I wrote a panel similar to the built-in StackPanel. I works almost fine except for a slight problem:
Changing layout properties on children do not always cause the panel's MeasureOverride and ArrangeOverride to be called. They are always called when a child's Visibility property changes, but not when the Width and Height properties change.
I haven't yet managed to reproduce this behavior in a sample small enough to be appropriate for being included in a question on StackOverflow: But since it works fine in the trivial sample I made, I know I must do something avoidable in my actual panel.
So my question: In which circumstances does an element not invalidate its parents measure when changing size-related properties?
I tag this wpf also (I used Silverlight) to have a broader audience - I suspect this will apply to both xaml implementations equally.
I figured what my mistake was and under which condition the panel's MeasureOverride is no longer called on certain changes for size-related properties.
My panel called Measure on children with the exact size the children should have, rather on the size of the panel.
A panel doesn't get it's MeasureOverride method called when children begin to desire more space than was told to them is available in the last Measure call - which makes sense.
Summary: The parameter for the Measure method you call on a child must denote the space the parent panel allots to all children, not just the one Measure is called on.