vs 2008 any improvements?

  • Thread starter Thread starter John
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J

John

Hi

Have there been any improvements in windows forms programming specially in
terms of better or new controls?

Many Thanks

Regards
 
Hi

Have there been any improvements in windows forms programming specially in
terms of better or new controls?

Many Thanks

Regards
Click to expand...

I wouldn't expect a lot of changes to System.Windows.Forms. That is
pretty much a dying technology. Moving forward, it's the WPF stuff
that is getting all the play from MS. System.Windows.
 
What is WPF stuff all about?

Thanks

Regards

Tom Shelton said:
I wouldn't expect a lot of changes to System.Windows.Forms. That is
pretty much a dying technology. Moving forward, it's the WPF stuff
that is getting all the play from MS. System.Windows.
Click to expand...
 
Michael C said:
I can't say I like any of those features, except maybe the inline xml. I
seems a lot of the new features are polluting the language and making it
more complicated than necessary.
Click to expand...

Have you actually *used* LINQ at all? I was skeptical at first, but now
I'm definitely a "true believer".

Here's an example of how much easier it can make life (sample code is
in C#):

http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/archive/2007/11/02/i-love-linq-
simplifying-a-tedious-task.aspx

The equivalent code without LINQ would have been significantly longer,
harder to get right, and harder to understand.

All the features definitely add complexity to the language (although
ironically the one feature I don't particularly rate highly is inline
XML - which isn't in C# 3 anyway) but the extra value is well worth it
IMO.
 
WPF is largely an XML UI with some additional GUI goodness thrown in. It
causes complete separation of UI and code, as MS has tried to do with the
web (ASP.NET). With Silverlight 1.1, it will also be possible to migrate
your windows apps to the web (with a subset of the GUI goodness, of course).
Thus, you can develop both windows apps and web apps at the same time.

I, however, somewhat disagree with Tom, as adoption will take quite some
time. If pressure is put on from the community, you will see more windows
controls. Until then, third party is the way to go.

As for what is new that is useful, here are some bits:

1. Greater stability in the IDE (still not totally stable as of beta 2, but
better than 2005)
2. LINQ - really a language addition
3. Surfaces for WPF and other .NET 3.0/3.5 bits
4. Basic testing tools moved down to Pro version

There is more.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

*************************************************
| Think outside the box!
|
*************************************************
John said:
What is WPF stuff all about?

Thanks

Regards
Click to expand...
 
WPF is largely an XML UI with some additional GUI goodness thrown in. It
causes complete separation of UI and code, as MS has tried to do with the
web (ASP.NET). With Silverlight 1.1, it will also be possible to migrate
your windows apps to the web (with a subset of the GUI goodness, of course).
Thus, you can develop both windows apps and web apps at the same time.

I, however, somewhat disagree with Tom, as adoption will take quite some
time. If pressure is put on from the community, you will see more windows
controls. Until then, third party is the way to go.
Click to expand...

I do agree that it will be some time before WPF is fully adopted. The
beauty right now is that you aren't really tied to just using one or
the other. You can use Windows forms controls in WPF, and of course
you can use WPF controls in Windows forms. The point I was making is
that, MS has pretty much put windows forms out to pasture - at least
from a new development standpoint.
 
Jon Skeet said:
Have you actually *used* LINQ at all? I was skeptical at first, but now
I'm definitely a "true believer".
Click to expand...

To be honest I haven't but it reminds me of the days of file io in vb6.

Open File "C:\X" as Binary Something For Append Something (Can't remember
exact details)
Here's an example of how much easier it can make life (sample code is
in C#):

http://msmvps.com/blogs/jon.skeet/archive/2007/11/02/i-love-linq-
simplifying-a-tedious-task.aspx

The equivalent code without LINQ would have been significantly longer,
harder to get right, and harder to understand.
Click to expand...

I more dislike the syntax than the functionality. It's a *massive* break
from any other coding in C#.
All the features definitely add complexity to the language (although
ironically the one feature I don't particularly rate highly is inline
XML - which isn't in C# 3 anyway) but the extra value is well worth it
IMO.
Click to expand...

I'm not that keen on XML myself. :-)

Michael
 
Michael C said:
To be honest I haven't but it reminds me of the days of file io in vb6.

Open File "C:\X" as Binary Something For Append Something (Can't remember
exact details)
Click to expand...

The difference is that in this case you're able to do a lot more with a
lot less code - it's not making things *more* verbose, it's making them
*less* verbose.
I more dislike the syntax than the functionality. It's a *massive* break
from any other coding in C#.
Click to expand...

Well, you can avoid query expressions but still take advantage of LINQ:

dataSource.Where (x => x.Property=="Foo")
.Select (x => new { Name=x.FirstName, x.Age });

(etc)

This is still *somewhat* different from C# 2, and it will certainly
take some learning - but the benefits are massive.
 
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