I must have been too busy with transitioning at work, this release escaped my radar. I’ve been playing around with the Smart Client Software Factory for Windows Forms and have gotten to like it. However, I found it quite clunky at times. So, I’m quite thrilled that they decided to rebuild the Composite Applications idea from the ground up, and even rebuilt the CAB-version for it, for WPF.
Prism, which is now called the Composite Application Guidance for WPF, is a more streamlined version of its predecessor. It discontinued its quite rigid approach of using WorkItems and Modules and kept it flexible, while at the same time allowing enough guidance for a best-practice approach.
The download package contains not only the framework but a reference implementation as well. The documentation initiates the user with the patterns involved and offers a good introduction to its technical design. No doubt Microsoft has learned from the user community on the steep learning curve of SCSF.
It’s about time that Patterns & Practices released a Composite Application framework that’s natively WPF. I’ve been waiting for it since the announcement of the now-defunct Acropolis.
(And guess what, now that this version has been released, the P&P guys are now working on the next one, which extends the framework to building composite applications on Silverlight!)
