There are some projects that could use WPF at work, for the sake of adopting new technologies.
But the problem is, I can't jump start WPF easily. I recognize the learning curve is steeper than Winforms. Though even with Winforms one can start doing UIs and programmatically customize them in a day.
So the problem is:
I don't have any resource to quickly learn the fundamentals of WPF at work. I can't read a book from cover to cover before I do the simplest of things.
Most tutorials on the net, just does things that excludes the fundamentals. i.e. they post partial xaml code I can't even put into my xaml code correctly (VS highlights them in red).
I can't justify using WPF over Winforms where there is no significant gain for prety much all projects I can think of. And the learning curve just makes things worse.
So I can't suggest my manager to use this tech over the traditional Winforms, but I want to.
Is there a guide or a tutorial on the net, or a video that explains the fundamentals of WPF so I can explore everything else on my own, except the more complicated tasks?
Fundamental of WPF video from Mix07.
Windows Client .NET get started section has lots of WPF Videos.
Channel 9 WPF content.
Windows Presentation Unleashed is a very good book.
MSDN content for WPF.
MSDN magazine articles on WPF.
Well, the basics are there. You can drag and drop controls onto a XAML surface in VS.NET 2008 just about as easily as you can with Windows Forms. Sure, there's the binding syntax stuff, but getting started isn't too bad.
But you DEFINITELY need to buy a good book on it. You don't need to have read it from cover to cover in order to get started. A decent book will have you up and running in a chapter or two, and you can take it from there. Just make sure that whatever book you buy, it was published after .NET 3.5 (and SP1 preferably) came out.
Also, understand WHY you want to use WPF. Is it just because it's new? Then you're right, that's not a good enough answer. WPF does have some big benefits though:
A powerful binding expression syntax that actually works
No need to repaint your own windows in response to WM_PAINT messages
_ (corrollary to the previous point) It's much easier to owner-draw and make your own controls
MS is spending a LOT of effort to actually develop it
MS is spending minimal effort on developing WinForms
If you need 2d/3d data visualisation WPF will pay by itself quickly and it's very evolving...
Personally I've got in that boat because all 3d hardware acceleration (opengl) wrapper in c# are dying so the solution for a maintened 3d looks like wpf or xna...
I'd suggest you get either expression blend or vs2010 beta ... vs2008 just don't speak wpf enough to help someone who doesn't know exactly what he's trying to do.
Related
I am work with Sharpdx/C# - i'm wondering how Unity/UnrealEngine/CryEngine create their GUI for the Editor.
After some research i find "D3Dsurface" to work with WPF. But the Performance/FPS should be bad.
I cant believe all the engines (http://xenko.com - SharpDX engine) do their own GUI from scratch.
I tried to create a second Winform, it works but not the right approach for me.
best regards alex!
Xenko use this and so do I, it looks really good
Telerik windows forms are really good as they can be themed and tweaked to how you like.
Xenko like my self use the dark Visual Studio theme.
They have a free trial so u can get you feet wet before you go and drop cash on it, they also have a forum so you can ask for help and a few times I have seen them go out of there way to help.
Once you get your hands on the Dev pack you can modify the source and all sorts of cool stuff.
I have tried a few other windows forms controls but I settled on Telerik a few years ago and haven't looked back.
All in all I give them a 10/10 and they have some really nice CPU\RAM profiling tools.
I want to develop Windows WPF application using Kinect with great GUI/NUI. I've found really nice examples of user interfaces that could be even more admirable using Kinect device. For example: prezi effects - http://prezi.com/jipjiqvj6dsc/about-perspective/ one big wall and really nice zooming / moving. I was thinking about something similar for Metro UI too.
Do you know how to create those nice gui elements in the WPF? Or maybe you heard about good resources about this topic?
