Xceed releases free DataGrid for WPF

Xceed has released DataGrid for WPF, for free! The demo application (XBAP) looks great.

As far as I know, Xceed is the first company to release an advanced grid control for WPF. I think WPF is the start of a whole new market for commercial component developers, just like Windows Forms was, and Delphi was before that.

Yep, looks awesome!

It's kinda disturbing how slow it is (on Vista with a 2.4GHz P4, 1GB RAM and a 7600GS).

I don't like how it doesn't scroll the items when you drag the scrollbar and it takes a good second to update the items when you let go.

And who's idea was it to have the tab key cycle through the items in an open combo box instead of moving to the next cell? Sometimes I think datagrid developers don't actually test their products in data entry scenarios.

I think this demo may very well have put me off using WPF in my next project (mainly because of the performance I'm seeing in this and other demos).

"I don't like how it doesn't scroll the items when you drag the scrollbar and it takes a good second to update the items when you let go."

Neither do we. This will be addressed in an upcoming version.

"And who's idea was it to have the tab key cycle through the items in an open combo box instead of moving to the next cell? Sometimes I think datagrid developers don't actually test their products in data entry scenarios."

Ouch. That one bugs us too, it seems to be a standard WPF combo-box reaction.

Thanks for posting about your performance gripes. We haven't yet tried to coax more speed out of this product.

Odi (Xceed)

It's trial software, no? So not 'free'...

JohnAskew wrote:

It's trial software, no? So not 'free'...

Q. Will this product always remain free? Will I ever be forced to pay for an upgrade?

A. At some point in the future, for new users, the product may someday no longer be licensed for free. However, if you register before that happens, it will always remain free for you. By registering now, we will treat you as if you purchased a paid license for the product. You will receive a registered license key which will continue to work in new versions, so you can benefit from bug fixes and even some of the many new features we're working on.

Q. Will it expire? Are there nag screens? What is the catch?

A. There is no expiration date on your free registered license. There are no nag screens in the product. There is no catch: all you have to do is simply provide Xceed with your real name and your email address at work so we can keep a record that you are a licensed user, and occasionally notify you about new releases, optional add-ons and other Xceed services. Your email address will never be provided to a third party without your explicit permission.

http://xceed.com/pages/Home/wpf-licensing-faq.aspx?lang=EN-CA

Excellent, glad to have it!

DCMonkey wrote:


I think this demo may very well have put me off using WPF in my next project (mainly because of the performance I'm seeing in this and other demos).

Odi:

I like the demo you guys used. Awesome stuff -- just wished XBAP worked in Firefox.

Firefox - I saw somewhere that if you install the IETab plugin and set up the .XBAP extension, it will work. It can also support loose XAML too. I can't remember where I saw this. Some other XBAP demo.

Does it works only on Vista or also on XP + NETFX 3.0?

Because it's just .NET and WPF, you can use it on XP (like I do).

Looks nice, but, yes, INCREDIBLY SLOW!

WPF has some strange performance problems. Some partuicular component usually works quite quickly. But overall application's performance is awful. Also there are some problems with text output, with anti-aliasing. I saw with in many WPF applications. A lot of strange "reaction delays".

This Grid in extremely slow on my AMD X2 4200+, ATI 1600XT and 1G of RAM.

'PresentationHost' process consumed 86 MB of RAM during this grid demo. Each action causing up to 75% of CPU (P-M 1.7). Quite scary to use this in real life...

Looks like it has memory leaks too... open taskman and just move you mouse through grid's surface without any action... Or do any action repeatatively (switch between tabs, for instance)... Each "switch" increasing memory consumption by 5-6 MBs without releasing.

IMHO: No, WPF isn't ready for real life.

BlackTiger:

I entered this stuff into our bug database. Thanks. The team is very active, already working on the next release. We're tackling performance and any other issues such as the ones you brought up. Anything in our control, we'll fix. The rest, I'm very confident, Microsoft will address in the next version of WPF.

As for wether WPF is ready for prime time, we'll see what developers come up with before the next WPF update and release of the Orcas tools.