Daniel Lehenbauer, an SDE on the Avalon team, has started a wiki providing helpful hints on using XAML as your new 3D file format and has provided a utility to help those playing with 3D in the WinHEC build of Longhorn (build 4074).

Jon Udell, a writer for InfoWorld, begins a series digging into the value proposition of Longhorn with a look at WinFS. Jeremy Mazner, a Microsoft evangelist focusing on WinFS, provides a counter-point.

Just to be clear, Marc Clifton’s MyXaml framework for adding a declarative UI mark-up language to today’s .NET framework is not a clone/sub-set of Microsoft’s XAML or Avalon targeted at Longhorn. In other words, while MyXaml provides a number of the benefits of declarative UI mark-up for building smart/rich clients today, MyXaml is not a way to write WinForms code today that will seamlessly turn into Avalon code tomorrow.

The reason I mention this is because I’ve seen some folks get a bit confused by the use of “Xaml” in the name (Marc is using XAML as the generic Extensible Application Mark-up Language and not as related to Microsoft’s XAML).

On the other hand, there are two other projects that are aiming to clone/sub-set XAML/Avalon on .NET today: Xamlon and Mobiform’s XAML products. I can’t claim that either of these will actually help you transition to Longhorn when it comes along, but I know that Xamlon’s XAML samples work with minor tweaks on their parser and on the WinHEC build of Longhorn.

Jason Zander, a Microsoft Product Unit Manager, not only points out the implementation problems we have with being able to unload .NET assemblies, he recommends AppDomains as the solution you really want anyway. And then, when his commentors dissent, he’s right back in there asking for more information.

Have you got opinions on this topic? Make hay while the sun shines!

Ian posted a fun little snippet of XAML showing off the new support for image effects on anything that Avalon renders, not just images:

<FlowPanel xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/2003/xaml”
  xmlns:def=“Definition” Text.FontSize=“24″>
  <Text>This seems clear enough.</Text>
  <Text>
    <Text.ImageEffect>
      <ImageEffectBlur Radius=“3”/>
    </Text.ImageEffect>
    This is considerably less clear.
  </Text>
</FlowPanel>

I’ve rewritten it using a more compact syntax:

<Text ImageEffect=“*ImageEffectBlur(Radius=3)“>
This is considerably less clear.
</Text>

1. For 1 free UUID, is this legal XAML? Why or why not?
2. For 2 free UUIDs, what other popular XAML construct uses the exact same syntax?
3. For 3 free UUIDs, what popular C# construct has a similar syntax? How is it subtly different? (Hint: I’m not showing the difference in this example.)

We’ve got answers.

If the reality is anything like the concept videos, I want it!

Wei-Meng Lee takes a first look at the WinHEC build of Longhorn for O'Reilly. It's a user-centric look at Longhorn, but I learned stuff. : )