For those who have spent time in Visual Studio 2010, and work with WPF, how much better, if any, is the designer for WPF? Are other designers, such as Blend, still preferred, or can we be productive in VS 2010?
+3
A:
The WPF Designer in VS 2010 is hugely improved over the one in 2008.
It handles many more unusual cases without breaking, and does a better job overall.
That being said, with a few exceptions, it's still the same fundamental design as the 2008 designer. There are some new features, particularly for auto-generating forms based on data, etc, but overall, it works the same way.
As a result, I still find Blend a much nicer tool, overall, for working with WPF from a designer standpoint. I'm just very happy that the designer doesn't "break" as often, especially when doing things like using Blend behaviors, etc.
Reed Copsey
2010-03-21 21:28:54
+2
A:
VS2010 WPF designer is much closer to the level of WinForms designer than it was in VS2008 - I would say it will suit typical programmer quite well. However Blend is still needed if you are a designer.
Also, I found VS2010 designer much more stable than VS2008 SP1 one. Not a single crash so far.
Alex T.
2010-03-21 21:33:02
@Alex - can you elaborate on why a 'designer' would want to use a designer instead of VS?
Randy Minder
2010-03-21 21:34:49
It is nearly the same split of functionality as with VS2008 and Blend 2/3. A lot of things designer expects are missing from Visual Studio - drawing tools, animation timeline, Photoshop import, and so on.WPF designer is much better in VS2010, but Microsoft did not merge Blend into VS.
Alex T.
2010-03-21 21:46:53
@Randy - Visual Studio is a programmer's tool, Blend is a designer's tool. Blend is good for doing design work - creating new control styles, drawing, animation etc. This functionality is not present in Visual Studio.
TabbyCool
2010-03-22 11:48:48