VS2008 WPF - About as stable as an inverted Eiffel Tower
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My first forray onto WPF. All I am trying to do is display two images - teh 2nd overlaying the first with transparent areas. Not a complex prog - although the fact that WPF doesn't seem to support transparent bitmaps was quite a surprise. VS 2008 has 'crashed' numerous times - usually when updating the XAML. I say crashed - it just sits there with the 'hourglass' icon spinning away, and everything disabled, until I kill it and start again. If this is typical behaviour, then this may be my last vernture into the world of WPF :(
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
From the posts I've read here lately about WPF I gather that you're in good company. "Not yet ready for prime time" is the impression I get. As I see it, you can: a) Start a support group, or b) Petition Microsoft to return it to alpha testing, from which it apparently escaped prematurely while the keepers of the asylum were playing video games. They were probably hoping it would be mistaken for yet another useless release of Windows and escape the blame, but we're on to them now.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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From the posts I've read here lately about WPF I gather that you're in good company. "Not yet ready for prime time" is the impression I get. As I see it, you can: a) Start a support group, or b) Petition Microsoft to return it to alpha testing, from which it apparently escaped prematurely while the keepers of the asylum were playing video games. They were probably hoping it would be mistaken for yet another useless release of Windows and escape the blame, but we're on to them now.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I'm thinking of taking option c) Forget it - I'll use existing technology which only causes VS 2008 to crash three or four times a day.
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I don't mean to be rude, but being a neophyte trying to learn to program using the .Net architecture, I've been assuming it's just me. What a relief! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: I don't mean to be rude, but being a neophyte trying to learn to program using the .Net architecture, I've been assuming it's just me. What a relief! :-D
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
I admit when I read other posts I have always tended to assume the user is doing something unusual, or has some strange set up - but when I started looking myslf I was horrifyingly proven wrong! I find it surprisingly difficult to 'get' some of these new technologies initially - then, when I have a reason to use one, eagerly pick it up and want to start using it - but when the development tool crashes more frequently than a drunk cop on a Bisbane roundabout, I find all I am learning is a new string of swear words. I remember the day ... well, EdLin never crashed on me!
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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I admit when I read other posts I have always tended to assume the user is doing something unusual, or has some strange set up - but when I started looking myslf I was horrifyingly proven wrong! I find it surprisingly difficult to 'get' some of these new technologies initially - then, when I have a reason to use one, eagerly pick it up and want to start using it - but when the development tool crashes more frequently than a drunk cop on a Bisbane roundabout, I find all I am learning is a new string of swear words. I remember the day ... well, EdLin never crashed on me!
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Maxxx_ wrote:
EdLin never crashed on me
And I never had a problem with any program I wrote in QBASIC, FORTRAN, hpl, Pascal, PAL, or ASM; they just did what I told them to do, quickly and effectively. They didn't leak memory, pointers didn't go astray, events were never left unhandled as the program actively watched for them instead of relying on a messaging system that works pretty good, most of the time. They worked all the time, every time. I have a hell of a time grasping the new stuff, especially when just about the time I start understanding something important, Microsoft drops it and runs up the flag for its successor technology. Come to think of it, Notepad was a fairly good code editor, too. A rule of thumb - the more it does, the more ways for it to do it wrong. Simple is GoodTM.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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My first forray onto WPF. All I am trying to do is display two images - teh 2nd overlaying the first with transparent areas. Not a complex prog - although the fact that WPF doesn't seem to support transparent bitmaps was quite a surprise. VS 2008 has 'crashed' numerous times - usually when updating the XAML. I say crashed - it just sits there with the 'hourglass' icon spinning away, and everything disabled, until I kill it and start again. If this is typical behaviour, then this may be my last vernture into the world of WPF :(
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Welcome to my world...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
From the posts I've read here lately about WPF I gather that you're in good company. "Not yet ready for prime time" is the impression I get. As I see it, you can: a) Start a support group, or b) Petition Microsoft to return it to alpha testing, from which it apparently escaped prematurely while the keepers of the asylum were playing video games. They were probably hoping it would be mistaken for yet another useless release of Windows and escape the blame, but we're on to them now.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
But it will be made all better when the whole frakking IDE is written in WPF. It will not crash quite as often when you're writing WPF apps, but it will be completely unstable when you're trying to do anything else.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I admit when I read other posts I have always tended to assume the user is doing something unusual, or has some strange set up - but when I started looking myslf I was horrifyingly proven wrong! I find it surprisingly difficult to 'get' some of these new technologies initially - then, when I have a reason to use one, eagerly pick it up and want to start using it - but when the development tool crashes more frequently than a drunk cop on a Bisbane roundabout, I find all I am learning is a new string of swear words. I remember the day ... well, EdLin never crashed on me!
