No, I completely understand what you were saying and I agree. I personally don't know enough about it to understand how they plan to reconcile the two. I get the UI stuff, that's really no big deal. The business and data access layer really is a different paradigm but I think they think they've got something clever in the works. I can't imagine what it is but I don't understand 3D television either and yet I have faith Sony does <bg> (Hell, I barely understand electricity)

It will be exciting to see. I'm just glad someone else is thinking about it for me so I can concentrate on stuff that will generate billable hours <bg>

>Hi,
>
>Nothing I've said was intended as a criticism of StrataFrame. From all I've heard and seen it's a fine product.
>But whilst the basic design for the UI side of a framework for VFP and WinForms may have a lot in common I don't see this translating to WPF/Silverlight because the whole paradigm is so different.
>
>And, if one is going to use EF, (which I accept may not be the best choice) then the BO / DataAccess parts of the framework are redundant.
>
>Maybe I need to think through how a WPF framework would actually be designed. I'd certainly be interested in any insights into how they might approach it....
>
>


>
>>The DDT and the RBS are add-ons for the framework and neither is available as or designed to be used as stand-alone.
>>
>>I think the reason they waited until .NET 4 to deal with the databinding/EF etc is that it is in fact a big deal and they said they wanted to allow for the changes that would be inevitable from the way it worked in 3.0/3.5
>>
>>I do know these guys are performance freaks ( as you probably know their commercial stuff uses extremely large data sets over WANs ) so they are very reluctant to commit to GUI stuff that impacts speed. They have said they know WPF is the future and are going to try to build into the framework stuff that that will make the transformation easier for teams that already have a lot of investment in winforms in their apps ( and since their own apps fall into that category I trust their sincerity <g> )
>>
>>I will say I've had the chance to get to know the Microfour folks pretty well and the one thing I'm *really* impressed with is the amount of mental horsepower (and obsessive work ethic <g> ) they have to throw at the problem. Ultimately, that's always where I put my money. I figure technologies come and go, but you can't fake smart. <s>
>>
>>
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>
>>>I saw the DB toolkit but notice that it (and the role based security stuff) is not part of the core framework. I also don't know if those only operate as add-ons to the framework or as seperate items (I'd guess the security stuff wouldn't be a standalone option)
>>>
>>>I still don't see how the framework could be compatible either with EF or with WPF data-binding concepts such as data templates but I'll be interested to hear how you get on.....
>>>
>>>Best,
>>>Viv
>>>
>>>>Thanks for the feedback. The Prism reference is a new one for me. It looks interesting and I see your point about the role of the third party framework relating to all of these other technologies. I had another look at the Strataframe site last evening and reviewed some of the postings and available videos. It does remind me of the environment that I have been working in with Maxframe. I do alot of custom development for small businesses and I need something that will allow me to get in and solve problems for the client without breaking their budgets. VFP and Maxframe has been perfect for that purpose. Strataframe does look like it will fit the bill after I get through some adjustments. They even have a database deployment project that reminds me of the Stonefield Database toolkit which allows easy data distributions and updates.
>>>>
>>>>Bill
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>Hi,
>>>>>About a year ago I Iooked at various frameworks for possible use with WPF but at that time, AFAIR, there was nothing with any specific support for WPF.
>>>>>
>>>>>I haven't looked since - mainly because my gut feeling is that unless something is being written from the ground up to be completely WPF orientated it won't be a good fit in most areas. Even so:
>>>>>
>>>>>If you are planning on using EF then that will be handling pretty much all of the backend / ORM side.
>>>>>If you use a MVVM pattern (which is the obvious route with WPF) then nearly all UI would be pure XAML.
>>>>>If you add Prism to the mix then there's not a whole lot of areas left for a framework to fill.
>>>>>
>>>>>Just my .02c