Is this method of mine to design a WPF UI right?
c#, wpf
Solution
Design a Mockup in Illustrator ( or in Blend directly, I am not sure which should I use)
Agreed, if that's the way you roll. I tend to do easier stuff directly in VS and use Blend when I need.
Duplicate it by drag & drop design in WPF while designing for 1024 x 768 resolution using ( don't know which yet ) layout
I still can't recommend WPF's designer. It's downright awful in 2010. It's probably gotten much better in 2012 but I've not got any cause to try it because I'm so used to just writing XAML.
When my user launches my application , get screen size and resize every single control by doing some maths (Yukh! Is this really how I'd have to do it? What was the point of WPF being resolution independent, thats not truly drag and drop design is it?)
Absolutely not. Use WPF's layout system to do the hard work for you. The basis of this is a `Panel`, which can decide what space to give its children. WPF's `Grid` control (which is a `Panel`) is very flexible, and allows you to assign proportional sizes to rows and columns, thus ensuring your layout can expand and contract in a reasonable fashion.
You will always need to keep a minimum size in mind though. Obviously you can't expect your UI to still look OK at 10x10! You can use `MinWidth` and `MinHeight` properties to control this, right up to the level of your `Window`.
Problem
Let me state first that , yes there are tons of "resolution independent C# WPF layout" related questions here. My question isn't directly related to that, and I have read up most of them, and have read several tutorials. GOAL: As I am pretty new to WPF, my goal is to have a clear way to design a complex , realistic GUI, which is screen resolution independent, and scales appropriately as the window is resized by the user. CAUSE OF CONFUSION: I am getting very confused with the tons of options that many tutorials and stackoverflow posts suggest, using Viewboxs, liquid layout, relative layout, using different types of containers, and the fact that WPF is supposed to be resolution independent by design. Question: I do not have any intentions to start a debate, I know SO is not for that. I simply would like to know if this procedure that I am planning to use to design my real-world GUI is right. 1 > Design a Mockup in Illustrator ( or in Blend directly, I am not sure which should I use) 2 > Duplicate it by drag & drop design in WPF while designing for 1024 x 768 resolution using ( don't know which yet ) layout 3 > When my user launches my application , get screen size and resize every single control by doing some maths (Yukh! Is this really how I'd have to do it? What was the point of WPF being resolution independent, thats not truly drag and drop design is it?) Most of my applications are database driven data entry and manipulation forms. Am I using the right strategy which is common practice in the industry or am I missing something? Many thanks