WPF is the graphical subsystem feature of the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly called WinFX)and is directly related to XAML.It is pre-installed in Windows Vista,the latest version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. WPF is also available for installation on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. It provides a consistent programming model for building applications and provides a clear separation between the UI and the business logic. A WPF application can be deployed on the desktop or hosted in a web browser. It also enables rich control, design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs
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a nice exemple is a comparison between wpf and winform
We can conclude that the future of the smart client application will be based on Windows presentation foundation (wpf).
The following is a partial list of WPF features.
Graphical Services
- All graphics (including desktop items like windows) are Direct3D applications.
- This aims to provide a unified avenue for displaying graphics, as well as more advanced graphical features.
- Routing the graphics through Direct3D allows Windows to offload graphics tasks to the Graphics Processing Unit found on the computer's graphics card. This reduces the workload on the computer's Central processing unit.
- Supports vector-based graphics, which allow lossless scaling.
- Supports 3D model rendering and interaction in 2D applications.
- Interactive 2D content can be overlaid on 3D surfaces, natively.
Interoperability
- WPF provides interoperability with Win32: Via hosting, one can use Windows Presentation Foundation inside existing Win32 code, or one can use existing Win32 code inside Windows Presentation Foundation.
- Interoperability with Windows Forms is also possible through the use of the ElementHost and WindowsFormsHost classes.
Media Services
- WPF provides shape primitives for 2D graphics along with a built-in set of brushes, pens, geometries, and transforms.
- The 3D capabilities in WPF are a subset of the full featureset provided by Direct3D. However, WPF provides tighter integration with other features like user interface (UI), documents, and media. This makes it possible to have 3D UI, 3D documents, and 3D media.
- There is support for most common image formats.
- WPF supports the video formats WMV, MPEG and some AVI files.
- WPF supports time-based animations, in contrast to the frame-based approach. This delinks the speed of the animation from how the system is performing.
- Text rendering is supported using ClearType. This provides for sub-pixel positioning, natural advance widths, and Y-direction anti-aliasing. WPF also supports OpenType font features.
Animations
- Time-based animation. Scene redraws are time triggered.
- Presentation timers are initialized and managed by WPF.
- Scene changes co-ordinated by using a storyboard.
- Animations can be triggered by other external events, including user action.
- Animation effects can be defined on a per-object basis, which can be accessed directly from XAML markup.
- Ships with a set of predefined effects, such as fade out for all controls.
Data binding
- WPF has a built-in set of data services to enable application developers to bind and manipulate data within applications. There exists support for three types of data binding:
- one time: where the client ignores updates on the server.
- one way: where the client has read-only access to data.
- two way: where client can read from and write data to the server.
- LINQ queries, specifically LINQ to XML, can also act as data sources for data binding.
- Binding of data has no bearing on its presentation. WPF provides data templates to control presentation of data.
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