I am posting this here as well for your comments on the experience i had…
I have been developing software for last 4 years and have been involved in almost all phases of software development life cycle, since MFC VS 6.0 days…
Recently i had this very technical savvy MNC client catering to Fund markets who wanted a solution for real time tracking and management of funds. They had a bunch of great looking application built on Adobe flex. They tried integrating each of these application to one and that s where i suggested composite application block and smart client software factory(CAB and SCSF) and WPF.
Using CAB & SCSF i can easily harness the potential of Design Patterns (MVC, MVP and dependency injection) and the UI (which was a challenge as the user was used to the great UI stuff of Flex) was done using WPF.
Using WPF with SCSF i was able to present a solution which looks great and as well as work as a truly smart client on which modules can be plugged in at runtime. We started off with one module and now we have migrated and integrated the whole bunch of modules into one great looking application.
Moreover, Unit testing the code was no more a pain(thanks again to Visual studio!!). It provided a sense of confidence in me and peer developers.
All this was done using Visual studio 2005 and seeing the results the client wants some more application in visual studio 2008 and silverlight!!!(remember, i told, the client is really tech savvy).
Having said all this, let me please iterate that i do not intent to say that Adobe flex is not a good technology. It is, in fact. But the deal is that the stuff provided by Visual studio is far more mature. Do write me in your comments at my website.
Subodh Pushpak's Blog 