Hi,
- Declarative vs procedural code
I would say that was a +, not a -. If there is a declarative approach to doing what I want, I will favour it over procedural code. Declarative approaches can be inflexible, but the "code-behind" nature of WPF means that you can cover a lot of ground robustly in a declarative style, and plug the gaps procedurally.
- Compared to Windows Forms, still in development fase
Thats not true - .Net 3.0 is released for one year now. However, WinForms certainly benefits from being in v2, and there are plently of 3rd party controls to help out too, but both are released technologies.
You need to look at what you are going to be developing, and use the forms package that offers the best advantage. If you need to turn out data-centric business for in house use at your employer, the WinForms probably offers speedier development that WPF. If you are building apps where distinctive look and feel, and creating a superior user experience are real goals, then WPF is probably a better choice.
When these two are compared, seldom is any mention of ASP.NET made. I guess the difference between web and desktop apps is more profound than the differences between desktop forms packages, althougth users generally ony care about the end result. Anyway, with Silverlight 2.0 on the way, the WPF way of doing things bridges this gap, and I think this alone is reason enough for any .Net developer to learn WPF.
Regards,
Nick.