Joe Marini - Why I love XAML | TheChannel9Team

Kevin Daly
Of course it *looks* like my nick is just my name, but actually, well, it's just my name.

The Channel 9 Team wrote:
What do you think? Are you looking forward to using XAML?

Well, I certainly would be if it were showing any sign of turning up before I'm too old to care.

Manip

It is interesting, notepad will out-last almost all of even the most well written development environments. I can easily see it out-lasting VB6.

This technology is pretty cool. I hate XML style new technologies (I think they are too resource intensive to pass) but when it is used correctly (like this) I love it. I must admit, I would like to have a converter so I can take the XAML and compile it right into the app, to save the processing time.

A converter for say C# wouldn't be too complicated because XAML is strictly defined. I wonder if it is passed each time you load the application or each time you use the graphic interface? I would assume it is passed and stored as a more efficient format so the 'events' within the XAML can pass to data handlers more quickly.

Kryptos
Backup People!

I think XAML rocks. Will VS.NET 2005 output forms in XAML? Or will there be a new release of VS in 200x....?

Any links to download samples, as I have longhorn installed.....(Via MSDN WinHec Build).

rhm

I like the look of XAML from what I've seen so far. I do think though that it's adoption will be severely limited by it being a longhorn only feature. Even after longhorn does eventually ship, if I write an app that only runs on longhorn I'm eliminating a huge percentage of my potential customers - no amount of protuctivity gains can make up for that. It's a shame as I haven't seen anything to indicate that XAML (and the Avalon graphics engine it relies on) couldn't be integrated into XP or even 2000.

On the subject of dev tools for XAML, I don't think there are any yet (except for the general XML tools in the Whidbey beta and 3rd party stuff like XMLSPY). I assume there are plans for another VS release to coincide with Longhorn and that it will include gui editing tools for XAML. I always groan when I hear people talk about how great it is to be able to edit stuff in Notepad (I hear this from "hard core" web developers all the time). Don't ignore the sucess of Visual Basic. There's a reason why that was so popular and it had little to do with the actual language - Visual forms editing is a big deal to the majority of developers.

rasx
Programmer/Analyst III, Emperor of String.Empty

XAML is impressive. Let's hear about security features! Let's hear about dropping XAML decalrations into ASP.NET and suddenly getting a web page (based on a subset of controls not Longhorn dependent).

Let's hear about Adobe or Macromedia embracing XAML so these mature design tools can be used by these mythical designers that work with us developers.

At least let's hear about Microsoft building, say, an XPDF to XAML converter.

ZippyV
Fired Up

rasx wrote:
XAML is impressive. Let's hear about security features! Let's hear about dropping XAML decalrations into ASP.NET and suddenly getting a web page (based on a subset of controls not Longhorn dependent).

Let's hear about Adobe or Macromedia embracing XAML so these mature design tools can be used by these mythical designers that work with us developers.

At least let's hear about Microsoft building, say, an XPDF to XAML converter.

What plans does Microsoft have with XAML? Are they going to make it a standard like they did with C#?

Tom Servo
W-hat?

It would be hard to make a standard, since XAML is more of a way to map the Avalon API into XML, not a strongly defined markup.

But since we're again at Avalon and XAML, I'm wondering, did the stance about MDI in Avalon change by now? The last thing I knew was that it wasn't planned for 1.0, so developers would have to write their own MDI handler (wouldn't probably be too hard fiddling with panels, but it's all about getting system window borders and what not).

Mav Phoenix
Hero by fate

I wonder how the execution will be though trying to get people on board with this--especially with LH on a slippery slope.

Nicholas

It's a very good technology but will MS be able to make beautiful look of Mac OSX happen in Windows. XP is much more simple but Mac OSX has more hot looks. Not only should they be showing us these technologies, they must really start some great coding to make a some what beautiful, easy to use OS. Then their will be no complaint. Other uses of XAML could also be, for people wanting to make birthday cards and brochures and that kind of stuff. So I don't really reckon this technology lies just with developers. It lies within everyone. I think XAML will be one the best technology out along with .NET and the other Longhorn Pillars. Plus it's gonna be available on XP and Windows Server 2003, so it should really be something that will be encorporated not only into Longhorn but some exisisting Windows Operating Systems too. Although that is only the latest ones. But by the time it's released, 2000 will be like 98 when Xp was released. And 98... LOL!!!