Listening to: Candy - Talk Talk

This pot outlines the process of integrating 2D and 3D in the current version of WPF. Very cool!

Listening to: Outro - Lupe Fiasco

The CTP of WPF/E is out. I’ve downloaded the Mac OSX version. It’s an extension for Safari and Firefox 1.5 (it doesn’t work in 2.0 yet). It is really good.

As a note to Mac users trying to view the samples. You need start up your web server and drop files into a directory under /Library/WebServer/Documents. The demos don’t work by loading the files directly off the file system.

Between WPF/e and Apollo I think we might have a good ole battle brewing.

src: Nic Wise

Listening to: The Zephyr Song - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Scratch that… I think XAML and WPF has a bit of a battle on it’s hands.

Listening to: Total Eclipse - Iron Maiden

Info is starting to emerge about the new client-side app platform from Adobe - Apollo.

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to the desktop.

It looks like it could be a XAML/WPF competitor worth watching…

UPDATE: Apollo release roadmap.

Listening to: The Furthest Place - Rhian Sheehan

Rob Relya mentions that
there is a Visio to Xaml Converter in the works… not a lot of details yet.

Listening to: Crystal Village - Pete Yorn

I came across a couple of very interesting Longhorn articles this morning:

• Custom Controls
  in Avalon

  If Avalon didn’t get anything else right, I know they got the semantic line-up
  of design and programming. Think about it, a button is basically a textured link.
  A listbox is a selectable item list. Panels are for organization of elements and not
  their look, and so on… The difference is that these controls closely align with
  their real-world meaning. For example, a listbox is always going to be a list of elements,
  no matter how that list looks, or what it holds.
  So, that’s the first lesson: in Avalon, you pick a control depending
  on general behavior, and then you make it look however you want. Which I think, is
  the right way.
  

• “Avalon”
  Animation: The Storyboard Story
  One of the key features that the “Longhorn” presentation subsystem, code-named
  “Avalon,” adds to your user interface toolbox is animation. “Why would I want animation
  in my user interface?” you might ask. Well, there are a number of reasons.

Listening to: Romeo & Juliet> - Dire Straits

Found this on LonghornBlogs.com:

No long post today, just a thought… Avalon is Microsoft’s new desktop
rendering system. It is reasonable to assume that Microsoft-developed applications
targeting Longhorn will use this system. So, the question becomes… what will be
the difference between Oulook on the desktop and Outlook Web Access on the web? Why
would you even need a desktop version, when a XAML version served up from the web
would have the exact same capabilities?

>

Listening to: Hard to Tell - Old Crow Medicine Show

Well it’s official. XAML is at least as powerful as HTML. Here I have proof:

See! I am able to create truly ghastly windows apps in the same way I am able to create
ghastly web apps. This is a very, very good sign. If it allows me to create bad…
it will allow talented people to create good.

Moooha ha ha!

Listening to: Phobos - Rhian Sheehan

Here are a couple of articles on programatically loading XAML:

• Avalon
  Skinning  - Mitch Walker
• Yes
  Sam, it is dynamic…  - Chris Anderson

The secret sauce is:

Stream stream = File.OpenRead(styleName);
FrameworkElement resourceElement = (FrameworkElement)Parser.LoadXml(stream);
resourceElement.Resources.Seal();
this.Application.Resources = resourceElement.Resources;
stream.Close();

Listening to: Give It Up - Hothouse Flowers

Here is a list of recently browsed XAML articles… more for my own use than anything
else.

• Introducing Longhorn for Developers. Chapter
  3: Controls and XAML

• The Code Project. 3D in
  XAML

• DevSource. Working
  With Avalon Today: Getting Started With XAML

• OnDotNet. Inside
  XAML

• C# Corner. XAML
  - Putting XML to Work
• MSDN Magazine. Create
  Real Apps Using New Code and Markup Model