WPF/E - Will it take over Flash? What the future holds for Microsoft and Adobe?

Two weeks ago, when I first looked into WPF/E, I was confused and didn't know what it was. Ever since, I've been trying to read up on the subject and I'm some what getting up to speed now.

Here are a few samples that I found of what you can do with WFP/E

Live Piano (press your keyboard to play)

First click on the page to activate the piano, then try to type the following letters one by one on your keyboard :) 

c c v b b v c x z z x c c x x
c c v b b v c x z z x c x z z

Btw, if you have keyboard combos within the limit of this demo that you can share with me, please post back!!  When I get bored, I might just play with it a little bit :)



Rich Photo Viewer (mouse over the bottom right hand to drag)





Scott Guthrie just posted his slides and demos at the ASP.NET Connections conference in Orlando.  In it, he had some very concise and to the point overview of the functionaities provided by the WFP/E.

A few quick reasons of why to use WPF/E from his slides

• Enable richer interactive web experiences
  • Vector Graphics, Media, Animation

• Integrate cleanly within existing sites

• XML markup with AJAX JavaScript

• Easily incorporated within HTML pages

•     Cross Browser and Cross Platform

• Enabled via small, one-time, 1.1Mb download

• IE, FireFox, Safari support on Windows and Macintosh systems (both Intel and PPC)

Again, just like I mentioned in my previous posts, looks like Adobe and Microsoft will be head on in the soon future and I will be very interested to see how it all turns out. Personally, I never picked up flash development in the past few years (although I've always had flash installed)  I guess it's due to the fact Flash really required me to have somewhat "artistic" skills and action script just never really hilted my spot. I wonder if I will hit the same snag with WPF/E.

It will also be interesting to see if the adoption of this "external" download will be acceptable to mass users. In the past few years, flash seems to be the only  "trustworthy" plug-in for browsers that most users are okay with. Now thinking back, I think a lot of it had to do with the "Wow" factor.

I remember the first few things I saw flash did was all kinds of website home pages designed with the movie trailer like intro w / great music on it. That's how I got hooked into it. So if WPF/E first come out with all types of "wow" applications, then I think it will easily be adapted by people in mass.


One additional thing is the WPF/E download is an .msi file and you have to manually install it. Flash on the other hand, it can be installed without this additional step it seems, I think on this issue, flash is still easier for end users.

Anyway, I'm going to check out the slides and demos in more details and continue my study of WPF/E.

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