r_poetic said:
A knowledgable writer recently published this prediction:
"MVP Summit theme was .NET 3.5, 4.0 and beyond. Microsoft has big
plans for these technologies. Forget Windows Forms and ASP.NET. It's
history. Future is Silverlight and WPF."
Certainly, Windows Forms and Asp.Net will eventually go away. However, you
can say the same for Silverlight and WPF. Everything gets replaced in time.
Personally, I love WPF and Silverlight and do expect them to take off.
However, I think it will be a few more years until we start seeing real
widespread use. Windows Forms and Asp.Net have too many users and too much
code written for them for Microsoft to drop them. There are some specific
reasons I don't think Silverlight and WPF will be replacing Asp.Net and
WinForms anytime soon.
WPF
1) Loses much of it's capabilities on weaker hardware. If the trend for
netbooks continues it may slow WPF's adoption.
2) Programming for it is so much different from WinForms programming that
it's not easy for developers to transition.
3) Not much reason to use it for internal business applications. These kinds
of apps often have little to no polish on the UI.
4) Visual Studio still needs tons of enhancements to make WPF easy for
developers. It seems that Microsoft is focusing on Expression for designer
support of WPF instead of Visual Studio. This is great for companies that
have dedicated designers. However, for smaller shops where the developer and
the designer is the same person, it's frustrating.
Silverlight
1) All the reasons for WPF as silverlight utilizes WPF heavily.
2) Silverlight and Asp.Net have a very symbiotic relationship. Silverlight
is often hosted within an Asp.Net website.
3) Silverlight doesn't work on Linux, Windows Mobile, iPhone, Google Phone
and dozens (if not hundreds) of platforms and browsers. There is a definite
need for websites to output standard HTML to allow use by virtually any
platform.
4) Strong competition from Flash.
5) The APIs are still very young.
6) Accessibility tools like screen readers won't work properly with a
silverlight website.
I currently do scientific and in-house programming in C# and ADO-
Linq... desktop apps mainly. Question (a) Will my skills still be
useful in the future, assuming I continue to do similar sorts of
applications?
Yes. In-House apps generally don't need slick UIs, so there isn't as much
need for silverlight or WPF. Also, Silverlight and WPF are really UI
technologies. You'll still build the business layer of your apps the same
way.
Question (b) Without disputing that Silverlight or WPF
might predominate overall someday, is there anything about them that
makes them better for scientific programming specifically?
Depends on what you are doing. For crunching numbers there is no advantage
whatsoever. However, there are definite advantages to WPF for visualization
of the data. You can do all sorts of fancy graphs and animations.
Question
(c), if you were me, would you run out and take classes in these new
areas?
No, but I would buy a book on WPF and study it on your own. After learning
more about it through first hand experience you can decide if it makes sense
for you to pursue formal training.
Andrew Faust
