WPF or Windows Forms

[John]

Hi

If I have a choice of WPF or Windows Form versions of a control which one
should I purchase?

Thanks

Regards

[Steve Gerrard]

Jon Skeet [C# MVP] wrote:

>
I believe that WPF is much more efficient overall - but tends to be
used to do snazzier things, which obviously have their own costs.

Jon, do you see future support as an issue at all? Or do you expect both to be
equally well supported long term?

[=?Utf-8?B?VGVycnk=?=]

I have to wonder if VS2008/WPF is really ready for prime time. I had some
time this weekend and finally installed the DVD with VS2008 I had gotten.
Open a WPF application and place a button on the form, code the click event
to show a message box, hit the F5 key and get an error that has nothing to do
with my code!
Error Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from
'System.Windows.Application' to 'WpfApplication1.Application'.

It was easy to fix, but it sure makes me wonder if it is worth my time to
even start to use WPF yet!
--
Terry
"John" wrote:

Hi

If I have a choice of WPF or Windows Form versions of a control which one
should I purchase?

Thanks

Regards

[BlackWasp]

I have started down the WPF path as a learning exercise. It does seem to be
quite fun and like the way that the vector-based output resolves the problem
of pixel-based rendering. (Jumping from my 1280x1024 19" LCD to my
1920x1200 15" laptop shows the problem to good effect!)

I haven't noticed any stability problems as yet but there are some controls
missing as you point out. I will be trying out the grid and other controls
from Infragistics pretty soon I imagine. Anybody got any experience of
these - good or bad?

--

BlackWasp
www.blackwasp.co.uk
"Terry" <Te****@nospam.nospamwrote in message
news:06**********************************@microsof t.com...

>I have to wonder if VS2008/WPF is really ready for prime time. I had some
time this weekend and finally installed the DVD with VS2008 I had gotten.
Open a WPF application and place a button on the form, code the click
event
to show a message box, hit the F5 key and get an error that has nothing to
do
with my code!
Error Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from
'System.Windows.Application' to 'WpfApplication1.Application'.

It was easy to fix, but it sure makes me wonder if it is worth my time to
even start to use WPF yet!
--
Terry
"John" wrote:

>Hi

If I have a choice of WPF or Windows Form versions of a control which one
should I purchase?

Thanks

Regards

[=?Utf-8?B?VGVycnk=?=]

Well I have spent some more time with it and am even less impressed. Just
fooling around with a regular windows form app. and am having all sorts of
wierd problems. Half the time when I hit the F5 key, I get 2 (back to back)
error messages telling me that the <path>.form1.vb can not be accessed at
this time. I put controls on the form and hit the F5 key, and the controls
arn't there in run mode. I hit save and get out and back in and my changes
wern't saved! This has happened several times! It may have something to do
with resizing the form, not sure yet. But like I said - I am not impressed!
I am using the version that came with my MSDN subscription that I received a
couple of months ago - wonder if there is an update somewhere.
--
Terry
"BlackWasp" wrote:

I have started down the WPF path as a learning exercise. It does seem to be
quite fun and like the way that the vector-based output resolves the problem
of pixel-based rendering. (Jumping from my 1280x1024 19" LCD to my
1920x1200 15" laptop shows the problem to good effect!)

I haven't noticed any stability problems as yet but there are some controls
missing as you point out. I will be trying out the grid and other controls
from Infragistics pretty soon I imagine. Anybody got any experience of
these - good or bad?

--

BlackWasp
www.blackwasp.co.uk
"Terry" <Te****@nospam.nospamwrote in message
news:06**********************************@microsof t.com...

I have to wonder if VS2008/WPF is really ready for prime time. I had some
time this weekend and finally installed the DVD with VS2008 I had gotten.
Open a WPF application and place a button on the form, code the click
event
to show a message box, hit the F5 key and get an error that has nothing to
do
with my code!
Error Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from
'System.Windows.Application' to 'WpfApplication1.Application'.

