What's Better: WPF in Win Forms or Vice Versa?

Based on experiences, what works better for applications, using WPF in Win
Forms or Win Forms controls in WPF?

Thank You

Hi,

Coder wrote:
> Based on experiences, what works better for applications, using WPF in Win
> Forms or Win Forms controls in WPF?
>
> Thank You

The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability. You should use:

- WPF in WinForms if you have an existing WinForms application and you
don't want to rewrite it all in WPF, but only add functionality to it.

- WinForms in WPF if you need a control which is missing in WPF, and you
don't want to write that control yourself.

Other than that, I'd go either WPF only (preferred) or WinForms only if
you want to stick with that technology.

HTH,
Laurent
--
Laurent Bugnion [MVP ASP.NET]
Software engineering, Blog: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
PhotoAlbum: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch/pictures
Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch

> The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability.
Thank you. Until the full toolset for WPF is available, it seems that
WinForms is the only way to develop a UI the "normal" way. So, I thought
hosting a few WPF controls in WinForms might make sense.

Are you saying that without a UI designer (e.g. Cider) it's not too
difficult to create a complete WPF app?

What about WPF control event handlers? Don't they need to be added by code
edits (i.e. no designer to hook events automatically)?

"Laurent Bugnion, MVP" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Coder wrote:
> > Based on experiences, what works better for applications, using WPF in Win
> > Forms or Win Forms controls in WPF?
> >
> > Thank You
>
> The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability. You should use:
>
> - WPF in WinForms if you have an existing WinForms application and you
> don't want to rewrite it all in WPF, but only add functionality to it.
>
> - WinForms in WPF if you need a control which is missing in WPF, and you
> don't want to write that control yourself.
>
> Other than that, I'd go either WPF only (preferred) or WinForms only if
> you want to stick with that technology.
>
> HTH,
> Laurent
> --
> Laurent Bugnion [MVP ASP.NET]
> Software engineering, Blog: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
> PhotoAlbum: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch/pictures
> Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch
>

Hi,

Coder wrote:
>> The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability.
> Thank you. Until the full toolset for WPF is available, it seems that
> WinForms is the only way to develop a UI the "normal" way. So, I thought
> hosting a few WPF controls in WinForms might make sense.
>
> Are you saying that without a UI designer (e.g. Cider) it's not too
> difficult to create a complete WPF app?

Cider in VS2005 is simply not usable. In VS2007 it is supposed to be
better, but I never tried it.

The answer to your question, actually, is Expression Blend. You can open
the CSPROJ or SLN files in Blend at the same time that you have them in
VS2005, and Blend gives you a much better visual approach to the UI than
Cider ever will. Designing a UI with Blend is a much better experience
than with the WinForms designer. I recommend you to download and install
Blend 2 CTP (it's free, with a 180 days license). If you like it, you
can install it from MSDN or buy it. I couldn't do UI without Blend anymore.

> What about WPF control event handlers? Don't they need to be added by code
> edits (i.e. no designer to hook events automatically)?

Yes, in Blend. You can also design bindings and animations (by key
frames only, though) in Blend, and much more.

I promise you, I get no money when a copy of Blend is downloaded ;-) I
just love that app.

HTH,
Laurent
--
Laurent Bugnion [MVP ASP.NET]
Software engineering, Blog: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
PhotoAlbum: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch/pictures
Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch

Hopefully you will find that the visual designer for WPF in the new release
of Visual Studio 2008 (Beta 2) will be more useful to you.

You can get Beta 2 here
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx

Whilst it will not perform the full range of design-surface tasks that
Expression Blend will, it has a strong XAML and code editing experience and
can perform many layout tasks as well. The two designers are complementary;
one addresses "design-focussed" tasks and the other focussed on core
"development" tasks.

If you have feedback on the WPF Designer (aka Cider) in Visual Studio 2008
I'd encourage you to send it to the forum here:

http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/def...d=169&siteid=1

By the way I endorse what Laurent says at the start of this thread about
when to use interop between WPF and Windows Forms. It's a good starting point
for thinking about it. The real question I think you need to ask yourself is
"what value is the platform and tools giving me for building my specific app"
- e.g in some cases the WPF platform will have some feature that you need and
writing it in Windows Forms is just impossible - but you still have a lot of
Windows Forms UI you don't want to rewrite - that would be a clear case for
embedding WPF in your Windows Forms app and getting the "best of both worlds".

Thanks

Mark Wilson-Thomas
Program Manager, WPF Designer Team, Visual Studio.


