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What is WPF/E really?

  • Article

In a few newsgroup posts on our forums, I’ve seen some confusion about what WPF/E CTP enables and what it doesn’t. This is probably a result of the snappy codename we’ve chosen, but I’ll attempt to add some clarity. WPF/E is a subset of WPF, but the subset was chosen in a careful way to enable web scenarios that are not possible with HTML alone.

On the team, the way we think of WPF/E is this: WPF/E is a browser plug-in that augments the set of functionality provided by HTML to provide media, animation and vector graphics with the same programming model that the HTML DOM exposes. This CTP of WPF/E is not a UI technology that replaces HTML, it augments the capabilities.

HTML elements can be created, accessed and modified using javascript running on a web page. WPF/E elements can be created, accessed and modified using javascript running on a web page. HTML is easy to search since it is sent to the user as plain text. WPF/E is also sent to the user as plain text. HTML samples and tricks are shared organically because the page source can be easily viewed. WPF/E allows for the same thing.

HTML provides flow text layout, text input, tabular and flow layout panels, and a simple set of UI controls. WPF/E provides media playback, vector graphic drawing and animation support. The two sets of capabilities compliment one another.

This is not to say other parts of WPF will not be incorporated into WPF/E in future CTPs and versions of the product, because we are definitely planning on growing our WPF subset and the overlap with HTML features. Very important things like text input, layout, resources, data binding and of course, CLR integration are all WPF features that our team is scoping for integration with WFP/E. I’m just trying to frame the approach we’ve taken with the initial CTP of WPF/E. Extend the browser and give users the most consistent development model we can.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2006
    Well, that explains all the missing features.  I think the community was expecting a lot more given the number of resources and time that Microsoft has put into the project.  HTML really is not good for designing user interfaces - we would like to build rich UI applications that are delivered over the web.  This requires a programming model that WPF promotes, and one which HTML does not offer.  Do you have any idea as to when we can expect to use WPF/E for web user interface programming?  This would require user interface elements, data binding, and .net CLR integration?

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2006
    I imagine that it might change at some point but I think the naming of "WPF/E" is confusing at the moment...

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2006
    A group of nice posts about WPF/E What is WPF/E really? Getting started with developing WPF/E...

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2006
    geblack -- check out Flex from Adobe.

  • Ubiquitous, and runs on a variety of platforms and browsers today.  
  • Purpose built for building applications.
  • supports UI, content, media, and data.  Build the entire application from within flex, including data retrieval and processing.
  • all the flexibility of java with all the power and structure of Java and C#.  You pick how you want to work.

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 12, 2006
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    December 13, 2006
    1。 Mike Harsh 是微软WPF/E产品组的主管(Program Manager)，针对论坛上的疑问，他在博客里澄清“WPF/E到底是什么东西(What is WPF/E really)？”，该文的大意是:

  • Anonymous
    December 16, 2006
    As you might be aware, in sequence with Vista, Microsoft released .NET 3.0. This is an addtional set...

  • Anonymous
    April 18, 2007
    Silver Light(WPF/E)，它没集成CLR，不使用C#，不提供常用控件，它的优势在哪里？

  • Anonymous
    June 27, 2007
    SliverLight这段时间已经闹得沸沸扬扬了，也许大家对他还是一知半解，这篇文章是出自微软WPF/E产品组的主管的解答，我认为是比较准确的，没有把SliverLight说得像外面传说的那么夸张。其实在目前SliverLight 1.0 Beta阶段它还只能是与HTML互补，代替以前的一些VML，SVG，FLASH功能。SliverLight 1.1 改进了许多，但目前还是Alpha版，相关的资料和示例也比较少，也没下载试试。希望有一天SliverLight 能彻底代替HTML。

  • Anonymous
    July 07, 2007
    SliverLight这段时间已经闹得沸沸扬扬了，也许大家对他还是一知半解，这篇文章是出自微软WPF/E产品组的主管的解答，我认为是比较准确的，没有把SliverLight说得像外面传说的那么夸张。其实在目前SliverLight 1.0 Beta阶段它还只能是与HTML互补，代替以前的一些VML，SVG，FLASH功能。SliverLight 1.1 改进了许多，但目前还是Alpha版，相关的资料和示例也比较少，也没下载试试。Silverlight 1.1 Alpha是基于Silverlight

  • Anonymous
    September 06, 2007
    university of florida football teams

  • Anonymous
    January 16, 2008
    WPF简介 WPF的全称是WindowsPresentationFoundation，是微软新发布的Vista操作系统的三大核心开发库之一，其主要负责的是图形显示，所以叫Presentati...

  • Anonymous
    July 15, 2008
    For those who haven't heard, Microsoft launched a CTP of WPF/E last week and there has been a huge amount of blog chatter surrounding it. For people who are still struggling to come to terms with WPF, the addition of WPF/E into the mix will surely cause