I had the opportunity today to attend a presentation on WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) focusing on interop; interop between Windows Forms (WF) and WPF.  It was pretty cool.  Though we didn't really get deep into XAML (we just touched on the surface), we explored the interactivity between the two platforms.

A few interesting aspects that the speaker, Mike Henderlight, touched on were the goals and the non-goals of his team (UI Frameworks Client Team, previously known as Windows Forms Team) with respect to WPF.

Primarily, their goal is to provide both design- and runtime-support for building application that allow WPF and WF to co-exist seamlessly.  That is, you will be able to leverage your existing codebase and investments already made in WF and host WPF components thereon (and vice versa).  In addition, ActiveX components will be supported.

They will not, however, via XAML provide a 'general-purpose mark-up solution' for developing WF applications.  They are not, for instance, trying to achieve a WF markup of any kind.  Additionally, no “code migration wizard” is in the works.  Therefore, when creating a WPF application, the developer should consciously be designing for that platform - there's no one-to-one relationship between controls.

Mike went on to illustrate a few example applications which he developed in both WinForms as well as WinFX to host the other platform's controls, perform databinding, etc.  All in all it was a fun, educational presentation.  Thanks, Mike!