Outlook Clone using WPF

You gotta check this out… creating an Outlook clone using WPF!

As we go around the nation talking to customers about .NET 3.0, I am usually the guy who demos via Console apps. Most of the stuff I show is about services and workflow, focusing on WCF, WF, and CardSpace. Occasionally I will demo an RSS reader made with WPF to show how easy XAML can be to work with. I can show some fairly simple applications and show how I can build them as fast, if not faster, than a drag-and-drop counterpart with Windows Forms, and I can show things like how vector graphics allow me to be resolution independent.

Admittedly, it's kind of hard for me to show productivity and WPF without being proficient in Blend, since the Orcas tools just aren't all there yet. However, a group in Switzerland put together a WPF Hands On Lab to demonstrate building an Outlook UI using WPF… and it is a lot simpler than the Windows Forms Outlook clone was as it contains barely any custom code.

Rant: I was going to link to the old Outlook Look And Feel demo that used Windows Forms in .NET 2.0, but it looks like all the content that was on WindowsForms.net got ganked when the "new and improved" WindowsClient.net site was put up. Let's hope that the great content on netfx3.com doesn't get lost when the marketing folks mangle the .NET version number to 4.x.