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Rich client development remains one of the most popular forms of application
development, both from a user and a developer point of view. While nobody denies
the importance of thin-client interface technologies such as HTML(5), it is clear
that consumers and enterprises alike enjoy using applications that provide a rich,
powerful, productive, and sometimes fun experience. Evidence ranges from the
current App Craze on mobile devices to the long-running history of rich business
applications deployed by many businesses of all sizes. Many of the most successful
applications and systems, measured in commercial success and/or popularity, are
either entirely based on Rich Client technology or make Rich Clients part of the mix.
If you are a Microsoft developer (and if you are reading this book, the chances
are that you are), you find yourself in the lucky position of getting a chance to
use one of the best, if not the best, sets of Rich Client development technologies
and tools. The paradigm first introduced by WPF (then known under its Avalon
code name) and the XAML declarative approach have turned out to be a
super-productive, highly maintainable, and highly reusable approach. The
technologies are easy to use once the developer gets acquainted with the ideas
behind the setup of XAML-based systems. It is true that there is a learning curve.
As an industry, we have used the same UI development paradigm across many
languages, systems, and even platforms for a very long period of time, reaching
back all the way to MS DOS. The drop a control on a form, set a few properties, and
wire up some event handlers approach can be found almost universally in pre-XAML
scenarios ranging from Visual Basic, to C++, PowerBuilder, Delphi, Visual FoxPro,
.NET Windows Forms, ASP.NET WebForms, even standalone HTML scenarios, and
many more. XAML breaks that mold. Yes, you can still employ the old paradigm,
but you can reap significant benefits by following the new ideas. By reading this
book, you are well on your way down that path, and you will find that while there
is a hump in the learning curve you need to get over, there also is a significant
downward slope on the other side of that hump. While many environments retain
a high level of difficulty even once you achieve a high degree of familiarity, WPF
is different in that things tend to be pretty straightforward once you know how to do
things the right way. |