# Other .NET Programming > Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) & XAML forum >  Hello WPF!

## Traps

I am very happy to see codeguru hosting a dedicated WPF forum.  I hope it takes off ( It should!  all the experts here seriously need to start thinking about WPF, if they want to preserve their cutting edge on software development )  It will make you think your starting all over again.  Well, you are starting over again.  There is a nice advantage in understanding .net, but as you progress just a little bit into WPF, you'll quickly realize just how much you dont know.  I say this as a challenge, afterall thats why some (or most) of us develop software.  For the challenge, and the personal satisfaction of knowing that "you did" and "you can".

I've seen some amazing projects in WPF, that a straight c#,c++, or vb developer could only dream of making (in any reasonable amount of time).

Remember, vs2010 visual interface is supposedly entirely written in WPF.  Say yes to WPF.  Microsoft seems to think so.  GDI has been fired!

Consider this book to get you going:

Pro WPF in C# 2008
Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5
Second Edition
Matthew MacDonald

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## dannystommen

> It should!  all the experts here seriously need to start thinking about WPF, if they want to preserve their cutting edge on software development



I never worked with WPF before, so I have no idea what the difference is between WPF and normal forms application.

What is the big advantage then of using WPF instead of normal window forms application?

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## Traps

What is the advantage.... muahahaha

Look at this:
http://www.damonpayne.com/content/binary/wpfSlant12.jpg

Or this:
http://storage.developerzen.com/WPFGA5.jpg

Perhaps this:
http://www.developer-corner.com/img_...wpf-grid-1.jpg

How about placing a mediaplayer instance on each side of a 3-d rotating cube?  

Honestly I cant even find the coolest examples I've seen, its utterly amazing though.  WPF is hardware rendered using directX, does that give you ideas of what you can do here? 

In the end, once you learn wpf, designing a slick user interface is MUCH easier then using old school GDI.  There are other advantages as well.  I'm barely scratching the surface right now, so I cant be more specific, but from what I've seen so far, yeah, I can see the GDI diehards being left in the dust.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms754130.aspx

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## dannystommen

not bad :-P

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## Arjay

Imo, one of the best thinks about WPF is its powerful data binding capabilities.

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## Peter_APIIT

Any good tutorial create WPF using C++ ? 

Thanks.

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## Arjay

The samples and tutorials in Msdn are a great place to start.

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## Arjay

WPF isn't available for C++.

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## gurge60

> I never worked with WPF before, so I have no idea what the difference is between WPF and normal forms application.
> 
> What is the big advantage then of using WPF instead of normal window forms application?


I think the 'big advantage' topic should be analyzed from at least two different perspectives - development and end-user experience. There are many differences (both pluses and minuses) when you consider development that I have seen discussed in numerous threads like the following:

Matt Davey lists his top 10 advantages of using WPF (and a lengthy discussion follows):
http://mdavey.wordpress.com/2007/09/...windows-forms/ 

This discussion thread on the MSDN forum lists pluses and minuses for WPF vs. Windows Forms:
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...-cd8073585584/ 

From an overall end-user experience I think the main difference would be how customizable the UI is. It's great for animations, vector graphics, skinning applications, and so on. Designers can really dig in with WPF.

In the discussions that I have seen on this topic, one of the points to consider is that Windows Forms and WPF can interoperate to a certain degree. So, if you have an existing business app and want to add some visualization to it, you can host a WPF app to do the rendering. There is not necessarily a need to port everything over at once.

I wrote a blog post that contains some assorted resources on this topic, written with LOB app development in mind:
http://windowsclientdevelopment.spac...D3DE!131.entry

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## thomus07

I have found a nice video tutorial for getting started with expression blend.

http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=384

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