> Why is it a better approach? Universal does not always mean better. Javascript was built in 10 days and it's now universal.
Easier to diff, easier to copy paste, easier to upgrade and easier to extend. In the 90's we had both approaches and it was the code based (Qt, GTK) and declarative (html, xaml) systems that (mostly) won.
If I'm working with win32 or winforms then I love the UI designer, but that's because they come with an awful API, for anything else I'll take the code approach.
Easier to diff, easier to copy paste, easier to upgrade and easier to extend. In the 90's we had both approaches and it was the code based (Qt, GTK) and declarative (html, xaml) systems that (mostly) won.
If I'm working with win32 or winforms then I love the UI designer, but that's because they come with an awful API, for anything else I'll take the code approach.