Technical

Got this question on email today:

I need to build the fastest possible 2D grid control for a trading application (no 3D whatsoever). Should I use DirectX or GDI+?

Which is a pretty good question. We give a lot of overview and background material in the SDK, but not a lot of prescriptive guidance.

On the topic of released WPF applications, I came across this picture gallery on CNET's web site, from January, with screen shots of The North Face kiosk, Scripps Research Institute's 3D utility, Yahoo's messenger, and Print Shop Zoom.

-Pablo

As the Max project get to its conclusion, I would like to thank the whole team for the improvements to Windows Presentation Foundation that they championed, the feedback and bug reports which will benefit all WPF developers, and for their thought leadership and innovative thinking which they demonstrated within their product.

Now that more folks are using the Times Reader, I thought I would give a guided tour of the application. This will be a geeky tour, not targeted at the average user/reader. I will be highlighting things that come "for free" by using Windows Presentation Foundation, and some really cool things that were done at the application level.

I do a lot of talks and demonstrations of Windows Presentation Foundation, but there are very few demos that are as good as real applications like the Times Reader to show what is possible with the best development platform available in the industry. While the functionality that the Times Reader uses is the same as in my demo applications, what sets the Times Reader appart is the quality of the content, the attention to detail that the application developers put into it, and the overall feel of the application, refined as the newspaper. So, let me start by pointing out that this is a great application and I encourage you to get it here.

The article by Jeff Koyen in Wired News about the New York Times Reader, brought to mind a Friday, a couple of weeks ago, when we were testing a few things before breaking for the weekend.

Jeff's article is the best one I have read on this application. And Jeff gets it. In his article he has pictures of the reader running on a small Fujitsu tablet, at different orientations with the content adapting appropiately. This application is a great example of the power of the integrated platform, where text and document functionality are first class peers to UI elements and graphics. Since WPF provides a platform, not just an end point, others can build applications, content, and experiences, that are just not feasible today.