WPF

In this post we are going to create a simple WPF application using Caliburn.Micro . I have created an empty Visual Studio 2010 solution for all the projects in this blog series. All of the code for this series will be available on my Github Learning Caliburn.Micro repository. But I suggest you follow along, and try and do it yourself.

I have used a number of different MVVM frameworks, and none has so-far felt right. Not the worlds most scientific criteria, I will grant you, but still one that I consider valid. I have a preference for lighter-weight frameworks. Another vague criteria, but my definition of it is simple – frameworks that do not impose rigid structures and significant bloat to my application by adding features I don’t need. Some of the frameworks I have worked with are: Cinch , MEFedMVVM , MVVM Light Toolkit , and Caliburn . I have tried others, but not to extent I have with these four. Of those, MEFedMVVM and MVVM Light Toolkit felt the closest to right, but were lacking some of things I like in Cinch and Caliburn .

In my efforts to experiment with WPF, I decided to try the always popular WPF sample of an irregular or custom shaped window. I had set out the following goals for this sample:

WPF Demonstration Application For the past few years Microsoft has been pushing WPF as the future user interface framework for .NET. During that time I have seen numerous demos and presentations showing amazing user interfaces. They would describe the new model of separating the designer from the developer, and how successful they were. I would usually ask two questions as a response. First, how many designers and developers were involved. Second, how close to the original time and resource estimate was the actual effort. The answers to this would be one of the main reasons I have not yet embraced WPF.

I always have a tough time remembering the proper syntax for the XAML data binding. Maybe I am getting old, or I just can’t deal with yet another syntax to remember, or worse – I have become too dependant on IntelliSense. No matter what the cause, I was really grateful that Nbd-Tech put together a useful cheat sheet for the WPF Data Binding.