Michael Wallent: Advent and Evolution of WPF (Channel 9)

Tim Sneath, you know him by now as our friendly neighborhood WinFX Technical Evangelist and Channel 9 correspondent, recently sat down with Michael Wallent, General Manager of the WinFX team and one of the people who helped create DHTML, to discuss the history and future of WPF, our next generation Windows presentation platform. Where did WPF come from? Where does it fit into Web 2.0? These and many more questions are addressed in this excellent interview.

Follow the Discussion

Follow
Oops, something didn't work.

Try again?

Sign In to be begin to follow these comments

What does this mean?
Following an item on Channel 9 allows you to watch for new content and comments that you are interested in. You need to be signed in to Channel 9 to use this feature.

Getting "follow" information

Stop following these comments

Start following these comments

What does this mean?
Following an item on Channel 9 allows you to watch for new content and comments that you are interested in and view them all on your notifications page.

Removing your "follow"

Setting up your "follow"

Did you know you can
sign up for email notifications?
- Subscribe to this comments

Skriker V1.0 Need more money...

Apr 25, 2006 at 2:03 PM

Great stuff...when you going to be back in UK...miss your presentations at the Edinburgh Roadshows...
Zeo Channel 9 :)

Apr 25, 2006 at 4:12 PM

Great Background Info.
androidi

Apr 25, 2006 at 4:58 PM

Good introduction on history and background of WPF. The first half was very good.

For some the confirmation about unmanaged and public MIL API 'to replace GDI' may be news. Obviously the GDI will still be there and the perf of latest CPUs doesn't make one miss the lack of hw-acceleration.
dmarsh Knee draggin'

Apr 25, 2006 at 6:11 PM

The absolute best start to finish explanation of why WPF exists and what it aims to solve I've ever seen/heard.
raymond

Apr 25, 2006 at 7:11 PM

Great video, but I am still waiting for Sparkle!
It has been a very long wait and I am still waiting.

Suggestions for version release frequency:

Stand-alone-applications (Internet Explorer): Every Year

Tools (Visual Studio, Expression Suite): Every Two Years

Office: Every Three Years

Window Operating Systems and SQL Server: Every Four Years

Five and six year waits are inexcusable.

Less features-more releases.

Thank you again for a great interview.

Raymond
AdamKinney Agent of Change

Apr 25, 2006 at 9:51 PM

Thank you Michael, Charles and Tim. Loved it, blogged it, looking forward to the platform even more now.
kostik_y2k Cats, Cats, Cats!

Apr 26, 2006 at 1:55 AM

A greaaat interview, super-interesting stuff
littleguru <3 Seattle

Apr 26, 2006 at 4:28 AM

DHTML! wow. I did once a web site that build completely on DHTML.

My approach was very very similar to the current AJAX technology.

But in that time frame no browser (except IE) understood what I wanted him to do I still remember all the exception boxes when loading the site in Netscape or Opera. Netscape even crashed.

That was fun.
sloppycode Cynical brit

Apr 26, 2006 at 6:08 AM

[quote user="sloppycode"]one of the people who helped create DHTML[/quote]

So he helped create HTML,CSS and Javascript? Quite an achievement!
sloppycode Cynical brit

Apr 26, 2006 at 6:11 AM

charles wrote:

one of the people who helped create DHTML

So he helped create HTML,CSS and Javascript? Quite an achievement!
erik_ Whooops!

Apr 26, 2006 at 11:01 AM

Great video!

Nice to hear the background information, and the history of the path the product walks
LightRider I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad

Apr 26, 2006 at 12:53 PM

Super!
homli

Apr 26, 2006 at 3:26 PM

I can buy Mike's claim that the team found boxes with Windows 2000 installed couldn't be counted on for video acceleration, but don't buy his argument for some of the other WPF/E platforms--particularly Mac OS X. If he would have claimed resource issues or competitive positioning, I would have believed him.
rasx Emperor of String.Empty

Apr 26, 2006 at 5:30 PM

I know that it is very difficult not to sound cynical in this age of the smirk but I am freaking serious when I say that this is the guy I wanted to hear from for years. Years! Anyone who has written HTML by hand at least three times for the last decade needs to see this video!

Nothing replaces an excellent discussion of technology in a historical context like this Channel9 post. Everything else is existential doggy bags and sophomoric kiddie plates served in a vacuum.
jerry.mead

Apr 26, 2006 at 10:36 PM

Sensible questions from Professor Sneath allow Michael Wallent to recover all of the ground he lost with those dodgy "ActiveX is only used for advertising" pronouncements around the time of EOLAS. If this is the face of Microsoft's current strategic management, then good. Thanks too for "A Big Whatever", now an integral part of our company's lexicon.