What Is WPF?

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∟What Is WPF?

A quick introduction is provided on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications.

What Is WPF? WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. WPF was initially released by Microsoft in 2007 as part of .NET Framework 3.0.

WPF attempts to provide a consistent programming model for building applications and separates the user interface from business logic. It resembles similar XML-oriented object models, such as those implemented in XUL and SVG.

Some major library (assembly) files of WPF are:

presentationframework.dll - Provides the end-user presentational features, including layouts, time-dependent, story-board based animations, and data binding.
presentationcore.dll - Provides the core services for WPF, including a property system that is aware of the dependencies between the setters and consumers of the property, a message dispatching system by means of a Dispatcher object to implement a specialized event system and services which can implement a layout system such as measurement for UI elements.
windowsbase.dll - Provides application services: user interface, 2D and 3D drawing, fixed and adaptive documents, advanced typography, vector graphics, raster graphics, animation, data binding, audio and video.
System.Xaml.dll - Provides support for XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language), which can be used to describe the behavior and integration of UI components.

If you have .NET Framework 4.6.1 SDK installed, those WPF assembly files are located at: "C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework\v4.6.1".