Why should anyone write an app in WPF?
Serious question. If you have to create an app that looks beautiful with gradients, shadows, smooth moving parts, menus containing videos, grids with complex template cells ... then WPF is the only choice. Is there any other compelling reason to use WPF to write a desktop app that doesn't need such beauty? Since Framework 3.0 was released I've had a single job offer to write a UI that had to be "beautiful". We did a demo, then the project was canned and they finished up doing it in a browser with Google Web Toolkit <http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/> (and it looks impressive, in the Google Mail page style, but fancier). Every other desktop app I've had to write needed absolutely nothing that WPF provides and it would have wasted time and money to use anything other than WinForms. WinForms apps might arguably be a bit "dull", but more importantly, they have a standard appearance. I strive to use standard menus, toolbar, status bar, icons, shortcuts, etc, and WinForms encourages me to do the right thing. WPF tempts you to write something strange and non-standard, which is fine if that's what you want, but if not? So even though I'm greatly impressed by what you can do with WPF, it takes much longer to write anything with it, and most business apps requested of me don't gain anything. So why should anyone write an app in WPF if they don't have to? Greg P.S. Maybe in some future thread I can explain the reasons why I am so unproductive in WPF, XAML, type converters and infrastructure. Perhaps people will be able to point out ways of overcoming my speed bumps. I'm not unfamiliar with WPF, I'm just slower with it. P.S. A few weeks ago I did actually start writing a significant app in WPF, by deliberate choice, even though the app doesn't technically need any WPF features. We're converting a VB6 app to .NET in stages. Progress is slower than it would be in WinForms of course, but it will be interesting to see what benefits result. There is a risk that we will use fancy visual effects just because we can, and I wonder if other people fall for that trap.
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