It was easy to fix, but it sure makes me wonder if it is worth my time to
even start to use WPF yet!
--
Terry
"John" wrote:

Hi

If I have a choice of WPF or Windows Form versions of a control which one
should I purchase?

Thanks

Regards

[BlackWasp]

Weird. I am using the Team Development version downloaded from MSDN.

I am only using C#, not VB. Can't see why this would be a problem though.

--

BlackWasp
www.blackwasp.co.uk
"Terry" <Te****@nospam.nospamwrote in message
news:57**********************************@microsof t.com...

Well I have spent some more time with it and am even less impressed. Just
fooling around with a regular windows form app. and am having all sorts of
wierd problems. Half the time when I hit the F5 key, I get 2 (back to
back)
error messages telling me that the <path>.form1.vb can not be accessed at
this time. I put controls on the form and hit the F5 key, and the
controls
arn't there in run mode. I hit save and get out and back in and my
changes
wern't saved! This has happened several times! It may have something to
do
with resizing the form, not sure yet. But like I said - I am not
impressed!
I am using the version that came with my MSDN subscription that I received
a
couple of months ago - wonder if there is an update somewhere.
--
Terry
"BlackWasp" wrote:

>I have started down the WPF path as a learning exercise. It does seem to
be
quite fun and like the way that the vector-based output resolves the
problem
of pixel-based rendering. (Jumping from my 1280x1024 19" LCD to my
1920x1200 15" laptop shows the problem to good effect!)

I haven't noticed any stability problems as yet but there are some
controls
missing as you point out. I will be trying out the grid and other
controls
from Infragistics pretty soon I imagine. Anybody got any experience of
these - good or bad?

--

BlackWasp
www.blackwasp.co.uk
"Terry" <Te****@nospam.nospamwrote in message
news:06**********************************@microso ft.com...

>I have to wonder if VS2008/WPF is really ready for prime time. I had
some
time this weekend and finally installed the DVD with VS2008 I had
gotten.
Open a WPF application and place a button on the form, code the click
event
to show a message box, hit the F5 key and get an error that has nothing
to
do
with my code!
Error Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from
'System.Windows.Application' to 'WpfApplication1.Application'.

It was easy to fix, but it sure makes me wonder if it is worth my time
to
even start to use WPF yet!
--
Terry
"John" wrote:

Hi

If I have a choice of WPF or Windows Form versions of a control which
one
should I purchase?

Thanks

Regards

[Alex Clark]

>I have to wonder if VS2008/WPF is really ready for prime time.

It isn't. Plain and simple. WPF is to WinForms as Vista is to Windows;
some nice shiny new promises with very questionable implementation.

I started to rewrite a small stats application for one of my customers a few
weeks ago. I got as far as wondering why I couldn't get root-lines to show
up on a tree-view control, and after much Googling realised that I'd need
100+ lines of XAML template-altering non-intuitive chevron and curly bracket
laced code written by some hobbyist on the internet for something that still
wouldn't quite work the same way as the original root lines in good old
fashioned WinForms. This is how MS define WPF as being "finished". Yeah,
right...

If MS really want people to start seriously developing with this new
platform, they need to finish it first. Some areas feel like giant leaps
forward, others feel like big steps backwards and some controls just haven't
been implemented at all.

Couple that to a severe lack of decent examples and sample code, and the web
being littered with samples that date back to November CTPs using code that
doesn't work anymore, and it didn't take me long to realise I won't be using
WPF for anything any time soon.

Error Option Strict On disallows implicit conversions from
'System.Windows.Application' to 'WpfApplication1.Application'.

Yep, I got that every time as well. Turns out VS2008 isn't strictly
finished for the new platform either. There were many basic GUI things I
found that couldn't be done in VS and required me to use Expression Blend,
many simple layout things I couldn't do in Expression that I had to do in
VS2008 (I can't tell you how much fun it is to keep switching from one
gigantically memory hungry app to another every 5 minutes, telling it to
reload your project) and some relatively simple things that couldn't be done
in either one and required me to edit XAML directly.
And don't even get me started on the new printing services. Such a
collossal wreck that even Tom Cruise himself wouldn't be able to help.