Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

WPF без розовых очков [Карстен Занусевски]

Олег Михайлик — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 01:01:32 GMT

Похоже, философия новой платформы WPF довольно сильно отличается от обычного под

re: Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

Simon Middlemiss — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 09:35:51 GMT

that definately resonates. I've spent the last 2-3 weeks working with WPF in the evenings and weekends and was very productive. But now that I am starting to do things that aren't so easy, I am hitting brick wall after brick wall. The annoying thing is (as with any prerelease software) that I don't know what is a lack of understanding on my part, and what is a bug/missing feature in the framework.

I am making a concerted effort to try and contribute to the WPF forums. By working through other people's issues I've found things become a lot clearer.

There isn't a curve. It's more like jumping of a cliff, hitting the ground hard, dusting yourself off an then finding another cliff to do the same over.

re: Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

mike h — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 16:26:18 GMT

When I was first introduced to WPF I was immediately interested in its 3D capabilities. I had no prior 3D experience, so that was my first part of the curve: learning 3D fundamentals like positions, triangle indeces, normals, right-hand rules, etc. Then I really dug hard into as many 3D examples as I could find to understand how other developers were accomplishing things in 3D (e.g. Hogue's examples, your Sandbox example).

So now I'm getting comfortable with 3D, and I'm done building basic 3D models sitting in a viewport that don't really do anything. I want to create a real app.

Now I realize I know 3D, but that's almost all I know of WPF. If you asked me last week to create a basic window with two panels separated by a splitter, I couldn't do it. Now I'm getting into Expression Interactive Designer and am trying to better understand basic UI controls, styles, and data binding. Even with Expression doing the UI work for me, I'm still lost at times when trying to understand the XAML it creates.

Once I get a UI going and want to use real data, I'm expecting another brick wall to run in to. This all comes with the territory of very new technology though - it can be frustrating, but you have to remember that this is new ground and there's not a lot out there to reference.

Karsten on the WPF Learning Curve

hacked.brain — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:41:16 GMT

re: Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

ppavan — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 06:04:43 GMT

One way to climb the curve faster is to publish good books. I know there is Chris Anderson's book, there is the XAML in a Nutshell book and I guess Petzold's book would be coming out soon. I have read the first two more than once. My problem was that I used to use later versions of the WinFX framework and the books used an earlier version. Lot of things had changed between CTPs and was a brick wall in many ways.

For early adopters there is no other way but to hit the wall constantly and bring it down. However I am happy that the Expression Interactive Designer is releasing its CTPs insync with the framework. EID is certainly helping a lot in learning the framework as it evolves.

- Pavan Podila -

re: Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

Valentin Iliescu — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 19:56:52 GMT

> Have you hit the curve?

Yes.

> Are you hitting the curve?

Every day :)

> What helped?

Documentation, books, forum, newsgroup, blogs.

> What hurt?

Not enough information in the documentation, books, forum, newsgroup, blogs. :)

re: Hitting the Curve: On WPF and Productivity

Andrew Whiddett — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 18:29:30 GMT

Ok, i am going to try to keep this short.
WPF has a huge number of cliffs; and there is one good reason; it’s a totally new API where the whole base paradigm has been re-thought out. That has not been done for many years - its as big as a jump from Curses to the Wind32 API. The end result of this is that each programmer that comes to WPF has to re-work their existing methods of implementing code; effectively a massive re-train. For example:- the separation of UI from Data is now split into UI->Style->Data Templates->Collection Views->Data. Its a lot to take in.
Darren (as usual :) ) is right; expect to throw out your first iteration of the application, you simply can’t expect to get it right the first time; I did not either. As the code samples and documentation improve then it will get better, but also we need to set out some best practices to help guide people.
So, why bother ? WPF abet a complex product; offers a unique platform; the 3d features, the clean separation of form vs function, the data binding. Yes, it takes time to learn, but when you have, its worth it.
Dive in, the waters warm.

Getting past the Avalon (WPF) curve

Technology — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:24:26 GMT

Karsten makes some good honest comments on WPF learning curve.  WPF integrates multiple visual technologies into one unified API and that brings with it a big learning curve.
The good news is t ...

Where am I

Konstantin G — Wed, 17 May 2006 13:52:40 GMT

It's not often I write new blog entries, so here is a summary of what's going on here:

Preparing for...

Beta 2 CRAY-ZEE

jason kemp .ca — Sun, 28 May 2006 21:14:56 GMT

Avalon != J2EE

Ashvil's Blog — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 18:47:41 GMT

I have a lot of respect for Miguel and his work with Mono but statements like “Avalon is the J2EE of GUI Apps” is just nonsense.
Having worked for the last one year to architect and build an Avalon ...

Swimming in the WPF Pool

SlickThought.Net — Sun, 10 Sep 2006 06:07:14 GMT

I have been immersing myself in WPF for the past week, building a prototype app for a customer (more

WPF Styles

Pigs Can Fly — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:36:37 GMT

One of the things I planned to do this holiday season was spend some time learning about Windows Presentation

THREE NEW EXPRESSION BLEND HANDS-ON LABS

IRhetoric - Karsten Januszewski — Tue, 22 May 2007 17:26:19 GMT

I just posted three new hands-on labs for Expression Blend that were created for MIX but haven't been

THREE NEW EXPRESSION BLEND HANDS-ON LABS

外部部落格 — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:16:54 GMT

I just posted three new hands-on labs for Expression Blend that were created for MIX but haven't