[mentallybroken]

i have a question ... what are the pros and cons of using expression studio 3 over ms visual studio 2008 in terms of making WPF applications?

and another question... can i use both? using expression studio 3 in making the design and ms visual studio 2008 doing the code/logic? because i think expression studio has advantages in design and visual studio in code.. such as debuggers and intellisense. replies much appreciated

and what is that microsoft visual web studio? is it included in visual studio 2008?

This post has been edited by mentallybroken: 15 February 2010 - 03:25 AM

[DuoShin85]

I suggest you use Expression Studio and Visual Studio. Use Expression Studio for designed the WPF application, and use Visual Studio for the applications programming logic.

[Core]

I would assume that you are talking about Expression Blend, that is a component part of Expression Studio made specifically to make the process of designing WPF and Silverlight applications easier.

I definitely would not recommend using Expression Blend over Visual Studio when it comes to WPF development. For designing the UI - yes. To write the code - not so good. In fact, you can write code in Expression Blend, but the experience is going to be a bit different from what you could have in visual Studio and first of all I say this because of lack of advanced debugging possibilities in Blend. Writing code will also be a bit more complicated especially when it comes to referencing additional .NET or external libraries. I am not talking about source control and collaboration tools, that are not even present in Blend and I use those quite actively in Visual Studio.

Also, I wouldn't rely completely on Blend when it comes to UI design. Same as with generated HTML code, generated XAML markup is not always the best. Generally, with WYSIWYG you never get 100% WYSIWYG. Same applies to Blend. Sometimes it makes more sense to work with XAML markup manually, as you will need to arrange some element your way, with proper spacing and containers. Blend is good (in my opinion) when it comes to working with very complex UI layouts and animations (it is much easier to work with the timeline than just writing XAML code for this). I often design the WPF application UI in Blend (I often find myself editing XAML anyway, despite having the generated code) and then switch to Visual Studio to do the rest. I would not say that these two packages are interchangeable.

And Microsoft Visual Web Developer is a part of the Visual Studio Express suite. If you have Visual Studio 2008 (not Express) then yes, it is already included.

[AdamSpeight2008]

Expression Blend was designed to target Designers rather than Programmers.

[mentallybroken]

thanks thanks for the replies . when Core replies .. i really get the answers that i want