Pro WPF in C# 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5, Second Edition

Pages and Navigation

Most traditional Windows applications are arranged around a window that contains toolbars and menus. The toolbars and menus drive the application—as the user clicks them, actions happen, and other windows appear. In document-based applications, there may be several equally important "main" windows that are open at once, but the overall model is the same. The user spends most of his time in one place, and jumps to separate windows when necessary.

Windows applications are so common that it's sometimes hard to imagine different ways to design an application. However, desktop developers have spent the past few years watching the developments in the Web—which uses a dramatically different page-based navigation model—and realizing ...