Microsoft Releases New WPF/E CTP
The arrival of February has brought with it a new Community Technology Preview of WPF/E, which has frequently been referred to as a Flash competitor, but has more to do with blending Windows applications with the Web.
WPF/E is a subset of the Windows Presentation Foundation that utilizes cross-browser Web technologies and is designed to run on multiple operating systems and even mobile devices. Like Flash, WPF/E works as a browser plug-in and can display vector-based graphics, animation and video.
The technology was introduced at PDC 2005 and further showcased at Microsoft's MIX '06 event in Las Vegas earlier this year. WPF/E relies on XAML and JavaScript to build pages, and also contains a small, cross platform subset of the CLR and .NET Framework that runs C# or VB.NET code.
The February CTP of WPF/E introduces a number of new features, both for Windows and Mac OS X. Among the list of changes is MP3 support, keyboard input, mouse cursor support, full screen mode, and improved JavaScript APIs. Performance has also been tweaked, says Microsoft Director of Rich Client Platform Sean Alexander.
"The team is making good progress and a sincere thank you goes out to all the customers providing feedback. We're getting lots of requests for briefings, details, and the general buzz is palpable. It's hard to handle all of them," said Alexander. "In fact, I'm hiring -- more details on that later."
WPF/E is completely cross platform. The final release, due in the first half of 2007, will run on both Windows and the Mac, with support for IE, Firefox and even Apple's Safari Web browsers. In the second half of next year, Microsoft will add support for the .NET Compact Framework, meaning WPF/E will run on mobile devices as well.
While the comparisons to Flash are obvious, Microsoft's Key cites a big difference for developers: a WPF/E application is "not a compiled binary that is delivered down to a Flash player." Instead, all of the code is standards based and the graphics make use of XAML.
The February CTP of WPF/E for Windows is available for download immediately from FileForum. A Mac OS X version is also available.