Programming .NET 3.5

Chapter 3. Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation: A Richer Desktop UI Experience

Unlike Windows Forms applications, but much like ASP.NET applications, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications contain both "markup" (XAML) and the "code-behind" that together correspond to the .NET class libraries. As demonstrated in the previous chapter, you can use XAML to create very powerful layouts and displays. However, WPF goes beyond that, using XAML and code-behind to create complete applications that provide enhanced text, 2-D and 3-D graphics, and much more.

The best way to think about WPF is as a framework of classes that Microsoft provides for you. You implement these classes either programmatically, by instantiating them in code, or declaratively, by using XAML.

In Chapter 4 you'll build a significant business application that uses many features of WPF. To prepare you for that, this chapter will build on the previous chapter and introduce more of the features of WPF that you are likely to use in creating your applications.

ora: Note About the Examples

More experienced readers will note that the examples in this chapter utilize some XAML elements in a less than highly optimized manner. This is intentional, to allow you to better visualize how things fit together. Often, we choose to use elements that best show off the intermediate states of the examples and, ultimately, create better results from a visual perspective.

Starting Simple: Panels

One challenge with every markup language ...