WPF, the Windows Presentation Foundation, is a .NET API for building Windows applications. Much has been written about how WPF makes it easier than ever before to create visually impressive applications, but it has other talents which, although less eye catching, make WPF a powerful technology for building front ends. In particular, the .NET framework's strong support for connected systems combined with WPF's approach to data binding make it a compelling choice for presenting information from back-end services written in any technology, such as Java, Ruby, or .NET.
Read Windows Presentation Foundation as a Rich Client Technology
Read Windows Presentation Foundation as a Rich Client Technology
In this latest InfoQ article we will compare WPF to alternatives such as Ajax/DHTML, Swing, and Flash; we will then look at some scenarios where you might usefully build a WPF front end as a rich client, using back-end services based on Java for example. For other examples of Java and .NET integration, see also infoq.com/j+n.