Question WinForms VS. WebForms

[adshocker]

Hi all,

I noticed that more are now converting applications into WebForms rather than using WinForms. Since both can be invoked within IE, then why do most still prefer WebForms?

Although I would have to admit the WinForms requires .Net Framework installed on the machine.

Just wanted to get some insights on this.

Thanks.

 

[jmcilhinney]

WinForms has historically been the choice for rich user interfaces. Web applications are offering more and more functionality and are becoming more and more popular as a result.

You can now do things with Web applications that could previously only be done with Windows apps. Web applications do still have some limitations due to security issues though and, while UI responsiveness is improving with better connection speeds, AJAX and the like, Web apps are still not as "fast" as Windows apps in general.

The big plus with Web apps is the essentially zero deployment effort. You stick the app on a server and everyone can access it instantly. You update the app and everyone is instantly using the latest version. Windows apps still individual installation on each client, although technologies like ClickOnce aim to close that gap somewhat too.

 

[adshocker]

thanks for the info.

it's just that i read a thread in the microsoft forum that microsoft will eventually stop support for WinForms which i think is sad. since i'm more of a WinForms developer.

i was trying to look for that thread so i can share it but i can't seem to find it.

just hope that wasn't true.

 

[jmcilhinney]

Microsoft are no longer developing Windows Forms but that doesn't mean they are abandoning Windows applications in favour of Web applications. They have simply introduced Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) to essentially replace Windows Forms as the technology for building Windows apps. WPF uses your graphics hardware where available to speed up and enhance user interfaces, where Windows Forms uses GDI+, which is software based. WPF development also resembles ASP.NET much more because the UI is defined using a XAML file, which is an XML variant and resembles the HTML used to define ASP.NET UIs.

There are many similarities between WinForms and WPF but there are a lot of differences too. They serve the same purpose but are implemented differently. It's also worth noting that Silverlight is a subset of WPF that is intended to compete with Adobe Flash on the Web.