The WPF Mindset

One of the more frustrating things in WPF is implementing custom windows.  Even though WPF makes this much easier than WinForms did, some things just aren't as intuitive as you would expect.  One of these things is that when you set the WindowStyle to "None" and then maximize the window, the application will take up the full screen.  Unfortunately, this covers the taskbar.  Covering the taskbar is very obtrusive and not very user-friendly.

I found a solution to the problem via a Google search that led me to Lester Lobo's WPF blog (a great source for lots of WPF goodies and info).  The solution makes use of some Win32 API calls and does the trick quite nicely.

You can read about the solution here.

Karl Shifflett has posted a great sample for doing multi-level grouping and sorting using the WPF ListBox control.  He even includes how to show subtotals and collapsible regions.  The code is a response to a user asking a question at a recent WPF training session.  This is a fantastic sample and is just another example of the kind of great things that have come out of the WPF Line of Business Tour.

Go check it out at: http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/2009/06/10/wpf-sample-series-listbox-grouping-sorting-subtotals-and-collapsible-regions/

This past weekend, I had the privilege to attend WPF Training provided by Karl Shifflett and Jaime Rodriguez from Microsoft.  This is the second opportunity I have had to attend their training and it was great to see how the process has evolved from a one-day training session in Cupertino, CA to a two-day training course. 

I live blogged my notes during the sessions and they can all be found here.

Please also visit Karl's blog at http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com and Jaime's blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/jaimer/.

UPDATE: Karl and Jaime have both posted their slides and code from the training. Karl's post can be found here and Jaime's is here.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a Microsoft user interface technology that has a notoriously difficult learning curve.  I have heard the learning curve described as standing at the base of a cliff and looking upwards.  While I do agree that the learning curve is much steeper than some UI technologies, I think the main reason it is difficult is that it requires a different way of thinking than many of us are accustomed to. 

One of the goals of this site, aside from being a general purpose WPF blog, is to help people begin to think about WPF in a way that will make them most successful.  I will talk much more about this in the near future, but for now I want you to keep one thing in mind: WPF is a data visualization technology.  When you think about your applications, begin to think about the data you are presenting to the user and how you might want to visualize that data if you were the user.  This will help immensely as we go through first some basic WPF training material and then onward into some more advanced topics.

I hope this material will help make the learning curve a bit easier on everyone.