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Demystifying "WPF/E"
Demystifying "WPF/E"
December 5, 2006

Url: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/bb1873…

I think there may be some confusion about exactly what the Codename “WPF/E” Project is.  Here is a list of points that should help clarify Codename “WPF/E”:

  • Codename “WPF/E” is not WPF.
  • “WPF/E” is a technology that allows XAML-based content to be viewed in a browser via a browser plugin.
  • “WPF/E” does not require any .NET Runtime requirements.
  • “WPF/E” is cross browser compatible (IE, FireFox and Safari in this release).
  • “WPF/E” is cross OS compatible (Windows and Mac OSX in this release).
  • “WPF/E” uses XAML, though not all of WPF’s XAML tags are not supported.
  • “WPF/E” supports Video, Interactivity, Animations, Drawing and Transformations.
  • “WPF/E” is fully compatible with ASP.NET and ASP.NET “AJAX”.
  • “WPF/E” does not currently support any CLR support.  All programatic access to the XAML DOM is done with JScript in the browser.
  • The “WPF/E” plug-in is currently in the neighborhood of 1 Meg in size (though the MAC version is slightly larger because of Intel/PPC support).

Take a look at the SDK and other samples (most notably see Mike Harsh’s blog) to see what “WPF/E” is capable of.  I have several more examples coming in the next few days.

I will be doing some talks and demos of “WPF/E” in the coming weeks (including the Atlanta Code Camp). I am also writing an appendix for the upcoming Programming Windows Presentation Foundation: Release Edition (from Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths).  Look at this space for more information on “WPF/E” in the near future.