5 ms·

I get the impression that WPF is pretty much on life support.

by willtim 10y ago

NicoJuicy 10y ago
It's merged to Xaml not? And what do you want more for WPF? PS. According to me it was difficult to port the Graphic part of WPF to Linux/Mac.
- ygra 10y ago
  XAML is just a way of writing object graphs in XML. It is not tied to WPF or anything (heck, we use it to represent user data and style information within GraphML). And yes, XAML is used by more than WPF at this point (Silverlight, UWP, and possibly more).
  - youdounderstand 10y ago
    The markup is a pretty small part of XAML/WPF. The actual framework, controls, and rendering are the bulk of it.
  - Kipters 10y ago
    Also Xamarin.Forms
nicky0 10y ago
Shit, last time I was on Windows, WPF was the new hotness. What is the latest thing?
- ygra 10y ago
  UWP, I guess. It's still similar enough from what I've seen, but I haven't used it yet. And WPF is still by far the best UI framework I've ever used.
  - tonyedgecombe 10y ago
    Windows 10 only rules it out for me, also I think it might be tied to the Windows store although I'm not absolutely sure.
    - Kipters 10y ago
      Absolutely not tied to the Store, you can distribute your appx packages any way you want and the users can install them with a double click. The only requirement is that the packages must be signed, so you have to buy a codesigning certificate or ask your users to install your self-signed certificate. The app also doesn't have to be an UWP app: you can wrap bog-standard desktop applications (even Electron apps), HTML/JS apps (with direct access to UWP APIs) or even nothing: your manifest can just point to your live site, that can check if it's running in this context and then use UWP APIs, those are called "hosted web apps".
pjmlp 10y ago
Not really. WPF is based on XAML and XAML is the future of UWP. Just because the API is a little different it doesn't make it in life support, also there were updates on .NET 4.6. As for Windows Forms, it is officially on life support as communicated at BUILD 2014.
mrweasel 10y ago
It is my belief that Windows Forms will outlive WPF and/or XAML. Currently WPF is still the "modern" way to doing Windows applications, but at some point Microsoft will come up with some new scheme, and all the WPF developer will jump onto that. The developers that have still not abandoned WinForms will not jump shit when the next thing hits either. To keep the huge group of WinForms developers happy, Microsoft will continue to support and develop Winforms. For many, WinForms are still the fasted way to develop simple applications. So if you want develop for the Windows (desktop) platform, WinForms will be a clear winner for many many years into the future.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Except that WinForms doesn't work on UWP applications other than via Project Centipede and is officially on support as it was communicated at BUILD 2014.
  - mrweasel 10y ago
    Of cause. My point is that so many business applications are Windows Forms, and will continue to be so for many years to come. Removing WinForms will disenfranchise a large group of developers, that for one reason or another, it could just be stubbornness, won't switch. Microsoft will sooner kill of WPF than WinForms, to not lose those developers. At least that's my belief. But we're talking for desktop applications only.
    - pjmlp 10y ago
      I only use Windows Forms for legacy applications. As for the official statement, here is the InfoQ overview of BUILD 2014. https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/04/WPF-QA https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/04/WPF-QA "Windows Forms is continuing to be supported, but in maintenance mode. They will fix bugs as they are discovered, but new functionality is off the table. Oh, they stress that it isn’t called “WinForms”." As I don't have time to search for the video on Channel 9. The Roadmap for WPF https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/11/12/the-roadmap-for-wpf/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/11/12/the-roadm...
achr2 10y ago
WPF has a lot of flaws, but it is definitely still the most relevant platform for standard desktop applications (LOB, enterprise, etc.).
Nelkins 10y ago
For native UIs on Windows, there are few better choices. Most line of business applications tend to be spreadsheets on steroids with lots of custom business-related functions, and for that kind of thing web-based UIs are far more difficult to deal with (think displaying thousands of rows, potentially 100+ columns, quick grouping and pivot-table-esque functionality, etc). You can do it with something like Electron and some open source JS libraries, but as someone who has gone down that rabbit hole it is a nightmare compared with using an out-of-the-box component from Infragistics, DevExpress, or Telerik that is much faster than a HTML/CSS/JS interface.

