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    <p>I'll try to address these in order. Spoiler: In my opinion, for the most part, the answer is yes.</p> <blockquote> <p>Is it worth coupling my program to the .NET framework just for the sake of the user interface? </p> </blockquote> <p>This depends on the interface requirements. Do you users need a good, solid, modern UI? If so, you'll want to use the right tool to deliver that requirement.</p> <blockquote> <p>.NET and WPF seem to add overhead in many forms, including:</p> <ul> <li>Program complexity <ul> <li>Using .NET implies using a second language - and thus writing lots of messy interop code.</li> </ul></li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>You can use GDI+ via C++/CLI, and handle everything in one language. That being said, part of the reason people use other languages for this is productivity - it's actually very, very fast compared to making a GUI in C++. The interop code via C++/CLI is not very messy at all, at least not if your routines are class-based.</p> <blockquote> <p>Runtime performance - In particular, WPF applications seem very slow to start up.</p> </blockquote> <p>This can be an issue, to some extent. You can do a lot to mitigate it, however - but this will probably always be a bit slower to start than a lean, native codebase since it has to spin up the CLR + libraries.</p> <blockquote> <p>Deployment - Is .NET framework installation quick and easy? Does it require rebooting the machine?</p> </blockquote> <p>Yes on both counts, typically. That being said, most people already have the framework installed (esp. if you target .NET 3.5, but 4.0 is coming along nicely), so it's a non-issue. I always see this as a one-time thing, though - I'd much rather trade a nice user experience for a bit of deployment time, especially when it's a relatively pain-free deployment (.NET's very easy to install, just large and a bit time consuming).</p> <blockquote> <p>Rendering quality - This has improved in WPF 4, but display of standard elements still seems poor in some areas.</p> </blockquote> <p>I'd strongly disagree here. WPF is (esp. in v4), the premier platform for quality user interfaces. It's tough to beat the rendering quality options in WPF - </p> <blockquote> <p>Concern over whether performance and quality will improve in the future - Is it true that WPF is being de-emphasized within Microsoft (in favour of Silverlight)?</p> </blockquote> <p>No. There was even a good talk at the PDC of the future of WPF. Silverlight gets a lot more press, but that's mainly because it's not nearly as mature of technology, so it's changing more quickly. WPF is still their top of the line UI experience, and still getting new features added. It's also the suggested platform for interop with native code - while it's possible in SL using COM, it's not pleasant like in WPF. </p> <p>Performance, threading issues, and airspace issues seem to be the future improvements in mind, according to the PDC talk. For details, watch "<a href="http://player.microsoftpdc.com/">The Future of WPF</a>."</p>
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    1. POWorried about WPF. Should I use WPF or a different library for a Windows GUI?
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    1. COAs a note, the blurry text (small fonts) can be resolved by using TextOptions.TextFormattingMode="Display" in your XAML. This alone has sold me on WPF 4, whereas I wouldn't touch the previous version.
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    2. CO@JTA: Yes, that was probably the only real "quality" issue in WPF, and even then, it was a subjective issue. That being said, WPF 4 completely addresses this.
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    3. COGreat link btw!
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