Delivering the Art of Software

WPF & Silverlight: Data Visualization, NUI, and Next Generation of User Experience

Tim HuckabyFounder / Chairman, InterKnowlogyFounder / CEO, Actus SoftwareMicrosoft RD & MVP

Level: Beginner / Intermediate

About…InterKnowlogy (www.InterKnowlogy.com)• Tim Huckaby, Founder/Chairman (TimHuck@InterKnowlogy.com)

– Custom Application Development / Consulting / Software & Systems Engineering Firm headquartered in Carlsbad, CA

– Design, Architect, Build and Deploy Enterprise Class Applications – Industry Experts:

Most of the employees are published, MVPs, RD, Speakers, etc.Microsoft .NET Application development since 2000Microsoft .NET Rich Client Pioneers / Industry LeadersMicrosoft Touch Application Development Leaders (Surface / Windows 7 / Silverlight 3)Information Worker Solutions (VSTO & SharePoint)Integration / Messaging, B2B / B2C, Wireless / Mobility Leading Edge: Surface, WPF, Silverlight, Win7 touch, SharePoint, VSTOCutting Edge Solutions on emerging Microsoft technologiesLargest Client: Microsoft

Actus Software (www.Actus-Software.com)• Tim Huckaby, Founder/CEO (TimHuck@Actus-Software.com)

•Software Product Company, Coming soon…

A little bit about me and why I am here…

Data Visualization: WPF & XAML…and Silverlight…and Surface..and “the phone”

Session Objective: To get you excited by showing you “what you can do” so that you start doing it.

Why you need Rich Client Applications

Rich Client Technology Roadmap

Session Objectives And Agenda

Demos, demos, demos!...

What this session is NOT: a “Stare at C#” Session

About the Computer I am Using Today…

• Acer Aspire 1420P• Give away “free” to all attendees at the PDC• One year old…• Price in October-2009: $420• Price in November-2009: $350

Delivering the Art of Software

• Tim Huckaby• Founder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy• Founder / CEO, Actus Software• Microsoft RD & MVP

WPF 3DThe Scripps Research InstituteVitruViewAutoCad – dwf Viewer

DEMO

Delivering the Art of Software

Surface WPF 3D:The Scripps Research InstituteVitruView

VIDEO• Tim Huckaby• Founder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy• Founder / CEO, Actus Software• Microsoft RD & MVP

Touch Capable Computing Devices are Not New

Past Future(Now)

Present

1972: PLATO IV Touch Screen Terminal

The Microsoft Surface

Windows 7 Multi-touch

Delivering the Art of Software

What is Relatively New is: Inexpensive Touch Capable,

Non Proprietary Hardware A Multi-Touch Capable

Windows OS A Consistent Multi-Touch API

for .NET across 3 Windows Hardware/Software Platforms

Developer Productivity in Touch Capable Apps

The Forecast of Touch Capability in Every New Computing Device in the Short Term

Delivering the Art of Software

Tim HuckabyFounder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy

Founder / CEO, Actus Software

Microsoft RD & MVP

Surface WPF 3D:The Scripps Research InstituteVitruView

VIDEO

History of Surface

2003 The first

prototype is presented to Bill Gates

2004A dedicated group is formed,

and more than 85 prototypes are developed

2007Microsoft Surface is unveiled to the world 

2001The concept of an interactive table is born

2005The look and feel of Surface is finalized

2011?

Delivering the Art of Software

Separates the front-end from the back-end

Simple declarative programming language suitable for constructing and initializing .NET Objects

Usually the most concise way to represent user interfaces (or other hierarchies of objects)

Doesn’t need a compile to render

The language that almost all Silverlight related tools emit

What the heck is XAML?

Sample XAMLRuns in a WPF Application:

Runs in the Browser:

Delivering the Art of Software

DEMO

Complex XAML

Tim HuckabyFounder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy

Founder / CEO, Actus Software

Microsoft RD & MVP

Declarative Programming: WPF & Silverlight

• XAML replaces code• Attributes control Layout and Style• Event handlers wired-up in XAML• Declarative Data Binding

WPF (Windows XP and above)Silverlight (Cross Platform for the Browser)SurfaceWPF 4.0 Touch (Windows 7)Windows® Phone 7 Series

The Big 5 “XAML-based” Technologies

Delivering the Art of Software

Tim HuckabyFounder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy

Founder / CEO, Actus Software

Microsoft RD & MVP

WPF, Surface, & Silverlight

Library of CongressWin7 WPF multi-touchSilverlight

DEMO

Delivering the Art of Software

• Tim Huckaby• Founder / Chairman, InterKnowlogy• Founder / CEO, Actus Software• Microsoft RD & MVP

WPF, Surface, & Silverlight

Library of CongressWin7 WPF multi-touchSilverlight

DEMO

Silverlight… “WPF Light”

• Interactive experiences for devices, PC, & Mac platforms (and others…)

