Question

We are currently in pre phase of developing a desktop application for windows. But when hearing all the latest discussions on Windows 8, Silverlight, WPF, Jupiter I don’t know what to believe anymore. Is it wrong starting a new project with WPF now? Should I switch to Silverlight? Or should I wait until more details of Windows 8 comes out?

Answer 1

Interesting topic, main point is if you do it windows based (Winforms or WPF) or web based (ASP.NET MVC or Silverlight).

For a new business application we are just starting now, business wants windows based because they want more features, IT wants web based to have no deployment issues and easier support on a centralized server instead of trying to figure out what the client machines has…

In fact I believe WPF is ready for LOB (even if there are still less third party controls comparing to winforms).

I would not invest on SL because still requires a plugin and with MVC / Ajax and HTML5 you can do the same and more with no plugins required and having same UI running on all browsers and platforms ( I focus very much of have my web app running also in iPad and Android tablets with no changes )…

Main point is the architecture, how you distribute it across servers and tiers so to have well distributed workloads and good reliability… then if you have a UI windows based or web based, as long these UIs consume the same server components exposed as WCF end points for example… is more a “kind” of detail…