I get the impression that WPF is pretty much on life support.

by willtim 10y ago

I get the impression that WPF is pretty much on life support.

It's merged to Xaml not? And what do you want more for WPF? PS. According to me it was difficult to port the Graphic part of WPF to Linux/Mac.

ygra 10y ago
XAML is just a way of writing object graphs in XML. It is not tied to WPF or anything (heck, we use it to represent user data and style information within GraphML). And yes, XAML is used by more than WPF at this point (Silverlight, UWP, and possibly more).
- youdounderstand 10y ago
  The markup is a pretty small part of XAML/WPF. The actual framework, controls, and rendering are the bulk of it.
- Kipters 10y ago
  Also Xamarin.Forms

nicky0 10y ago

Shit, last time I was on Windows, WPF was the new hotness. What is the latest thing?

ygra 10y ago
UWP, I guess. It's still similar enough from what I've seen, but I haven't used it yet. And WPF is still by far the best UI framework I've ever used.
- tonyedgecombe 10y ago
  Windows 10 only rules it out for me, also I think it might be tied to the Windows store although I'm not absolutely sure.
  - Kipters 10y ago
    Absolutely not tied to the Store, you can distribute your appx packages any way you want and the users can install them with a double click. The only requirement is that the packages must be signed, so you have to buy a codesigning certificate or ask your users to install your self-signed certificate. The app also doesn't have to be an UWP app: you can wrap bog-standard desktop applications (even Electron apps), HTML/JS apps (with direct access to UWP APIs) or even nothing: your manifest can just point to your live site, that can check if it's running in this context and then use UWP APIs, those are called "hosted web apps".

pjmlp 10y ago

Not really. WPF is based on XAML and XAML is the future of UWP. Just because the API is a little different it doesn't make it in life support, also there were updates on .NET 4.6. As for Windows Forms, it is officially on life support as communicated at BUILD 2014.

mrweasel 10y ago

It is my belief that Windows Forms will outlive WPF and/or XAML. Currently WPF is still the "modern" way to doing Windows applications, but at some point Microsoft will come up with some new scheme, and all the WPF developer will jump onto that. The developers that have still not abandoned WinForms will not jump shit when the next thing hits either. To keep the huge group of WinForms developers happy, Microsoft will continue to support and develop Winforms. For many, WinForms are still the fasted way to develop simple applications. So if you want develop for the Windows (desktop) platform, WinForms will be a clear winner for many many years into the future.

pjmlp 10y ago
Except that WinForms doesn't work on UWP applications other than via Project Centipede and is officially on support as it was communicated at BUILD 2014.
- mrweasel 10y ago
  Of cause. My point is that so many business applications are Windows Forms, and will continue to be so for many years to come. Removing WinForms will disenfranchise a large group of developers, that for one reason or another, it could just be stubbornness, won't switch. Microsoft will sooner kill of WPF than WinForms, to not lose those developers. At least that's my belief. But we're talking for desktop applications only.
  - pjmlp 10y ago
    I only use Windows Forms for legacy applications. As for the official statement, here is the InfoQ overview of BUILD 2014. https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/04/WPF-QA https://www.infoq.com/news/2014/04/WPF-QA "Windows Forms is continuing to be supported, but in maintenance mode. They will fix bugs as they are discovered, but new functionality is off the table. Oh, they stress that it isn’t called “WinForms”." As I don't have time to search for the video on Channel 9. The Roadmap for WPF https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/11/12/the-roadmap-for-wpf/ https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/dotnet/2014/11/12/the-roadm...

achr2 10y ago

WPF has a lot of flaws, but it is definitely still the most relevant platform for standard desktop applications (LOB, enterprise, etc.).

Nelkins 10y ago

For native UIs on Windows, there are few better choices. Most line of business applications tend to be spreadsheets on steroids with lots of custom business-related functions, and for that kind of thing web-based UIs are far more difficult to deal with (think displaying thousands of rows, potentially 100+ columns, quick grouping and pivot-table-esque functionality, etc). You can do it with something like Electron and some open source JS libraries, but as someone who has gone down that rabbit hole it is a nightmare compared with using an out-of-the-box component from Infragistics, DevExpress, or Telerik that is much faster than a HTML/CSS/JS interface.