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Geek Culture / anyone used WPF in .Net?

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Phaelax
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:10
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I'm looking to get back into some C# programming and just installed VS 2010 thanks to DreamSpark. It's been a few years since I touched C# and the only thing I did was make a networking library. GUI stuff is new to me. I saw this new WPF application and did a little reading and noticed it uses DX for rendering the UI, or thats how I understand it.

Would anyone recommend using WPF over a standard forms applications for developing, say, a text editor or even an IDE?

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:19
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I thought WPF was 'standard form applications'?

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Phaelax
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:25
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I guess I should've said Windows Form Application instead of standard.

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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:29 Edited at: 16th Jan 2011 20:37
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Well urm, its not much help, but i found a quote on wiki:

Quote: "The Windows Presentation Foundation provides a platform-independent way of designing graphical user interfaces. Windows Forms has been in effect superseded by WPF (and its associated GUI declarative language called XAML). Since WPF is relatively new, it is unclear if Windows Forms will continue to be improved in future .NET releases."


Quote: "WPF vs. Windows Forms

WPF
+ Powerfull styling and skinning structure
+ Easy to create an own Look and Feel
+ Does support Windows Forms
+ The future technology for developing Vista Applications
+ The ability to reuse existing code
+ Highly advanced databinding possible
- Declarative vs procedural code
- Requires .NET Framework 3.0
- Compared to Windows Forms, still in development fase
- Requires Dx9 compatible vidcard for advanced graphics

Windows Forms:
+ Extensive documentation to be found on the internet
+ Plenty of examples
+ Does support WPF
- How long will this be supported? (I've read somewhere that Microsoft is only developing WPF now, only maintanance for Winforms)
- Design your own look and feel in a application is a lot of work."

Source: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/wpf/thread/42636e55-a1e0-4b29-bbd1-cd8073585584

Im pretty sure only windows can use .net framework 3.0 (but those emulators like Wine might make it work on linux)

Quote: "1. WPF is a graphical subsystem that renders user interfaces in Windows based applications; Windows Forms is the graphical API that provides access to native Microsoft Windows interface elements.

2. WPF is a markup language alternative that defines UI elements and relationships with other UI elements; Windows Forms is an event driven application supported by the Microsoft .NET Framework."

Source: http://www.differencebetween.net/technology/difference-between-wpf-and-windows-forms/


Quote: "We took the plunge and built our latest desktop e-commerce package entirely in WPF (except for reporting, which we interop to use ReportViewer). I haven't had one day of regret. WPF's declarative approach has been easy to grasp for everyone, and it helps enforce separation of UI from business logic.

That said, if your team has a lot of WinForms experience, then it might be counter-productive to spend time learning WPF.

If that's not an issue, give WPF a try and maybe you'll get hooked."

Source: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/504014/wpf-winforms-or-something-else/504053#504053


Hope that helped.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:57
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It helps a bit. I just have a lot to learn about Windows GUI programming. This was so much easier in Java.

Quote: "Im pretty sure only windows can use .net framework 3.0"

There's the mono project, but i'm not sure what version they're up to.

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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 16th Jan 2011 20:58
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If you ask me Windows Forms is alot easier than WPF =/

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Jeku
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Posted: 17th Jan 2011 19:08
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I think the beauty of WPF is that it organizes it with MVC, separating the code from the GUI so the GUI can be made by a graphic designer. I could be wrong.


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Fatal Berserker
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Posted: 17th Jan 2011 20:15
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Quote: "I think the beauty of WPF is that it organizes it with MVC, separating the code from the GUI so the GUI can be made by a graphic designer. I could be wrong."

I think thats windows forms.
You need to know XAML to do WPF.

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JoelJ
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Posted: 18th Jan 2011 03:11
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Quote: "Quote: "I think the beauty of WPF is that it organizes it with MVC, separating the code from the GUI so the GUI can be made by a graphic designer. I could be wrong."
I think thats windows forms.
You need to know XAML to do WPF."

That's what he's saying. Windows Forms requires you to know C# to do anything outside of drag and dropping. XAML gives a lot more power to the designer, especially with some of the XAML specific tools MS makes outside of Visual Studio. And just to clarify, the standard design pattern recommended for WPF is MVVM not MVC. It's very similar, but the differences make your XAML UI a lot cleaner to implement.

Quote: "Would anyone recommend using WPF over a standard forms applications for developing, say, a text editor or even an IDE?"


I've used WPF quite a bit. I really like it. The only problem I have with it is the lack of cross platform functionality. But it really is quite powerful. As for developing an IDE, I would say go for it. Microsoft didn't seem to have much of a problem with writing the Visual Studio shell in WPF. It does have a slight (not a lot though) learning curve, but I recommend learning to use the MVVM design pattern. It makes writing WPF apps so much nicer.

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Phaelax
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Posted: 18th Jan 2011 05:38
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I think I'm gonna have to find a book on the subject. I've looked online for GUI tutorials and the most anyone can seem to be bother to show is how to add a text box and button to the frame. It's so frustrating when you know how to do something (in theory) but your ability to put it in practice is limited by your knowledge of the specific language.

"Only the educated are free" ~Epictetus
"Imagination is more important than knowledge..." ~Einstein
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JoelJ
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Posted: 21st Jan 2011 04:16
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I learned mostly from online tutorials myself. I can't remember how good this site is, but I remember referencing it a lot. And this answer here seems to have some great references for both WPF and MVVM.

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