Good little project to do when learning C# WPF

Question

I want to write a little application for myself to learn C# and WPF.

The typical hello world in 2009 (twitter client) seems boring. I would like to hear your stands should I do a twitter client? Any other starters I could play around with and get used to c#? (I'm a longtime PHP programmer)

Answer 1

You can try writing a modelling tool (business processes flow/UML (classes)/execution flow i.e. scripts execution flow/etc...).

Answer 2

Try finding an application in PHP or some other language where there is no good C# equivalent, and port the application to C#. I am doing this with some Java libraries and learning a lot about Java, C#/.NET, and algorithms all at the same time.

Answer 3

WPF Virtual Labs are a good place to start.

Answer 4

I recommend to write a native GUI (WPF) client for your most recent PHP project.

Answer 5

Only do a twitter client if that's what you're interested in. I don't see why twitter should be the new "hello world.", except maybe for making such a thing, like a twitter or facebook bot.

If you want to focus on C# and OOP, try something with many objects interacting, like a simple fighting game, poker, black-jack, etc.

If you want to learn wpf, try some fancy interface stuff, like a calculator, a video player, a photo gallery.

You're only limited to your imagination. Try to pick something fun, or something you'd like your computer to do, and code away. :D

Answer 6

A Twitter client ends up being a good way to get started with WPF, for a few reasons:

• It's got lists of data with images, which gives you practice with formatting and styling lists
• There are a lot of options for styling what you're working on - partly due to the avatars, limited text blocks, etc.
• A Twitter app is the kind of application where you expect to see good UI
• There are some good libraries availble (I highly reccommed tweet#) so you don't need to bother with any of the plumbing
• It's something you can show off and be proud of - people will understand what it does
• There are plenty of complex things you can add on later if you want - skinning, drag and drop, autocomplete, spell checking, etc.
• There are some open source WPF clients out there, so you can find some sample code if you get stuck

And the number 1 reason why it's good idea... you can start contributing your code to the Witty project. We'd love more help!