• Strict subset of Windows Presentation Foundation• Lightweight download (4.2mbs)• Programming model uses XAML + Jscript + WPF• Access to WPF tooling• Touch Capability in Version 3.0

Lightweight WPF runtime

<XAML> <Button Width="100px"> OK <Button.Background> LightBlue </Button.Background> </Button></XAML>

WPF-based Tools

Delivering the Art of Software

Silverlight

43Things.comInterKnowlogy Wish 43 WP7 Wish43

Tim HuckabyFounder, InterKnowlogy & Actus

SoftwareMicrosoft RD & MVP

DEMO

Delivering the Art of Software

Eclipsys CorporationSilverlight 3 - Enterprise Visibility Real-time Hospital Operations

• Tim Huckaby• Founder, InterKnowlogy & Actus

Software• Microsoft RD & MVP

CUSTOMER

Silverlight

Eclipsys Maestro: Hospital Management

Eclipsys Maestro: Hospital Management

WPF/SL – how does it work?

• Built on Top of Direct 3D– Converted to 3D triangles, textures and other Direct3D

objects & then rendered by hardware– Benefits of hardware acceleration & performance due to

work being off-loaded to GPUs (unlike GDI based systems)– Ensures the maximum benefit of new hardware

and drivers– Software rendering pipeline as fallback

Why WPF and Silverlight?

• The GDI & USER subsystems were introduced in Windows 1.0 in 1985

• OpenGL – Early 90s• DirectX – 1995

• Goal: Overcome the limits of GDI+ & USER with the productivity of .NET

Audience Participation Time1. Does WPF & SL enable me to do something I

couldn’t have done before?– No. Unless you factor in time & money…– And would like to do more with less…

2. Is DirectX dead?– No. It is more applicable to advanced 3D developers writing hard-core “twitch” games.

3. Are Winforms dead?– No. …but it will not be advanced; the last version was 2.0 in .NET 2005.– WPF / Winforms Integration is simple– Windows 98 Supports WinForms

4. Does WPF run better on Vista & Win 7 than on XP?

– Yes.– 3D objects only get anti-aliasing on Windows Vista or Later– Non-rectangular windows only get hardware acceleration on Vista or later– Vista & Win7 have a driver model that helps with resource contention

5. Does Silverlight trump all this other WPF Stuff?– One would think so with all the marketing dollars that are being thrown at it….– But, in Reality the answer is “No” and it makes solution architecture more difficult than ever.

6. Does HTML5 trump everything XAML?– Doubtful…but, there is wild speculation right now..– The Next 5 years are going to be “interesting”…

WPF: Where to go Next Free Resources

• WindowsClient.net - this is the official Microsoft community portal for WPF development, and is chock full of great resources such as the...

• Learn WPF page - this page links to podcasts, labs, and the very popular "how do I?" videos

• MIX University's WPF Bootcamp - this is a full 3-day video training course on WPF, in which expert instructors guide you from the surface into the depths of the technology stack

Where to go next (WPF)

• Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF)

• by Adam Nathan, Daniel Lehenbauer

• Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

• by Chris Anderson

Where to go nextThe InterKnowlogy WPF & Silverlight Reference Applications

Silverlight: Where to go NextFree Resources

• http://Silverlight.net - this is the official Microsoft community portal for Silverlight development

• http://www.Microsoft.com/Silverlight - This is the official product site

• http://developer.windowsphone.com – Free Windows Phone Developer Tools (1 download)

Where to go Next – Silverlight Books

Silverlight 4 Unleashed

by Laurent Bugnion (September 6, 2010)

Essential Silverlight 3

by Ashraf Michail

Silverlight In Action

by Chad Campbell and

John Stockton

Summary• We are at the Edge of the Rich Client

revolution• HTML is sufficient for Web Sites, but mostly

insufficient for Data Visualization software applications

• The Tools, Plumbing and platforms for Rich Client, touch based computing are powerful and available

• Within a short time frame computers with touch capability will be the norm.

• The .NET stack for Rich Client & Touch Based Software (Surface, WPF & Silverlight) is elegant and powerful

• The Concepts of NUI & Data Visualization change the way we design and build software

Tim Huckaby

• More info on InterKnowlogy:– www.InterKnowlogy.com – Silverlight.InterKnowlogy.c

om

• More info on Actus Software:– Coming soon….

• About Tim Huckaby…– Founder/Chairman, InterKnowlogy– Founder/CEO, Actus Software– Microsoft® Regional Director – Southern

California– Microsoft® .NET Partner Advisory Council

Founder / Member– Microsoft® MVP - .NET – INETA Speaker – International .NET Users

Group Association– Board Member: Association for Competitive

Technology– Author / Speaker

• Contact me: Tim Huckaby

E-mail: TimHuck@InterKnowlogy.com

• Phone: Office: 760-444-8640Mobile: 619 990 9200

Blog: http://team.interknowlogy.com/blogs/timhuckabyFaceBook:http://www.facebook.com/Tim.Huckaby.CarlsbadLinkedIn:http://www.linkedin.com/in/timhuckaby