WPF Found a Home!

The more I see about Silverlight, both 1.0 and 1.1, the more I realize that WPF has found a client to service. From the moment I heard about XAML and WPF, I questioned where it was going to fit in the real world. A large part of the 'coolness' of XAML revolved about transitions and transformations. But business applications don't really need that. Business applications are, generally speaking, not flashy, demo-candy-ful systems. So this disconnect between the needs of business and the strengths of XAML left me wondering.

While I don't believe that WPF is going to replace Windows Forms anytime in the near future, I think that it's pretty obvious that the raison d'etre of XAML is to support Silverlight.

But it's important for developers to realize that XAML/WPF/Silverlight is sill new technology. The one thing I haven't seen here at MIX is an integrated development environment. Orcas doesn't have a XAML designer...it has a link to edit the XAML in Expression Blend. The data binding story in XAML is a step back from what ASP.NET developers gained in .NET 2.0. Jasper and Astoria are interesting technologies, but the security and error management stories are still being developed. In other words, temper the excitement of some very, very slick technology with the realization that we still have a little time before it becomes 'real'