Rob’s been talking about fixing various parts of XAML lately, which is exactly the kind of result you want when a bunch of folks work with your technology and give you feedback on it. So, things will change and get better.
However, Rob isn’t telling us just want the changes are likely to be because, as he puts it, “I’m not going into great detail in the description of our fix because I’d prefer to be the first company to ship our design. :-)”
Like Rob, I find this amusing. I grew up in a period of Microsoft’s life where they were much derided for “leveraging” ideas from the rest of the world and repurposing them for use in Windows (or *as* Windows in some cases). Now that MS has caught up and passed most of the rest of the world in many crucial areas of technology, it’s nice to see us grow into the role of thought leader instead of follower.
If I’m doing the calculations correctly, Ryan Dawson is not yet old enough to drink, but he still manages to give the best, most direct, most thorough feedback of anyone in the WinFX/Longhorn developer community (Ian Griffiths is a close second, but he’s got that English polite thing going for him, so it’s hard to know just how much he’s really complaining : ). Ryan’s built apps to test the various pillars and makes his complaints very clear, as in this post about Avalon 3D.
That’s not to say that I agree with everything he says or that the product team agrees, but I wish I had 100 more Ryan Dawson’s banging on the pillars and complaining loudly and clearly so that the product teams can get some crystal clear feedback on what works, what doesn’t and what developers want. If you don’t have a blog, get one or post your complaints on the newsgroups. Come on! Tell us why we suck and what to do to stop sucking! You know you want to. : )
When I step into a new project, my typical mode of operations is to gather goals and issues from as many people as care that I can find, stir it all up with what I think is important, run it up the flag pole, repair the bullet holes a few times and then execute. I’m in the “gather” mode on the SCDC right now and I’m curious what your goals and issues are for the SCDC as it stands today and for what you’d hope it to become tomorrow. Feel free to respond to this post (even anonymously if it makes you feel more comfortable) or email me. The idea is that the SCDC becomes a valuable place for Microsoft developers building Smart Clients of all kinds, but particularly using Windows Forms, the Compact Framework, Visual Studio Tools for Office (did you know that they have a ClickOnce equivalent?) and WinFX.
BTW, I’m still the Content Strategist for the Longhorn DevCenter, so don’t go getting your hopes up that I’ll stop beating that particular drum. : )
“[Avalon is] needed by control developers everywhere so they can create controls with great usability without hiring an army of Win32 experts. It’s needed by end users because they deserve to have great usability in all their applications, not just the ones that Microsoft threw a bazillion dollars at.”
I also like what he has to say about Avalon vs. Windows Forms for application developers:
“It’s also important to realize that from an application developer’s perspective, there is little difference between Avalon and Windows Forms. For years there will be interesting controls built from both technologies.”
In other words, Avalon is the necessary next step to build more powerful controls so that users get the most out of their applications without requiring a giant change in development methodology for application developers.
Joe Stegman, Lead PM on the Windows Forms team, talks about how tight the integration between Windows Forms and Avalon will be, including hosting Windows Forms controls inside of Avalon, Avalon controls inside of Windows Forms and sharing a data binding model. In other words, developing on Windows Forms is a wonderful way to get tasty managed UI goodness today and long into the future, whether you'd like to target Avalon and/or Longhorn in the future or not.
