XAML, Microsoft Expression and
Application Development for Windows Vista

XAML (short for Extensible Application Markup Language, and pronounced "zammel") is the user interface markup language for the Windows Vista Presentation Foundation, which is one of the "pillars" of the WinFX API.

XAML is a declarative, XML-based language optimized for describing graphically rich visual user interfaces, such as those created by Macromedia Flash.  XUL and UIML are other examples of XML-based user interface languages.

Here are some links to info about Microsoft's newest products for application development within Windows Vista -- same for both Web apps and Windows apps -- that operate entirely within the XML realm.  It will take you about 15 minutes to get the general idea from the videos below.  If you download and try the trial versions, it will take at least 45 minutes and up to as much time as you want spend.


Microsoft Expression products enable easier collaborative development workflow and integration of work products between designers (that would be you) and developers (that would be me).
 
3-minute videos:  Introduction to the Microsoft Expression family of products --> http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/web_designer/demos.mspx?v=wd_layout

Web Designer = CSS-based Web page design that shows how it'll look in each browser -- may solve the cross-browser and Safari design problems.  --> http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/web_designer/default.mspx

Interactive Designer = WYSIWYG XAML generator = UI (user experience [UX]) designer that handles raster and vector graphics with shape and path controls.  XAML is the XML-based approach to describing UI components.  I don't know whether XAML is Microsoft's answer to Macromedia Flash or enables easier integration of Flash components into an XML-based Web page.  Creates EITHER Web applications or Windows applications.  Development beyond the inherent features in ID requires Visual Basic .NET or C#, so I have to learn VB.NET soon.   --> http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/interactive_designer/id_free_trial.aspx 

Graphic Designer = probably a replacement for Photoshop that creates Web-standard-based objects primarily for online display using either vector or raster graphics. --> http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression/en/graphic_designer/gd_free_trial.aspx

 

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition --> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=220549b5-0b07-4448-8848-dcc397514b41&displaylang=en 

 
Subject: AJAX

Is your PC good enough for Vista?
The next version of Windows will grade your PC's performance. You'll have to decide whether to buy a new hard drive.
Screenshots: Vista rates your PC

-----Original Message-----

From: owner-edge_list@cutter.com [mailto:owner-edge_list@cutter.com] On Behalf Of theedge@cutter.com
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 4:12 AM
To: edge_list@cutter.com
Subject: Windows Vista, 28 March 2006

Welcome to The Cutter Edge, the weekly e-mail service for IT professionals, provided free by Cutter Consortium. You can access today's E-Mail Advisor, and the archives of The Cutter Edge online at http://www.cutter.com/research/sample.html . If this article has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can register for your own free weekly subscription to The Cutter Edge at http://www.cutter.com/research/email.html .

WINDOWS VISTA: WHAT A LONG, STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN

by Tom Welsh, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium http://www.cutter.com/consultants/welsht.html

At last Windows Vista (the operating system formerly known as

Longhorn) has reached beta, and Microsoft is confident that the client version will enter production by the end of 2006. However, the server (which for some reason is still called Longhorn) will not be generally available until 2007.

Vista/Longhorn, the planned successor to Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, stands out both on account of its sheer ambition and through the extent of the delays it has suffered. Its schedule slipped so often, and so many of its components were cancelled or postponed, that some journalists ironically dubbed it "Shorthorn." Now it is starting to look as if Microsoft may have the last laugh, as beta versions of Windows Vista and a long list of richly featured new subsystems are at last reaching developers -- who, on the whole, are impressed with what they see.

Microsoft speakers, including Bill Gates, gave Longhorn a tremendous buildup at the company's Professional Developer Conference (PDC) in 2003. Gates predicted that Longhorn would be the biggest release of the decade and expatiated on its "three pillars" of innovation: the Avalon user interface, the Indigo communications layer, and WinFS, a radically new data storage subsystem. But the following year, with progress apparently stalled, Microsoft dropped Indigo, WinFS, and part of Avalon from Longhorn, redesignating them as optional extras for Windows XP and Windows 2003.

Last year, however, the company more than made up for lost time, shipping beta versions of Windows Vista, Avalon, Indigo, and WinFS, plus some unexpected extras. More than ever, Windows Vista is being positioned as supremely important. At PDC 2005 last September, Gates declared that Windows Vista along with Office 12 would take software "to new heights" and promised that their launch would see the biggest marketing campaign in Microsoft's history.

Windows Vista is accompanied by several important new products and APIs, including:

* Windows .NET Framework Extension (WinFX)

* Windows Communication Foundation (WCF; aka Indigo)

* Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF; aka Avalon)

* Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF)

* WinFS, a powerful relational extension to the Windows file system

* Visual Studio 2005 (aka Whidbey)

* SQL Server 2005 (aka Yukon)

All of these work closely together, offering Windows users a massive increment in functionality, efficiency, and development productivity.

Windows XP already comprises around 40 million lines of code, and Windows Vista -- which is even bigger -- necessitated a complete rewrite. WCF, WPF, WWF, and WinFS bring drastic changes to some of the operating system's most important functions, such as the user interface, middleware, and storage. And Microsoft has seized the opportunity to redesign these functions, introducing new features and adding support for the latest industry standards.

WinFX is the new top-level API for Windows Vista, superseding both the .NET Framework and the older Win32 interface. Unlike the .NET Framework, WinFX is an all-managed API, meaning that all code using it will run under the supervision of the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). WCF, WPF, WWF, and WinFS all overlap with WinFX in the sense that each provides a component framework that comprises part of WinFX.

The new Visual Studio 2005 can be used to build applications that invoke the .NET Framework but to get the full benefit of Windows Vista, developers will have to migrate to WinFX. As Visual Studio

2005 is not forward-compatible, applications built with it will not run on older versions of the .NET Framework (1.0 and 1.1). Thus, the move to Windows Vista will be one-way. It may also be quite expensive, as users will have to adopt the new operating system, WinFX, Visual Studio 2005, and everything that goes with them.

-- Tom Welsh, Senior Consultant, Cutter Consortium http://www.cutter.com/consultants/welsht.html

 

Embracing and extending Microsoft Richard MacManus: Web-based Office products can extend the functionality of desktop apps in many ways. Here's how JotSpot's Joe Kraus is extending Excel.
 

© 2005 Dan Webb.  All rights reserved.