WiseOwl Training - Established 1992
Browse 548 attributed reviews, viewable separately for our classroom and online training
This page has 0 threads   |  Add post
Five star reviews Outstanding course feedback
Average score 9.44/10, based on our 2,524 latest reviews
If you found this blog useful and you’d like to say thanks you can click here to make a contribution. Thanks for looking at our blogs!

BLOGS BY TOPIC▼

BLOGS BY AUTHOR▼

BLOGS BY YEAR▼

Why you should develop systems in WPF, not WinForms
Part two of a eleven-part series of blogs

We think - cautiously - that WPF is a better platform for client tool development than Windows Forms. This blog gives 10 reasons why.

  1. 10 reasons why WPF is better than Windows Forms
  2. WPF Forms are Quicker to Create (this blog)
  3. Flow Layout Trumps Absolute Positioning
  4. WPF Works for Websites
  5. Styles are Much Better in WPF
  6. WPF is (I think) the Way of the Future
  7. Better Data Binding
  8. Selecting Controls in the Document Outline Window
  9. Triggers
  10. StoryBoards and Animations
  11. Drawing!

Posted by Andy Brown on 25 September 2012

You need a minimum screen resolution of about 700 pixels width to see our blogs. This is because they contain diagrams and tables which would not be viewable easily on a mobile phone or small laptop. Please use a larger tablet, notebook or desktop computer, or change your screen resolution settings.

1 - WPF Forms are Quicker to Create

This should come with a proviso: once you've learnt XAML, it's quicker.

Designing a Form in WinForms

To create the form shown at the start of this blog in Windows Forms, I had to drag controls onto a form, position them correctly and then change their properties:

Dragging a control onto a form The properties of a button
Drag controls on ... ... then change their properties

Designing a Form in WPF

For the same process in WPF, you type in the XAML:

Typing XAML for a button

Provided that you know the main tags and attributes and can type reasonably quickly, creating this button is faster in XAML.

 

The speed difference particularly shows when you want to copy and paste controls:

Two buttons in XAML

The two buttons are similar; I created them by copying the OK button and editing it.

If you're a slow two-fingered typist, you might be better off sticking to WinForms.

  1. 10 reasons why WPF is better than Windows Forms
  2. WPF Forms are Quicker to Create (this blog)
  3. Flow Layout Trumps Absolute Positioning
  4. WPF Works for Websites
  5. Styles are Much Better in WPF
  6. WPF is (I think) the Way of the Future
  7. Better Data Binding
  8. Selecting Controls in the Document Outline Window
  9. Triggers
  10. StoryBoards and Animations
  11. Drawing!
This blog has 0 threads Add post