How to migrate to WPF?

[Robert Scheer]

Hi.

We have several internal Windows Forms applications and two ASP.NET
applications that realy heavily on CSS files. We are considering to
migrate the Web applications and some of the Windows Forms
applications to WPF. Is there any tool or guide that can help us to
migrate the presentation layer from CSS to WPF? Did anyone have some
experience on that?

Thanks,
Robert Scheer

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

Refactoring requires many small steps rather than a big bang change.

First, you need to move your actual code into libraries. If you separate the
UI from your code completely, by moving all business logic into libraries
(both SmartClient and Web applications) you will find that change of UI is
easy.

WPF pushes you closer to the separation of UI from code, as XAML describes
the UI portions. Actually, if being technical, XAML describes intent, as the
actual UI can be altered at run time, but let's not confuse this issue.

If you have true separation of code and UI, you should find migration to be
easy, as you start creating XAML front ends and testing with the same
libraries you are currently using. If you are, instead, trying to big bang
it, I can guarantee some pain.