WPF training without success

Question

Hi, developers and designers,

I really want to learn WPF, in which I use C # as the logical code. Or I'll 'try' anyway.

I wrote two-page Forms-style code, so I know some syntaxes. But it was a very cumbersome way to do this.

The problem is that I'm still lingering in the field of understanding at least the basic concept of object-oriented programming. But 9 out of 10 times, I don’t get the sample codes entirely because of this "1 small thing that I don’t even know what she called." How do you even know if there is a command for the function that you want to express, and more importantly ... what is it called and where is it in which namespace?

Even the best video examples do not do this for me, because when any code is typed, they never explain exactly how the code works. And in most cases, this simply does not amount to what I know about the logical code (of course, I am wrong).

In the early days, I found out that Commodore64 Basic is not a problem. Learning and writing ActionScript (Flash), for 2 months, creating a 2D-shoot'em up Learning and writing CMD, for 3 months, writing 5000+ lines of code for all kinds of functions.

Why is WPF so difficult in Merlin’s beard? Watching the “simplest” instructional video is becoming increasingly de-motivational.

Does anyone recognize this?

Thanks for reading, Danny.

Answer 1

As for WPF, the articles that I thought were most useful are MSDN reviews, they can spend quite a lot of time working, but they are brief and detailed in the section on this page for the main review.

Why WPF is difficult is a good question, one of the main reasons may be that it is simply huge, at least I perceive it. Besides having all the code, you now have XAML markup, which is your own world.

Someone from Microsoft, who made a presentation at F # in 2008, said that if you know the three keywords let , fun and |> , you know the whole language, which is not even an exaggeration. WPF, on the other hand, is not a language; it is a substructure. If F # can be compared with 3 nanotechnological building blocks, then WPF is a 50-meter desktop equipped with tools (control) and a dozen powerful machines (WPF mechanisms such as data binding , commanding , data templates, etc. ), and they all come with a manual. Therefore, if you encounter a problem, you pretty much need to know what all the tools and machines do so that you know what to use, and then, of course, you also need to know how to use them, except for their basic functions, which can even have his own kinks and features that are important to understanding.

Thus, WPF training requires a lot of knowledge about the structure, but also experience so that you know what is the best approach in this situation and get an idea of ​​what can be done and what cannot.

Answer 2

MVVM: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd419663.aspx

Learn it, then use it.

Answer 3

I decided that I would add my $ .02 since I recently started using WPF. First of all, you will need to read the MVVM article mentioned by Fëanor and DEAR GOD, download the sample code and find out what each line in this program does! Reading the article is great, but viewing the code, running it, changing it, etc. IMPOSSIBLE. I also repeat comments on MSDN reviews and one about creating a side project, and not about learning WPF through an existing project.

Other than that, don't expect to get WPF in a day or even in a week. I’ve been using it for about a month now and I still have a way to go. I had my "AHA!" a moment about a week ago, when everything began to press, and it became clear to me that I did NOT know what was important. A good strategy would be to select one concept, such as data binding or data patterns or styles, and examine them in depth. It is a lot to chew on, so just remember that Rome was not built in one day. And if you are no longer confident in data binding, I would choose this at an early stage, since this is very important.

Finally, once you learn WPF, it will be REALLY difficult to get back to using Windows Forms :)

Enjoy! Question

Answer 4

I don’t think WPF is really that hard. I think that it is WPF that definitely requires a slightly different way of thinking. You can say that it was built with certain principles (for example, MVVM, as another poster was mentioned), and it is very different from most other frameworks. If you try to do this, as you did Windows Forms or MFC or ASP.NET or something else ... you will fight. You should be prepared to change your mind about how things work.

Honestly, I think the only way to learn this is to experiment. Come up with some side project for working with WPF and try your hand on it. Learn a little and edit it. Get a good book, read the WPF student list , read anything that Sacha Barber writes, read the WPF section here on SO.

When you have your first "ha ha!" when you decide to write an Attached Property to solve some incomprehensible problem that you are facing, you will know that you finally understood it :)