Anyone using WPF for real LOB applications?

Question

Anyone using WPF for real LOB applications?

We have all seen the clever demos of WPF showing videos mapped onto 3D elements. These look great but what about the real world of line-of-business applications that make up the majority of developers efforts. Is WPF just for nice eye candy?

Answer 1

While we discussing it, smart guys are building amazing apps:

Lawson Smart Office brings WPF goodness to the enterprise

IGT’s Next-Generation UI with WPF

Billy Hollis on Getting Smart with WPF

Answer 2

Just rolling out a WPF LOB application to about 400 municipal locations. Not heavy on the eye-candy but very heavy on databinding.
WPF is custom made for LOB! Many drawbacks (ie no refactoring) were recently fixed in SP1, but tools are still, to put it mildly, retarded.
I find that ironic seeing that XAML was invented for easy tooling.
To use WPF, you really need to understand some fundamentals in the WPF object model, and I don't see the designer/developer workflow happening anytime soon.
There's a really steep learning curve, but it is worth it.
Tasks that used to be huge are trivial now, and conversely, tasks that used to be dead simple are near impossible.

Answer 3

I worked on the Helios product in this setup. WPF on top of lots of other stuff, including C++.

WPF is what I would recommend if you were developing in .NET and wanted a smart client application with a heavily customized UI. If you were thinking about using a simple Windows-y UI, go with Windows Forms.