An introduction to WPF for academics

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In my old job, I used to spend a lot of time talking to academics about curriculum development covering a number of subject areas. Unfortunately, WPF was never really on the agenda due to timing and it being a beta product - now that it is prime time several academics have contacted the team and they in turn came to me as I tend to spend a lot of time talking about it. I thought it would be a good excuse to put a blog post together with some of the fundamentals of WPF from a teaching point of view.

Simple what is?

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a UI/application framework for creating next generation user experiences (software) on Windows Vista (and down-level to XP/Server 2003). Software that can look like this (no more battleship grey buttons):

Introduction

This Getting Started with WPF introduces what WPF is, XAML as a UI markup language and several of the main building blocks of WPF:

To drill deeper and look at the 'engine' running WPF then you need to read this article on WPF Architecture. This Channel 9 video interview with Greg Schecter discusses how WPF is designed.

Tools

I think there are three things a lecturer needs to teach WPF depending on their interest:

all of which come under the MSDN AA software access program

Software examples using WPF

It's always great to show students what real-world applications exist that harness the power of any given technology. This long Wiki list has many examples of applications that you can download and install or even run through the browser (WPF can be deployed through IE in a browser window).

Books

Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to WPF (Charles Petzold)

Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (Chris Sells & Ian Griffiths)

Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (Adam Nathan)

Foundations of WPF (Laurence Moroney)

Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (Chris Anderson)

Hands on labs

Practical tutorials to learn how to create and harness the power of WPF:

Building WPF Applications

Building WPF XBAP Browser Applications

Creating Rich 2D and 3D Content

Creating a Rich Reading Experience

Using Databinding

Existing college courses

The only one I could find online with detail was this one and isn't 100% aligned with university teaching (more practical learning than CS focussed) but a good start for anyone wanting ideas to start:

WPF Academic college course
Designing User Interfaces with Expression Blend

Any questions?

Academic connection is the place to start and a worthwhile community to be part of if you are interested in the world of teaching.

 

Technorati tags: WPF, Windows Presentation Foundation, academia, teaching