPF element lifecycle overrides — OnInitialized, LogicalChildren, OnApplyTemplate signatures, Freezable.CreateInstanceCore and WPF mouse overrides (OnMouseLeave, OnMouseRightButtonDown, …). UnoDock provides the same hooks through DockInputControl with WinUI pointer semantics.
Base-type shape — 33 types derive from WinUI bases (Control, ContentControl, Grid) instead of their WPF counterparts; members and behavior are otherwise matched.
18 attribute differences — WPF-only attributes (for example ContentProperty and TemplatePart forms, XmlIgnore placement).

Features

Area	Status
Layout model: panels, pane groups, document/tool panes, anchor sides, hidden tools, floating windows, previous-container restore	Complete
`DockingManager` sources, templates, selectors, container styles, layout update strategy	Complete
Commands: close, close all, close all but this, float, dock, dock as document, auto-hide, hide, new/move tab groups, activate	Complete
Docking guides and previews, including across floating windows	Complete
Auto-hide rails and flyouts with resize	Complete
Floating tool and document windows with caption menu, maximize, close and eight-edge resize	Complete on Windows, macOS, Linux (X11); in-surface on WebAssembly/mobile
Continuous tab and pane tear-off	Complete on native desktop hosts
Ctrl+Tab navigator, keyboard navigation, context-menu keys	Complete
Header, title, icon and document-menu templates	Complete
`XmlLayoutSerializer` with content callback	Complete, verified against reference fixtures
Themes: Generic, Aero, Metro, VS2010 (+ Fluent and native TabView tabs)	Complete, palettes authored independently
Localized chrome (13 languages)	Complete, translations authored independently

Behavior verified against the reference

Layout operations are checked against layout trees recorded from the reference driven through its public API with the same layouts and calls. The reference-behavior suite compares UnoDock's tree dumps with those recordings character for character, covering:

auto-hide (per tool; restore appends) and closing or hiding a floating tool window (the window stays in the layout and Show() floats the tools again);
New Horizontal/Vertical Tab Group (wraps a panel-level document pane in a document pane group; reorients a single-pane group) and Move To Next/Previous Tab Group (adjacent sibling pane only; inserts at the front);
garbage collection of emptied panes, dock as document and back, floating tool commands, CanRepositionItems (reordering only), deselection;
layout restore without a callback (unmatched tools hidden, documents dropped) and with one (items kept).

For visual comparison the Gallery renders review scenes selected with UNODOCK_SCENARIO (docked, active-doc, active-tool, float-both, autohide, context-doc, dropdown, tool-menu, navigator) and themed with UNODOCK_GALLERY_THEME. Each uses the same layout, window size and actions as the reference review harness, so captures from Windows, macOS and Linux compare one to one with reference screenshots.

Validation by feature

Each area is compared with the reference in the way the last column names, and covered by the listed suites. "All" means the suite passes in real Uno hosts on Windows, macOS and Linux. Pull-request CI runs a lean subset (see Build and verification); the complete set is run before releases.

Area	Suites	Platforms	Compared with the reference by
Public API	`tools/check-metadata.sh`	build	Compiled surface against the reference's metadata (above)
Layout model and operations	`reference-behavior`, `layout-mutation-invariants`, `parity`, `restore-ownership`, `lifecycle`	all	Tree dumps recorded from the reference, compared character for character
Serialization	`interop`, `converters`, `runtime`	all	Layout files written by the reference (`contracts/reference-fixtures`)
Sources, templates, MVVM	`mvvm-workspace`, `mvvm-chrome`, `source-ownership`, `source-identity`, `xaml-workbench`, `xaml-workspaces`, `templates-icons`	all	Public API contracts and observed reference behavior
Commands and menus	`menu-quality`, `menu-context-lifetime`, `dropdown-quality`	all	Captures of the context, tool and document menus
Docking guides and previews	`docking-guides`, `interaction`, `docking-sizing`	all	Captures of guides and resulting layouts
Auto-hide	`auto-hide-quality`, `visual-parity`	all	Arranged geometry and per-item sequences from the reference
Floating windows	`desktop-floating`, `floating-chrome-`, `floating-resize-policy-`, `floating-drag-cleanup`, `window-placement`, `window-lifecycle`, `window-coordinates`	all	Captures of floating tool and document windows
Platform window integration	`mac-native` (macOS), `windows-floating-input` (Windows), native WinUI smoke test (Windows)	per platform	Native ownership, activation and shutdown
Tab and pane tear-off	`tear-off`	all	Observed drag behavior
Navigator and keyboard	`navigator-quality`, `navigator-commit`, `navigator-revocation`, `navigator-sample`, `fluent-navigator`, `focus-ownership`, `input-extensions`, `accessibility-quality`	all	Labels, ordering and focused selection captured from the reference
Splitters	`splitter-quality`	all	Observed resize limits
Themes	`classic-themes`, `visual-parity`, `presentation-quality`, `fluent-presentation`, `fluent-state-resources`, `uno-theme`, `tabview-strip`	all	Side-by-side captures of Generic, VS2010, Aero and Metro on Windows
Localization	`localization`	all	Resource keys of the reference

Platform validation

Desktop suites (more than 3,000 tests) run in real Uno hosts on Windows, macOS and Linux in CI; physical-input suites (tear-off, windows-floating-input, XTEST caption drags) run on dedicated desktops. The native stacking suites also pass on interactive desktops at 200% scaling. On macOS they need a desktop Space to be current: another application's full-screen Space hides the test windows, and the suite reports that cause.