[grokys]

> all the features that is needed to create rich applications, while having a nice developer experience

I wouldn't say that is true. For example even renaming a Window/UserControl in Visual Studio doesn't work correctly. There are a ton of things that could be improved about WPF, not least (off the top of my head):

* Use Direct2D instead of DirectX9. The renderer used by WPF has been shown to be very inefficient compared to Direct2D.

* Multiple selection is a hack.

* Can't bind data grid column properties.

* BasedOn="{StaticResource {x:Type Button}}" -- eurgh

* How fucking difficult it is to save an image?

* How fucking difficult it is to get an image's pixels (how do you work out Stride?)

[mwcampbell]

> Use Direct2D instead of DirectX9. The renderer used by WPF has been shown to be very inefficient compared to Direct2D.

Is that why the capability of a user's video card had an appreciable impact on the performance of a WPF-based app that's little more than a text viewer and editor, at least as of 2009 (see http://community.logos.com/forums/t/6200.aspx)? Is the WPF renderer still suboptimal on today's graphics hardware? I'm thinking in particular of Intel's integrated graphics starting with Sandy Bridge. And does Direct2D have a better software fallback?

[grokys]

You can find a study of how WPF and Direct2D's renderers compare here: http://jeremiahmorrill.wordpress.com/2011/02/14/a-critical-d...

[peetle]

One should not confuse the IDE with the technology, but I'd agree that the Visual Studio integration with WPF (although amazing in theory) feels constantly buggy - even after years of work.

[grokys]

I agree except that the OP mentioned "while having a nice developer experience" which I assumed was speaking about VS.

[andwaal]

The form renaming im absolutely with you on, horribel. Once you tried it you learn to stick with your original name.

Direct2D vs DX9 is probably a valid point, I have never faced any issue with this.

The rest of them I don`t think I follow you on. Two trivial image tasks, one ugly syntax and two issue I can`t seem to have encountered.

It should be noted that I always have used telerik`s awesome UI components together with WPF. Which both features and documentation are top notch.

[grokys]

Also: regarding multiple selection, this series of blog posts explains the problems: namely that there is no built in way to do MVVM multiple selection with virtual list boxes, a common use-case at least for me.

http://grokys.blogspot.it/2010/07/mvvm-and-multiple-selectio...

(unfortunately the images seem to have expired, grr)

[grokys]

Yes, I'll accept that some of them may be issues that aren't encountered too often, but they are things that I'm battling with right now so are on my mind ;) But for saving images, why isn't there a Save method to BitmapSource! This to me seems endemic to WPF where the API isn't optimized for common tasks.

[jsmeaton]

* terrible WebBrowser control