Evolution of Windows programming

12 Mar 2009

Win32

The good old day where everyone was using win32 to create windows application. It takes merely 70 lines of code  to create an empty window in win32.

#include <windows.h>http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/simple_window.html

MFC

Then, here come MFC. I still remember the day I used it to create a simple and yet stupid Paper-Scissors-Rock game. It takes around 30 lines of code to create an empty windows in MFC,

#include <afxwin.h>
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cpp/Beginner_MFC_Tutorial.aspx

WinForms

Next, after MS release dot net framwork, they introduced winforms at the same time.  It takes around 10 lines of code.

using System.WinForms;

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/jmukharjee/WindowsFormsTutorial111282005011245AM/WindowsFormsTutorial1.aspx

WPF

Today, MS gives us WPF, which makes windows developers job much more easier than before. It clearly separate the presentation into xml file and the logic part remain in cs file. Developing a window application is as easy as developing a flash application.

http://www.wpftutorial.net/HelloWPF.html

Conclusion

I have no conclusion. Many games are still build with win32 because the lower level always perform faster. Even most of the MS owned application are written in win32. For example, office and ms sql. However, they do use the latest technology for part of the solution.

I hate the way MFC mixed presentation and logic layer together. However, as a programmer, i can always modularize my application just like how i manage to implement MVC in PHP. WPF just did the job for us.

I never really get into win form as I had moved to web application at the time. I heard people says that winform is just wrap around MFC.

WPF is really a cool technology which give me the feeling of building a flash application. Although it is compiled into exe extension but I am sure it is heavily rely on dot net runtime.

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