Comments on: Two’s Company

By: Brian Haas

Brian Haas — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:43:54 +0000

We have two apps, one written in WinForms and one in WPF. When making the decision to use WPF, the deciding factor for me was databinding, XAML, and Silverlight. WPF databinding rocks, and I think its the most beneficial non-visual advantage. My first impression with WPF was that Microsoft accomplished their goal of “best of winforms, best of the web”, however after using it for over a year, there are definite painpoints. As Tim points out, cold start times are painful. Also, debugging is often more difficult as the framework is extensive, especially around weak references and our use of the command infrastructure. And finally, our solution will eventually lead us to web work and the investiment in WPF and XAML technology will hopefully pay off as we look to utilize Silverlight in a web UI to avoid javascript based business logic.

One more note on WPF. I had a customer request support because our app UI was not rendering properly. Double visuals and cutoff panels. The solution was to update his video driver! As a business app developer, that was a first for me. You wont have that problem with WinForms.

By: The MicroISV Digest

The MicroISV Digest — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 04:40:25 +0000

[...] for feedback on a product idea, and while I normally don’t cover idea feedback requests, Tim has helped a lot of people at Business of Software over the years and deserves your feedback and [...]

By: Jose

Jose — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 05:55:13 +0000

I pretty much wrote all my doubts about which path to take some months ago (http://www.nowfromhome.com/new-project-wpf-or-windows-forms/).

The thing is that I’m still not 100% sure and your post made me rethink it again. It specially called my attention that you you said that it was a “mistake” and the fact that you are rewriting your UI.

I’m entering a crowded niche. However 90% of the competition have very complex and intimidating UI. I’d like the GUI to be one of the differentiation points in my application. Ideally I’d like something like the Lawson M3 screenshot you can see on my post. The problem is that I’m not a designer and it’s very likely to end up with a mess or a typical WinForms application.

Anyway, I think I’m going to go with WPF. This is a mid-term project and it has to be fun. I also think that .NET 3.5 adoption is going to improve quickly. Also, what do you think about .NET 4 Client Profile? 30 Mb doesn’t sound that bad (at least in my niche) and it is supposed to improve WPF performance as well.

By: Tim Haughton

Tim Haughton — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 22:24:38 +0000

Hi Jose, the main reasons *for me* are:

1 – Over 50% of all visitors to the Home Document Manager website use Windows XP. About 20% use Vista and 20% Windows 7. I can target v2.0 of the framework with a clear conscience with Winforms in the knowledge that I’m not adding bulk to my download.

2 – WPF’s cold start times suck. The prettiest splash screens in the world won’t alter that fact. It’s not as big a problem in B2B world, but when you’re selling to Joe Public, a perceived sluggishness at startup is another reason for them to buy your snappy native C++ based competitor.

3 – Third party WinForms UI components are more advanced and more mature. DevExpress in particular.

I’m not creating an “out-there” UI in my apps. They look and feel like Windows applications, so I don’t need WPF’s awesome UI power. I can’t think of a reason *to* use WPF for B2C apps at the minute. YMMV.

I’d love to know which way you decide to go, and why.

By: Jose

Jose — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:12:18 +0000

Hi Tim,

I’d really like to know what problems did you face using WPF that drive you to the conclusion that choosing that technology was a mistake. I’m planning a new product and I’m leaning towards WPF even though I’m a WinForms guy.

Hope you can comment on this.