PDC2008: Are Windows Forms Dead?

Thursday, October 9, 2008

This year’s PDC is all about the cloud (or cloudy as I call it) and the .NET Framework 4.0.

No one at Microsoft has ever told me that Windows Forms are dead (quite the opposite) but looking at the list of sessions for this year’s PDC I can only see WPF.

So the question remains: Are Windows Forms dead?

3 Comments

Far from it. WPF is not an option for companies who need to display tables with data. The fuzzy font issue that comes with WPF is a deal-breaker for a lot of companies that want to keep their customers.

Herman - Thursday, October 9, 2008 6:26:37 AM

Nice Observation Paulo

kamii47 - Thursday, October 9, 2008 8:16:01 AM

WinForms 2.0 added a few things like HTML-like flow layout and tables, but I don't see anything coming out of .NET 4.0.

Business applications are becoming more eye catching and data binding is a much.

Microsoft invested in a new paradigm but promised that it would be an alternative.

I haven't done anything worth noting in WPF but, from what I've seen, I like it. But still needs a lot more.

Control vendors play a big part in the WinForms application development. We can't demand Microsoft to supply all we want/like.

The question is: is Microsoft is not making a noticeable investment in WinForms, will control vendors continue to invest? Should I? If I'm starting the development of a new business application that must live for 5 years, should I even consider WinForms?

Just using XAML for the design (which would include designer support, of course) would be an improvement and something to show.

Paulo Morgado - Thursday, October 9, 2008 8:56:11 AM

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