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
Maxxx_ wrote:
I admit when I read other posts I have always tended to assume the user is doing something unusual
Nothing more unusual than, say, moving an element in the designer, or modifying the XAML by hand, or trying to save a .XAML.CS file after doing some - GAK! some "code behind". Yeah, I could see how standard coding tasks could bring the IDE to it's knees...
Maxxx_ wrote:
or has some strange set up
Evidently - EVERY setup is a weird setup.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
My first forray onto WPF. All I am trying to do is display two images - teh 2nd overlaying the first with transparent areas. Not a complex prog - although the fact that WPF doesn't seem to support transparent bitmaps was quite a surprise. VS 2008 has 'crashed' numerous times - usually when updating the XAML. I say crashed - it just sits there with the 'hourglass' icon spinning away, and everything disabled, until I kill it and start again. If this is typical behaviour, then this may be my last vernture into the world of WPF :(
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Welcome to my world...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Thanks, but, frankly, it's your world and you're welcome to it :) I seriously thought you were just unfortunate / whingy - Surely (I thought) it couldn't be that bad. I was wrong. So wrong. So very, very wrong. It is a pile of poo.
.\\axxx
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My first forray onto WPF. All I am trying to do is display two images - teh 2nd overlaying the first with transparent areas. Not a complex prog - although the fact that WPF doesn't seem to support transparent bitmaps was quite a surprise. VS 2008 has 'crashed' numerous times - usually when updating the XAML. I say crashed - it just sits there with the 'hourglass' icon spinning away, and everything disabled, until I kill it and start again. If this is typical behaviour, then this may be my last vernture into the world of WPF :(
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
I know people are going to laugh here, but I actually like WPF. There are just some points to consider before going that route... 1) When you're writing your interfaces, you have to hit them from a whole different angle. WPF is too different from WinForms to just *poof* upgrade everything. You have to learn to do things the WPF way. 2) The IDE sucks. No doubt about it. It's slow, crash-prone, and annoying. It has great potential, but it just isn't there yet. Get used to writing XAML code by hand for the time being. 3) You can make MUCH nicer-looking interfaces than WinForms with less work. I'm not talking about writing your own input-handling code from scratch to get a video-game-style interface, because you can do that with any language. I'm talking about rapid development giving nice results. With a relatively-small amount of code, you can customize the standard set of controls to give your app a nice look and feel. 4) WPF is based around data-binding, and once you get used to it, IT WORKS. Instead of writing code to keep the various parts of your GUI in sync with each other (e.g. Button X is only enabled when the app is in mode Y and text box Z has a valid number in it), you bind the properties with a simple converter class, and everything is kept up-to-date automatically. 5) Some things are just a real pain to do. I won't argue with this... It's true. WPF tries really hard to separate the interface from the code-behind, so if you want to modify the GUI directly instead of through data-bound properties, it can be a headache and a half... You really have to do things WPF-style with bound properties, or you're just going to hate the system. I could go on, but I don't want to start sounding like a WPF fanboy... Yes, it has problems, but again, I think most of those problems are in the horrid designer, not the framework itself. (Context: I work with thick-client apps, not ASP/Silverlight, and moved from C#/Winforms to C#/WPF)
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Thanks, but, frankly, it's your world and you're welcome to it :) I seriously thought you were just unfortunate / whingy - Surely (I thought) it couldn't be that bad. I was wrong. So wrong. So very, very wrong. It is a pile of poo.
.\\axxx
I just discovered a whole new pile of CRAP related to developing WPF apps. I think I'll start a new thread about it. :)
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
My first forray onto WPF. All I am trying to do is display two images - teh 2nd overlaying the first with transparent areas. Not a complex prog - although the fact that WPF doesn't seem to support transparent bitmaps was quite a surprise. VS 2008 has 'crashed' numerous times - usually when updating the XAML. I say crashed - it just sits there with the 'hourglass' icon spinning away, and everything disabled, until I kill it and start again. If this is typical behaviour, then this may be my last vernture into the world of WPF :(
___________________________________________ .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
yup the VS2008 IDE sucks for WPF. But then I find the IDE sucks for stability generally. Use it for editing the raw XAML (without designer) and CS only. For WPF design time use Expression Blend instead. You will have a stress free reduced experience! :) But WPF really is pretty kewl once you get to grips with it
-- The Obliterator
