WPF vs Windows Forms

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By LPK Technosoft

LPK Technosoft

WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation):

WPF offers a new markup language alternative, which is known as XAML. It is a different means of defining UI elements and relationships with other UI elements. An application that is defined as WPF is able to be deployed on the desktop, or hosted on a web browser. It is also able to handle rich control, design and development of the visual aspects of programs run by Windows. Its goals are specifically to unify a number of application services, including user interfaces, 2D and 3D drawings, fixed and adaptive documents, advanced typography, vector graphics, raster graphics, animation,data binding, audio, and video. WPF contains a plethora of features including, but not limited to, graphical services, data binding, layout and template options, and effects options.

Windows Forms

Windows Forms is known as the graphical application programming interface (can call it as Graphical API). Windows Forms is the feature of the Windows .NET Framework, which provides us access to the native Microsoft Windows Interface elements. It completes the task by wrapping the Windows API in the managed code. This will execute the task under the management of the Common Language Runtime virtual machine. The output will be in the form of the Bytecode. Windows Form is considered as the replacement of the C++, which is based on the Microsoft Foundation Class Library. Windows Form provides us a model that is comparable to the model view controller(MVC).In Windows Forms, most of our time is spen in the waiting of the user's action- like they will fill the data in the textbox or click on the button.

The following is a completely subjective list of the key advantages for WPF and WinForms. It should give you a better idea of what you're going into.

WPF advantages:

· WPF is an advanced technology that is used for the development of the application.

· WPF is complex to be used for the development of the application.

· WPF is scalable. This can extend the UI elements.

· WPF contains the enhanced security feature.

· WPF is used for designing the UI part of the application.

· XAML makes it easy to create and edit your GUI, and allows the work to be split between a designer (XAML) and a programmer (C#, VB.NET etc.)

· Uses hardware acceleration for drawing the GUI, for better performance

· Databinding, which allows you to get a more clean separation of data and layout

· It allows you to make user interfaces for both Windows applications and web applications (Silverlight/XBAP)

WinForms advantages:

· Windows Form is an old concept for the development of the desktop application.

· Windows Forms are simple to use as we are using the controls of it. They are easily usable.

· Windows Forms are less scalable; we can extend the UI element when we need it.

· Windows forms contain a less secure feature.

· We cannot use Windows Form where the design is required.

1. Which one is better based upon performance?

There is no meaning to say that WPF is better than windows forms or vice versa. It depends on many factors:

· What kind of UI you are building. Obviously, the complexity of the views you are designing will factor in to performance on both platforms. They have different layout and rendering pipelines.

· How effectively you optimize for performance on each platform.

2.What are the top advantages of using WPF instead of Windows Forms?

Advantages of using WPF instead of Windows forms:

· XAML makes it easy to create and edit your GUI, and allows the work to be split between a designer (XAML) and a programmer (C#, VB.NET etc.).

· It allows you to make user interfaces for both Windows applications and web applications (Silverlight/XBAP).

· Databinding, which allows you to get a more clean separation of data and layout.

· Uses hardware acceleration for drawing the GUI, for better performance

3.What are the top advantages of using Windows Forms instead of WPF?

Top advantages of using Windows forms instead of WPF:

· WPF's in-box control suite is far more limited than that of WinForms.

· There's greater support in the 3rd-party control space for WinForms. (That's changing, but for now by advantage of time, WinForms has greater support in the community.)

· The major drawback of WPF is that Mono doesn't really support it for cross-platform (e.g., it doesn't work on Linux and Mac). Originally, Xamarian/Novella said they weren't going to implement it due to the complexity of implementation. I haven't seen anything to the contrary. Not saying it isn't, but their recommendation is to write model classes and then do a OS-specific front end. Even with WPF being open sourced, it may be built on something that isn't easily ported.

4.How hard is it to switch from Windows Forms to WPF?

Depends upon your learning ability.

5.Which parts of WPF should I definitely look into?

· XAML: Learn about XAML and how it is used in WPF applications.

· Layout: Learn about layout panels and how they are used to construct user interfaces.

· Data binding: Learn how WPF data binding works and how it can be used.

· Data templates and triggers: Learn how data templates and triggers work and how they can be used.

· Styles: Learn about how UIs can be styled in WPF.