I Think Silverlight just ate WPF from the inside

Comments

# David Douglass said on 18 November, 2009 05:05 PM

This is a total turn off.  Practically speaking, I can't move beyond WinForms until things stabilize.  WinForms may not be way cool, but often they get the job done.

# INTPnerd said on 18 November, 2009 05:28 PM

I don't really know much about WPF or Silverlight but I though Silverlight was mainly a web thing and it ran in the user's browser on some version of the Compact Framework and thus was really only useful for websites? Do think this will change or is there already a useful way to use silverlight stuff from a .NET desktop application?

# Matthias Shapiro said on 18 November, 2009 06:22 PM

I think you're probably right. I, for one, would like to know what that roadmap looks like.

Microsoft has already taken steps toward bending WPF so that it looks more like Silverlight. Many of their core WPF controls can use either the old WPF event and property trigger + animations OR the Silverlight Visual State Manager option. As I understand it, Silverlight is moving to include triggers more extensively which muddies the waters somewhat. If Silverlight and WPF both support these two control state paradigms, what is the best practice? The answer "Whatever floats your boat" is not a very satisfying one for people just coming into the technology.

# Gert-Jan van der Kamp said on 19 November, 2009 05:42 AM

I think it would be a good idea for MS to take a strategy and foloow it. Also it makes very little sense to have SL and WPF / WPF browser etc side-by-side.

One of the reasons we've been holding off (even on a greenfield project) is the fact that the fture of this stuff is still just too merky.

MS: Pick 1 technology and stick with it. Make sure it's scales as much as possible between the deployment scenarios.

# Nigel Sampson said on 19 November, 2009 03:44 PM

I don't think it's a case of either one "taking over". Silverlight began as a subset of WPF with some extras. They're bending closer together certainly and maybe we'll get to a point where it's a single framework.

This doesn't mean you need to give up on one or the other. They both use xaml and so forth, just different feature sets for eithers.

Certainly interesting times

# Matthias Broschk said on 20 November, 2009 08:35 PM

I agree that the best thing Microsoft can do is combining Silverlight and WPF into one single technology. But unless they reveal their roadmap, companies will think twice before starting projects with a technologie that might signically change in the near future.

# Abhang said on 24 November, 2009 04:39 AM

I am working on a WPF app for a huge bank. There are numerous projects where in banks have invested heavily on Windows client applications using WPF as a shiny frontend. If the Trinity(Microsoft) has to nuke WPF, its gonna be a bummer. Whenever that happens the old WPF customers need to be kept in focus.

# Frenk said on 25 November, 2009 11:05 AM

Sorry but I strongly disagree to say the least.

If you ever worked in depth with both WPF and Silverlight you would realize that this is as far from reality as it gets.

Yes, Silverlight has VSM, but have you ever tried to replicate a WPF app in SL? I did (Silverlight 3!) and the number of WPF things you miss makes it a very frustrating task.

Just compare the WPF dlls with their Silverlight counterparts with Reflector if you don't believe me.

# Olivier said on 29 November, 2009 11:59 AM

WPF has never took off, it is unfortunately the truth. As a MVP, as a WPF lover and evangelist, this situation is not making me happy. But that's the truth and our job is asking us to pay a great attention to the reality. IT often see the world as they dream it and not as it is...

What I saw since a few years now is that WPF is not used, but there is a good buzz around Silverlight.

Myself, I was surprised to realize that when I open a test project under VS or Blend, I prefer to create a new Silverlight project than a WPF one... Why ? dunno.. How a subset can be more exiting that the whole thing ? Total mystery. But this is the reality.

So I think you're right, the future of Xaml as a name, only one name : Silverlight. Because today, if Xaml is alive it is just because SL exists...

Of course the need for desktop apps will always exist and therefore this "Silverlight of the future" will be able to create both web and desktop apps. But I'm pretty sure both SL and WPF will merged in the future in one solution. And the name will not be WPF/E nor WPF, but Silverlight, that's almost sure.

On the other side I don't want people to think I'm sad, on the contrary : I'm happy ! Silverlight is fantastic. And what we are saying is not that WPF will die, just that the "name" and the technologie called WPF will be merged in one technologie named Silverligth.

Viva Xaml, Viva Silverlight ! :-)