"Laurent Bugnion, MVP" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Coder wrote:
> >> The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability.
> > Thank you. Until the full toolset for WPF is available, it seems that
> > WinForms is the only way to develop a UI the "normal" way. So, I thought
> > hosting a few WPF controls in WinForms might make sense.
> >
> > Are you saying that without a UI designer (e.g. Cider) it's not too
> > difficult to create a complete WPF app?
>
> Cider in VS2005 is simply not usable. In VS2007 it is supposed to be
> better, but I never tried it.
>
> The answer to your question, actually, is Expression Blend. You can open
> the CSPROJ or SLN files in Blend at the same time that you have them in
> VS2005, and Blend gives you a much better visual approach to the UI than
> Cider ever will. Designing a UI with Blend is a much better experience
> than with the WinForms designer. I recommend you to download and install
> Blend 2 CTP (it's free, with a 180 days license). If you like it, you
> can install it from MSDN or buy it. I couldn't do UI without Blend anymore.
>
> > What about WPF control event handlers? Don't they need to be added by code
> > edits (i.e. no designer to hook events automatically)?
>
> Yes, in Blend. You can also design bindings and animations (by key
> frames only, though) in Blend, and much more.
>
> I promise you, I get no money when a copy of Blend is downloaded ;-) I
> just love that app.
>
> HTH,
> Laurent
> --
> Laurent Bugnion [MVP ASP.NET]
> Software engineering, Blog: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
> PhotoAlbum: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch/pictures
> Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch
>

Can Visual Studio 2008 (Beta 2) be used for apps to be released?

"Mark Wilson-Thomas (MSFT)" wrote:

> Hopefully you will find that the visual designer for WPF in the new release
> of Visual Studio 2008 (Beta 2) will be more useful to you.
>
> You can get Beta 2 here
> http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx
>
> Whilst it will not perform the full range of design-surface tasks that
> Expression Blend will, it has a strong XAML and code editing experience and
> can perform many layout tasks as well. The two designers are complementary;
> one addresses "design-focussed" tasks and the other focussed on core
> "development" tasks.
>
> If you have feedback on the WPF Designer (aka Cider) in Visual Studio 2008
> I'd encourage you to send it to the forum here:
>
> http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/def...d=169&siteid=1
>
> By the way I endorse what Laurent says at the start of this thread about
> when to use interop between WPF and Windows Forms. It's a good starting point
> for thinking about it. The real question I think you need to ask yourself is
> "what value is the platform and tools giving me for building my specific app"
> - e.g in some cases the WPF platform will have some feature that you need and
> writing it in Windows Forms is just impossible - but you still have a lot of
> Windows Forms UI you don't want to rewrite - that would be a clear case for
> embedding WPF in your Windows Forms app and getting the "best of both worlds".
>
> Thanks
>
> Mark Wilson-Thomas
> Program Manager, WPF Designer Team, Visual Studio.
>
>
> "Laurent Bugnion, MVP" wrote:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > Coder wrote:
> > >> The best of all is to avoid this kind of interoperability.
> > > Thank you. Until the full toolset for WPF is available, it seems that
> > > WinForms is the only way to develop a UI the "normal" way. So, I thought
> > > hosting a few WPF controls in WinForms might make sense.
> > >
> > > Are you saying that without a UI designer (e.g. Cider) it's not too
> > > difficult to create a complete WPF app?
> >
> > Cider in VS2005 is simply not usable. In VS2007 it is supposed to be
> > better, but I never tried it.
> >
> > The answer to your question, actually, is Expression Blend. You can open
> > the CSPROJ or SLN files in Blend at the same time that you have them in
> > VS2005, and Blend gives you a much better visual approach to the UI than
> > Cider ever will. Designing a UI with Blend is a much better experience
> > than with the WinForms designer. I recommend you to download and install
> > Blend 2 CTP (it's free, with a 180 days license). If you like it, you
> > can install it from MSDN or buy it. I couldn't do UI without Blend anymore.
> >
> > > What about WPF control event handlers? Don't they need to be added by code
> > > edits (i.e. no designer to hook events automatically)?
> >
> > Yes, in Blend. You can also design bindings and animations (by key
> > frames only, though) in Blend, and much more.
> >
> > I promise you, I get no money when a copy of Blend is downloaded ;-) I
> > just love that app.
> >
> > HTH,
> > Laurent
> > --
> > Laurent Bugnion [MVP ASP.NET]
> > Software engineering, Blog: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch
> > PhotoAlbum: http://www.galasoft-LB.ch/pictures
> > Support children in Calcutta: http://www.calcutta-espoir.ch
> >