Rob Relyea - There's Something About XAML | Going Deep

raymond

Charles,

Charles Petzold, the last I heard, is writing a book on XAML for Microsoft Press.

Applications=Code+Markup

http://www.charlespetzold.com/wpf/

Suggest a followup video with him on XAML and his thoughts on Avalon or Windows Presentation Foundation. Smiley

Rob Relyea

Raymond-
You can read a lot of Petzold's thoughts on his blog right now...

As he has been writing his book, he has had a bunch of great posts. Here is a sampling of XAML related posts I grabbed from his Table of Contents:

The Two APIs, October 2005
XAML Rules, But Code Suffers, November 2005
Introducing XAML Cruncher, March 2006
Squaring the Circle, April 2006
To Infinity and Beyond, April 2006
8-bit Binary Adder in XAML, June 2006

Yes, I'd love to see him discuss his thoughts on WPF/XAML. I'd also like to hear the Channel 9 community's thoughts.

-Rob
Rob Relyea | Lead Program Manager | WPF Team

P.S. There are several other WPF Books coming as well.

raymond

Thank you for the information.

Still hope Channel 9 can interview Charles about XAML and Windows Presentation Foundation.

Maybe Carl Franklin can get him on his Dot Net Rocks show as well. Tongue Out

jsvonline.com

I'm glad I got into this just two weeks ago instead of earlier. I came in at an exciting time.

I like how you can extend existing xaml objects and created new ones.

I was looking for an RSSView button that would tie into the common feeds list that I can set sizing, etc attribs for. I haven't decided whether to extend an existing object or create a new one, the great thing is I can and it's not difficult.

Is the IxFeedsManager and IFeedsManager going to change or does it look like it's make it into the final .NET 3.0?

staceyw
Before C# there was darkness...

Very interesting. Thanks Rob and Chazz. That helped me understand it better with integration of code/VS.
1) I see some of the pros and cons of the BAML. Would a con be no support for back-end optimizers like Phoenix?
2) As a pro - Does the BAML as a resource mean doing a new skin for the app will be a simple as creating another BAML file and figure out how to load it instead of the default BAML?
3) Does this mean the resource editor will get some kind of overhaul? Maybe it is just me, but working with resources does not seem as simple and intuitive as it could be in VS.

Cheers.
--wjs

Rob Relyea

Staceyw-

1) Phoenix and optimization
I'm not sure what a backend optimizer would improve with code like this:

Page p = new Page();

Grid g = new Grid();
g.Background = Brushes.Blue;
p.Child = g;

Button b = new Button();
b.Content = "hello world";
g.Children.Add(b);

That is the kind of thing represented by the BAML.

A developers code-behind logic will still be optimized by the code compilers, but the initialization of the tree of components won't be.

2) Skin for apps
We definitely see replacing the BAML in satellite assemblies for localization, but we haven't yet pursued that technique for skinning an application.

3) Resource Editor in VS
I'm not sure what is in store for the Resource Editor in VS. I'm sure the VS team would love more details on what you find inadequate about the Resource Editor. If you can write that up, I'd be happy to pass it along to the right people.

Thx, Rob

StewShack

Coming from an ASP / ASP.NET background I love the idea of using markup to create applications. Thank you for this presentation!

It took some digging but I found the post on the 7 Goals for XAML:

http://www.longhornblogs.com/rrelyea/archive/2004/11/29/7838.aspx

staceyw
Before C# there was darkness...

I am missing something basic here. I installed Cider, got a project and a window and put a button on it. Double-click on the button and can't get any code behind. How do I get to the click event of a button - for example? Figured out it is not implemented yet.

Rob Relyea

Yes, "Cider's" (Visual Designer for WPF which runs inside of VS) CTP (Customer Tech Preview) does not yet have the ability to easily add an event handler. You need to hand edit the XAML and the code behind yourself right now.
That clearly will change.

You can stay abreast of what Cider can/can't do and post questions at the Cider Forum.

EID (Expression Interactive Designer) does have this feature in today's CTPs.

----

One thing you'll notice from now on, the tools will change and improve much faster than WPF itself. Each public release of WPF will have fewer and fewer changes to the API.

Please check out the Cider Forum and the expression blog. Try the tools and give feedback.

Thx, Rob

Rob Relyea | PM | WPF Team