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Does anyone have any experience of winforms and/or wpf? I've asked on Stackoverflow but not had a response. Edit - should say not had an answer
The reason I ask is I'm developing an application which involves room layout/design, so a lot of image, rectangle and line controls with which the user can create a room outline, drag tables and chairs around etc. I'm only using access as a front end.
It works in access but the user experience is not great - basically a lot of screen flicker and the rendering of diagonal lines could be better. Another issue is that controls cannot be rotated.
So I revisited winforms/vb.net and created a basic mockup to test the principles which went well - much better user experience but a steep learning curve for me required for handling and presenting data (no continuous form or subform, comboboxes only display one column etc - although there appear to be workarounds which I need to investigate).
I'm still investigating, but it would appear there is no reporting functionality as in access which is great for invoice/despatch notes, labels etc. either.
I've also taken the opportunity to look at wpf which I've not used before - lots more form functionality so I'm going to do a mockup there and see where it takes me.
So, my dilemma is do I invest time and energy in learning winforms or wpf (the latter seems to have a richer environment so would probably be the preferred route of the two) with a view to offering it as an alternative for new projects, bearing in mind most projects that come my way are around creating and managing data and generating reports (such as invoices).
Bearing in mind my style is to design good looking (well I think so), intuitive and dynamic forms/reports
pros for access (as front end)
fast development time
full suite of functionality (forms/reports)
cons for access (as front end)
issues around deployment - different office implementations 2003/2007/2010 etc 64bit/32bit
issues around security (although I have most bases covered now I think!)
limit on form/report size
limit on number of controls per form/report
pros for winforms/wpf
controls have more configuration properties and events
No apparent limit of form size/number of controls
controls can be created at runtime
code is compiled to .exe
can use full suite of touch gestures, such as pinch and rotate (C# only?)
cons for winforms/wpf
some controls come almost as a kit which you then need to build into a suitable control
no reporting facility
no subform or continuous form (which I use a lot)
longer development time
also not clear at this time whether there are deployment issues (e.g. 32/64bit windows OS - win7/8/10 etc). Not worried about earlier OS, if a potential client hasn't upgraded from XP, I'm not the right developer for them!
So if anyone has experience of winforms/wpf, is it a really an environment for developing systems to create, manage and present data in a dynamic and intuitive way? is there a reporting facility and if not, any recommendations? Any suggestions for sites/books which I can use as a reference, are there deployment issues to consider? What have been your experiences?
The reason I ask is I'm developing an application which involves room layout/design, so a lot of image, rectangle and line controls with which the user can create a room outline, drag tables and chairs around etc. I'm only using access as a front end.
It works in access but the user experience is not great - basically a lot of screen flicker and the rendering of diagonal lines could be better. Another issue is that controls cannot be rotated.
So I revisited winforms/vb.net and created a basic mockup to test the principles which went well - much better user experience but a steep learning curve for me required for handling and presenting data (no continuous form or subform, comboboxes only display one column etc - although there appear to be workarounds which I need to investigate).
I'm still investigating, but it would appear there is no reporting functionality as in access which is great for invoice/despatch notes, labels etc. either.
I've also taken the opportunity to look at wpf which I've not used before - lots more form functionality so I'm going to do a mockup there and see where it takes me.
So, my dilemma is do I invest time and energy in learning winforms or wpf (the latter seems to have a richer environment so would probably be the preferred route of the two) with a view to offering it as an alternative for new projects, bearing in mind most projects that come my way are around creating and managing data and generating reports (such as invoices).
Bearing in mind my style is to design good looking (well I think so), intuitive and dynamic forms/reports
pros for access (as front end)
fast development time
full suite of functionality (forms/reports)
cons for access (as front end)
issues around deployment - different office implementations 2003/2007/2010 etc 64bit/32bit
issues around security (although I have most bases covered now I think!)
limit on form/report size
limit on number of controls per form/report
pros for winforms/wpf
controls have more configuration properties and events
No apparent limit of form size/number of controls
controls can be created at runtime
code is compiled to .exe
can use full suite of touch gestures, such as pinch and rotate (C# only?)
cons for winforms/wpf
some controls come almost as a kit which you then need to build into a suitable control
no reporting facility
no subform or continuous form (which I use a lot)
longer development time
also not clear at this time whether there are deployment issues (e.g. 32/64bit windows OS - win7/8/10 etc). Not worried about earlier OS, if a potential client hasn't upgraded from XP, I'm not the right developer for them!
So if anyone has experience of winforms/wpf, is it a really an environment for developing systems to create, manage and present data in a dynamic and intuitive way? is there a reporting facility and if not, any recommendations? Any suggestions for sites/books which I can use as a reference, are there deployment issues to consider? What have been your experiences?
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