A good starting point is Josh Blake's upcomming book (you can get the MEAP preview now) and the "NaturalShow" sample app it includes. You can get that code at http://blakenui.codeplex.com/
I've found really nice project which includes solution for my problem: http://jarloo.com/code/projects/jot/
Nice discussion on stackoverflow: Pan & Zoom Image
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WPF versus Winforms
I have been using visual C# for a while now, I have made some apps in the window forms but never really explored the WPF apps. Based on what I have discovered it pretty much is the same as a winforms just in a different type of environment and the XML. So why is there such a WPF app? what makes it different form a winform and what is it mainly used for?
There are many reasons to move WPF. You will be able to find many reasons by simple google search. It's the new trend and when it comes to Windows application development the technology has been focusing to WPF rather than Winforms.
As Tom also has mentioned above this thread gives you many points.
My opinion is there is no big reasons not to go for a WPF if somebody is going to develop a windows application from the scratch.
Actually it depends on your real need. Desktop oriented application tends to go with winform. Both get compiled by the same compiler to produce the same thing; both utilize the same resources to run on the target platform, but WPF has more graphics effects that many people would favor it from the start. Winform offers userfriendly design controls though.
Some differences off the top of my head:
Separation of UI and 'code-behind', so that designers can allegedly design the UI while the developers develop the business logic. A much cleaner separation than traditional WinForms.
Improved graphics rendering. The vector graphics are vastly superior to WinForms graphics -- just zoom in on some letters in a WPF app vs. a WinForms app and you'll see sharp edges in the WinForms app, but smooth edges in the WPF app. Pretty awesome.
A much more flexible UI model in WPF, where you can have buttons inside of lists which are inside of grids, since it's all just XAML. WinForms requires you to build those types of controls and is much more limiting.
Those were just a few. Hope this helps. Good luck!
So... I want to make a game, and I want to write it in C#. In the past, I've made a mario clone using C++ and OpenGL. I quite like OpenGL, but I don't know how well it's supported inside C#/WPF. Also, it might be beneficial to use an actual game library? I guess XNA is the game library for C#, so maybe I'll invest a bit of time learning that.
However, I want to use WPF form controls for my level editor... is there any way that I can embed an XNA (DirectX?) window inside a WPF app?
Specifically, I don't need any buttons or things inside the XNA/DirectX widget, just around it, so no mixing required...just need to get a graphics widget in my WPF form.
Nick Gravelyn explains how to do it on his blog.
Although, if it's just for an editor, you may find using WinForms is easier and better supported.
First of all, you should ask this on gamedev.stackexchange.com. But I've seen a tutorial embedding XNA.
You should check this question and this page. They are on Windows Forms, but they'll help.
Also check this and this articles.
Keep in mind one thing. XNA is meant to be used for the whole game, integration would be useful on making level editors like you say, but not for a full game.
WPF uses DirectX, and you can do direct "interop" here is a codeProject article on the subject. Here is an article i dug up where the author is using win-forms and WPF controls in an XNA project. Might be worth a look for you.
We are using Winforms using the Infragistic framework.
We are considering the move to WPF. The problem is that we have already several forms, dialogs etc in Winforms. We need common look and feel thus we need to migrate all to WPF.
Is there a migration tool to take Winforms and migrate to WPF? I know it is not possible to do it completely but is there something that will do some of the work?
Thanks
In my opnion, and depending on your architecture, a one on one translation is not really the right approach to go here: consider why you want to move to wpf, and evaluate whether you really want to commit to it. It's a powerful framework, but there's quite a steep learning curve and to be really worth it you need to take the time to look at the user experience and see how wpf can help. If you want to have the winforms look and feel, and just move to wpf because it's the next new thing, you're in for an unpleasant suprise.
Anayway, what we've done while migrating our winforms stuff is to make new screens in wpf, and keep hosting the old winforms screen using ElementHost and WindowsFormsHost. These work really well by the way - we haven't had any problems with them so far. We then migrated screen by screen to wpf. Looked like a Frankenstein in the mean time, but at least we had regular feedback and everything was functional.