Are you developing with WPF?

Chris Losinger

Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

My application targets accountants and CFOs, and not teenagers

:laugh:

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Chris Austin

Marc Clifton wrote:

or is it more like a glittering dress with the same wrinkled old woman underneath, albeit with new makeup?

That's a nice one. Lately I was thinking of WPF as putting lipstick on a pig. I am really curious to see if WPF gets picked up very quickly or if it will end up as a cool technology who's timing wasn't quite right.

My Blog A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. - -Lazarus Long

Bradml

Chris Austin wrote:

it will end up as a cool technology who's timing wasn't quite right.

Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.

Chris Buckett

Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

My application targets accountants and CFOs

It's funny you say that. When I went to a MS technology demonstration of WPF last summer, they had someone from the Financial Times there demonstrating a sample application with various ways of viewing accounting and financial data using WPF. It included various vista widgets, animated drill-downs of company data and embeded video clips (bought in from various news sites) - and it did actually look quite good.

ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

Josh Smith

Absolutely. I've created an app for a modeling agency in WPF and it turned out great (imo).

Marc Clifton wrote:

And the real question is, does WPF (meaning in this case the vector graphics stuff) improved the usability of your application, or is it more like a glittering dress with the same wrinkled old woman underneath, albeit with new makeup?

It depends on how you use it. When VB first came out, a bunch of business apps looked like ransom notes. Sure, some folks will use WPF in a disasterous way. But some won't.

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

Dan Neely

My app needs back compatibility as far as NT4. No .net2.0 for me, never mind any of the new vista toys.

-- Rules of thumb should not be taken for the whole hand.

Chris Buckett

Josh Smith wrote:

some folks will use WPF in a disasterous way. But some won't.

Just like with web design 5 years ago - there were some very well designed websites, but many more badly designed ones. (Maybe that's why MS doesn't want developers to get hold of Expression - they don't want us making bad graphics) - perhaps you have to be wearing a polo-neck or chunky-knitwear to be allowed to use it. :-D.

ChrisB ChrisDoesDev[^]

Marc Clifton

Josh Smith wrote:

I've created an app for a modeling agency in WPF and it turned out great (imo).

Ah, ok. So, WPF fits a niche (or if you prefer, vertical markets) that emphasize presentation to begin with?

Josh Smith wrote:

It depends on how you use it.

The same can be said for a microwave. ;P But will WPF be as ubiquitous as a microwave? (a big red flag should be raised here, seeing that, besides not owning a TV, I also do not own a microwave :) ) Marc

Thyme In The Country

People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith

Josh Smith

Marc Clifton wrote:

Ah, ok. So, WPF fits a niche (or if you prefer, vertical markets) that emphasize presentation to begin with?

Not necessarily. WPF will be great for data visualizations used by traders, scientists, etc. Take a look at the New York Times Reader app (100% WPF). That's another great example of WPF put to use to make a functional/practical application look great.

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

oozer

I don't think many developers will touch it until Microsoft releases the graphical designer tools in a useable state. XAML is an exceptionally verbose way to specify a user interface - I don't see many people wanting to write it by hand, not for a serious application anyway. I also have concerns over the amount of code necessary to manipulate the WPF object model programmatically compared to Windows Forms apps. Add to that the fact that developers have already learned a heap of new stuff for C#/VB.NET, Windows Forms/ASP.NET, I think there's a general feeling of "oh no, not another new technology" from Windows developers. Developers don't mind learning new stuff if there is a big benefit but I don't think people are seeing what the benefit is at the present time.

code frog 0

No but I frequently use WTF.:-D

Paul Watson

Rama Krishna Vavilala wrote:

For my product it does not make any sense to have a glittering UI.

Glittering no, good yes. Don't get left behind Rama or you'll find your customers being wowed and converted to UIs that not only work well but look good too.

regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

Shog9 wrote:

I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

Rama Krishna Vavilala

I would love too. But I don't have a talented graphics designer like you working at my company. :((

Paul Watson

LOL, thanks Rama and I am glad you understand the importance of it. And I am a pretty crap graphics designer, that isn't even my job really. I'm "the web guy" :-D

regards, Paul Watson Ireland & South Africa

Shog9 wrote:

I don't see it happening, at least not until it becomes pointless.

Marc Clifton

code-frog wrote:

but I frequently use WTF.

Careful, Microsoft might hijack that acronym for their upcoming Windows Template Foundation. ;P Marc

Thyme In The Country

People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
There's NO excuse for not commenting your code. -- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
People who say that they will refactor their code later to make it "good" don't understand refactoring, nor the art and craft of programming. -- Josh Smith

Ed Poore

Your right there, for me it could be put to use but in the time taken to learn how to do what I can accomplish now I could do it the old way anyway. The nice thing I like about it is the content templates so you can extend the treeview, listview etc very easily. I could really use that for the project I'm about to complete now.

Ed Poore

Josh Smith wrote:

I've created an app for a modeling agency in WPF and it turned out great (imo).

Screenshots allowed?

Ed Poore

:laugh:

Josh Smith

Ed.Poore wrote:

Screenshots allowed?

It will be in a video by MSFT (I can't say which one yet). The video be on the web soon enough (prbly Channel9). :cool:

:josh: My WPF Blog[^]
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle

Stuart Dootson

Nope - no .NET at all - I can't rely on the runtime being available and admin-requiring installs are a no-no. So, it's native code (in C++) all the way - oh, and the standard UI of the tools I write is the command-line :-) - it suits the type of tool and environment that I target 90% of the time, anyway.