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GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Tomaz Koritnik19-Feb-14 22:27
Tomaz Koritnik19-Feb-14 22:27 
GeneralsRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Nicolas Dorier20-Feb-14 2:58
professionalNicolas Dorier20-Feb-14 2:58 
GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
ClockMeister20-Feb-14 4:04
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GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Kyudos20-Feb-14 11:37
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GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Erhy20-Feb-14 4:52
Erhy20-Feb-14 4:52 
GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Member 1023631820-Feb-14 5:28
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GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
_CodeWarrior20-Feb-14 6:19
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AnswerRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
Member 289602020-Feb-14 6:10
Member 289602020-Feb-14 6:10 
Don't know if this has been answered but will take the liberty to state it again.

WPF was an ambitious plan to change the way we work with Windows development. It was part of Framework 3.0 which was a part of Vista. Ironically it wasn't a full Framework at all, but just three sets of BIG APIs designed to change different parts of the coding process.

Before we delve into WPF, we must touch the other two (Windows Communication Foundation [WCF] and Windows Workflow Foundation [WF]) and know that all three share the same XAML description language.

WCF is a modern replacement for the old .asmx model which allows you to build a Web Service inside any CIL *.exe and build Web Services beyond SOAP. I currently use them to connect BizTalk to SAP using SAP Connector.

WF was an ambitious plan to create Enterprise Service Bus potential in everyday applications, connecting WebServices to business flows and logic, using graphic programming.

Last, but not least, came WPF, the Windows Presentation Foundation, which was an attempt to 'reimagine' the desktop experience. It was thought that during Vista, application developers would abandon Win32 in favor of WPF. That didn't happened since the impact of the Web was far greater than Microsoft had expected. Enterprise had already went full web and all modern application development was being done in Java or ASP.NET.

So Microsoft created Silverlight, to revive WPF into a Web Plus thing, just like Flash. But then came the mobile revolution and people started making apps instead of applications, and apps became companions to web pages (aka a thin client world).

Today WPF lives on in the Metro paradigm for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Windows Phone 7 was a type of Silverlight, but WinRT (the common framework for 8's) is more WPF like. All Metro apps can communicate with WCF services and could (theoretically) use WF workflows. Few people are going this route as Node.js and JSON have replaced SOAP as a communication approach except in the B2B side.

As for the reason to use an XML markup system to describe the app, instead of doing it graphically and programmatically like WinForms, you must know that the concept behind WPF was that the markup is just a partial class of the codebehind. That way you could have the View separated from the Controller and Model. This was an approach created by the NeXT Cube and NextStep (the fore father of iOS and OS X) in a system called Model-View-Presenter. The language used was called a plist had no programmatic equivalent which allowed more flexibility and no need to translate the graphic approach and no need for interface construction during startup, thus generating faster code. Smile | :)
Blessings are not just for the ones who kneel. Luckily...

GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
BillWoodruff21-Feb-14 8:53
professionalBillWoodruff21-Feb-14 8:53 
GeneralRe: WPF - Why was it formed? Pin
_CodeWarrior20-Feb-14 6:14
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RafagaX20-Feb-14 11:36
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JamesHurst20-Feb-14 11:38
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preaa20-Feb-14 21:23
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GeneralCCC 19/2/14 Pin
Dalek Dave18-Feb-14 22:10
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Mohamad M. Mohamad18-Feb-14 22:25
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Mohamad M. Mohamad18-Feb-14 23:06
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