Re: Thinking Clearly

Barry Kelly wrote:

Have you checked out WPF lately? If you want the resolution-independent,
vector-based, properly composited experience with WPF, you've got no
choice - you must go .NET, because there's no unmanaged API.
>
There are two other alternatives: (1) stick with existing Win32 and look
old and out of place (remember Win 3.1 vs Win 95, white dialogs vs
grey?), or (2) develop your own compositing engine.

Are you quite sure about all that ? I quote from the following
interview with a couple of Redmond's .NET cognoscenti about
WPF interoperability :

http://www.ddj.com/184407849

Specifically, the following quotes :

"SS: If the Office team wanted to enhance Excel, which is
mainly a C++/Win32 app, with WPF, what would that take?
<snip>"

"MH: Yes, you can do that. <edit> If developers have pure
C++, unmanaged applications, and they want to leverage
WPF, they have an interoperability model as well. It's
using a base technology in WPF, which consists of two
classes known as HWndSource, and HWndHost. These are the
things that we build on top of for Windows Forms interop.
Those allow us to build the hosting controls we need for
interoperability".

I saw a good quote that sums things up on this was on Nick
Kramer's WPF blog :

http://blogs.msdn.com/nickkramer/archive/2005/07/18/439680.aspx

"You can build some wonderful programs using Avalon, and there’s
no need to the throwaway you’re existing investment in Win32
technologies in order to leverage Avalon. As we’ve seen, we
can put hwnds inside Avalon programs, and we can put Avalon
code inside of hwnds, and even mixtures of those two, to create
incredibly powerful programs that leverage your existing code.
HwndSource, HwndHost, and IKeyboardInputSink make all of this
possible".
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Thinking Clearly
    ... newsgroup (milcore.dll appears to be the unmanaged core of the WPF ... We do expose unmanaged access to the imaging functionality in the MIL, ... they have an interoperability model as well. ... technologies in order to leverage Avalon. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Thinking Clearly
    ... Have you checked out WPF lately? ... or develop your own compositing engine. ... they have an interoperability model as well. ... technologies in order to leverage Avalon. ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Dvorak on Microsoft and .NET
    ... Do you have sea changes between 2 versions? ... There is a lot more than WPF ... available in WinFX and how compelling those new features will depend on your ... The Borland roadmap shows a VCL for Avalon in the 2007 timeframe and it will ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: The alternative Delphi roadmap to success
    ... There's no "unmanaged API" to expose - the unmanaged API that WPF uses ... But using DirectX is several convenience ...
    (borland.public.delphi.non-technical)
  • Re: Differences/changes between .NET 2.0 and 3.0
    ... WinForms (was Avalon, now WPF) ... Passport (was InfoCard, now Cardspace) ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.framework)