How long can I expect WCF/WPF to be supported?

[mojo69]

How long can I expect WCF/WPF to be supported by Microsoft?
I have been checking out WCF and have written a small mobile app using it. However I am looking at a large,old vb6 application that is going to take me approximately 6months to 1 year to 'port' over. Mostly due to me still learning about WCF/WPF. Am I going to be wasting my time doing/learning this if the technology will be dropped in the next 2-4 years? I am expecting the WCF version of this application to be around for at least 8-10 years.


Thanks for any thoughts. Also for tutorials on the WCF/WPF subject is channel9 the best place to use?

[Max Peck]

Hey Mojo,

Go ahead and develop your application. WPF/WCF are technologies that will continue to work for many moons. Just because Microsoft stops development on them for later versions of the system doesn't mean that your effort is now all-of-a-sudden irrelevant. Even if Microsoft "drops" it in the next 2 to 4 years doesn't mean that all the machines where it lives are all-of-a-sudden going to refuse to run your code. Learn to use your chosen tool and go get creative with it.

There are a lot of people out there using what are considered "obsolete" technologies to develop useful and relevant applications. I'm sticking with VS2008, myself, for anything I'm developing myself for the Windows desktop. Programs written with that tool will probably be usable on millions of systems for the next 20 or 30 years. No, they won't be running in the "leading edge" systems like Metro - but in my view, who cares?

The corporation I work for uses Java in their development. They develop mostly web-based versions of their programs right now. I don't think they even care that some of the technologies they use are 20+ years old, they still get the job done.

It is really easy in the present environment to allow all the sales hype from Microsoft (and everywhere else) to get you in a tailspin worrying whether or not the platform is going to drop out from under you. Don't worry about it, your target platform isn't going to just "go away". Your application will live 8 to 10 years (and beyond), believe me. Go enjoy learning the technology you're working with and write your application.

-Max

[mojo69]

Thanks Max Peck.
Our VB6 app is still running but has become bloated and hard to maintain. The original design was not really a design. So I want to spend the time making sure this one is correct and will be scalable and able to be deployed on pcs, tablets, and smartphones. Doing that will take me some time. I wanted to hear some other developers opinions or facts about the lifecycle of WCF/WPF.

[Max Peck]

Thanks Max Peck.
Our VB6 app is still running but has become bloated and hard to maintain. The original design was not really a design. So I want to spend the time making sure this one is correct and will be scalable and able to be deployed on pcs, tablets, and smartphones. Doing that will take me some time. I wanted to hear some other developers opinions or facts about the lifecycle of WCF/WPF.

You're describing a situation that's present in many shops. We have our share of "bloated" VB6 apps that were never "designed" here too. I understand exactly where you're coming from.

Scalable and deployable on PC's, Tablets and Smartphones eh? That's extremely ambitious. Are you a large shop with many developers? Because that's what it's going to take if you intend to deploy to all 3 form-factors and elegantly "design" it at the same time.

Ever hear of the rush-job policy? You can have it:

1) Good
2) Fast
3) Cheap

Pick any TWO.

If you're going to develop an application to target multiple form-factors then you are going to either have to develop to the smallest platform and hope it will scale to the larger platforms (screens) or, to make it truly "right" you're going to have to design your GUI three separate times for the three (or more) form-factors.

I humbly suggest that if you are a small shop that you first pick ONE platform to develop your application to. Obviously that should be the platform who's audience will return you the most revenue. Then you can attack the others. If you are a large shop, then you probably already know that developing to 3 platforms at the same time will be like herding cats. In that case my suggestion is the same: develop to ONE platform and get it right, then work on the others.

Good luck.

-Max