WPF custom user widgets. Will UI components be standardized?

There are lots of articles and video lessons that describe how to create your unique user widget (graphical control) with WPF. There are tons of technical details what is behind the scene and I feel people enthusiasm with ability to customize widgets as never before.

I remember those day开发者_Go百科s when VCL library (Delphi) appeared and there was the same enthusiasm in VCL widgets area. Ability to create VCL controls was nearly the must when you was applying for a job as Delphi developer. This situation continued for several years till professional sophisticated 3'd party UI libraries appeared. Hardly you'll have to create your own VCL widget nowadays.

Will WPF widgets enthusiasm die as VCL one?

There will never be just one way of accomplishing the task, so I suspect that "real" standardization is nigh impossible as long as choice exists.

For one, don't underestimate the popularity of "free". Lately I've been working a lot with Xceed's excellent DataGrid for WPF product... but, despite the fact that several solid commercial DataGrid controls are available, even a cursory search of questions here on SO shows that the "free" ones (such as the WPF Toolkit on CodePlex) remain very popular. Apparently, countless programmers are thinking, "Why buy a commercial library if I can make my own with a little elbow-grease?" (or perhaps, "My boss won't let me buy anything, so I have to do it the hard way"). In your experience with Delphi, the fact that good 3rd-party VCL libraries existed didn't negate the fact that some people could and did make their own, even just to avoid the expense.

On the other hand, future versions of .NET could include "official" versions of more and more widget controls, which sort of make the commercial ones superfluous. But not entirely! Because the commercial controls may include more niche features, themes, etc. there will always be someone who may prefer these ready-made libraries over the "free" ones.

I believe that software development—like much of the world around us—still tends towards entropy. The expanding need for software to accomplish specific tasks is met by more programmers who will make their decisions based on countless factors, but certainly including (a) price, (b) ease of use, (c) previous familiarity, (d) the "flash" factor, etc. The fact that the choice exists means that people's creativity will drive them to create more options, not less.

Depends. I mean, seriously - I do write a LOT of UI widgets at the moment... for a financial trading application that is "widget oriented" (like sharepoint, just WPF).

IN Them, though, and that is the level most developers will work, I use Microsoft + Infragistics and - that is it.

What for should I write more low level widgets? I mean, the offers out there, especially with the tremendous skinning support, are simply good enough. Most applications can be ok with the stock offers from Microsoft (especially as a Ribbon is downloadable). It is not enthusiasm dying, it is need not being there, if you ask me.