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just wanted to clarify the options for client presentation :

1) winforms - for windows client - older technology 2) wpf - for windows client - newer technology, uses xaml

3) jquery - for web client - uses javascript 4) asp.net ajax - for web client - older technology 5) silverlight - for web client - newer technology, uses xaml

for the web client, what are the pros and cons of option 3, 4, 5. is it better to learn jquery or asp.net ajax ? is silverlight mature enough to be used ?

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4 Answers

In terms of desktop applications, you cannot go past WPF, the problem is there doesn't seem to be a huge knowledge or push for commercial projects using WPF.

I have been using it to write my companies in house applications and it is miles ahead of winforms, it brings all the UI templating and reuse that asp.net can have to desktop apps, plus a whole lot more.

Spend some time to play with it, especially look at the binding side the using Linq and a project like CLinq or BindableLinq to propagate changes to the base lists to the UI without handling any events.

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does wpf requires vista ? –  Michael Ellick Ang Apr 28 '09 at 22:35
No it doesn't, it requires .net 3.0. But Vista and window's 7 do have a lot of under the hood changes which does help WPF performance. The good thing is WPF is rendered on the video card if it supports acceleration, which is MUCH MUCH quicker than rendering on the CPU, it also allows all the cool animation stuff that WPF can do. –  Jake Ginnivan May 4 '09 at 6:28
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jQuery and ASP.NET Ajax complement each other so I guess it's not an either or for them, at least not according to Microsoft.

The problem with Silverlight is not maturity but rather the low rate of installations. In an intranet scenario this might not be a problem. Also Silverlight suffers from the same problems as Flash. It's harder to get linkability, searchability and such.

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jonelf, being able to use 2 technologies together may be possible, but is it a good practice to use jquery and asp.net ajax together ? or we are better off with sticking to one technology ? what do you think ? –  Michael Ellick Ang Apr 28 '09 at 22:40
FYI, Silverlight market penetration is growing rapidly. It is already at 55% and at this rate will hit 90% within a year, so "low rate of installations" is no longer an issue. Linkability has been solved with Silverlight 3. Searchability is up to the search providers, of course. –  Ray Burns Jun 2 '10 at 20:31
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I'd like to add MVC, it's part of asp.net depending on who you ask but it's so different that it's worth being on it's own.

I recently rebuild an old asp.net webapplication in asp.net mvc for a customer and he was very impressed with how much more intuitive and fast the application had become. I did not do any functional changes. Just the presentation part was changed. I'd say it's worth mentioning here.

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heard about asp.net mvc. but not sure how does it work. do you use asp.net mvc on its own or in conjunction with other technologies (jquery , asp.net ajax, silverlight) ? –  Michael Ellick Ang Apr 28 '09 at 22:38
It works like a charm, it's very different from regular asp.net but it works well in conjunction with all that you mentioned. –  mhenrixon Apr 29 '09 at 6:34
ASP.NET Ajax is for ASP.NET (webforms) and does not fit in with ASP.NET MVC. The default ASP.NET MVC project template includes jQuery. I recommend Scott Guthries NerdDinner tutorial for getting a grip on ASP.NET MVC weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2009/04/28/… Silverlight is a completely different story. –  Jonas Elfström Apr 29 '09 at 9:30
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