Rob Relyea, a Lead PM on the Avalon team, talks about the chief design motivation for XAML, describes the current compound property syntax and then asks if developers would like it to change. Personally, I really like the current compound property syntax, especially given the choices, but Rob doesn't care what I think, he cares what you think. Go tell him.

Dino’s gotten some interesting feedback from his XAML-based articles. Apparently he’s hearing from “real programmers” that don’t want to “recycle themselves as web designers.” This feeling Dino has dubbed “un-programming” and it’s the idea that XAML takes away the need to code.

XAML is most of what’s needed to build trade-show apps, that’s true. But look at your apps today: How much of your web app is HTML and how much is C# or VB.NET? How much of your Windows Forms app is in the InitializeComponent method and how much is code? While XAML can also be used for general-purpose object creation and initialization, as far as the UI of your app is concerned, all XAML does is replace the HTML or InitializeComponent method. The power of what Avalon can do is separate the UI from the code so that trained designers can work on the specifics of the UI, while real developers work on the specifics of handling events and hooking up the business logic and talking to the back-end datastore.

I know that as a Microsoft flunky, the value of my reasoning is now suspect. So don’t listen to me. Listen to Dino:

“XAML is the hot new toy for app developers, and articles inevitably emphasizes that. However, there’s life beyond XAML. And by life here I mean code, managed code, classes, methods, delegates, events and the like. XAML is a shortcut much like ASPX tags in ASP.NET. Believe me, you wouldn’t do much with XAML alone and without smart C# or VB.NET code.

“XAML (and the Longhorn programming style) is not the negation (and let alone the death) of programming.”

Last time, Ryan Dawson posted a fun Avalon sample showing system information using graphics and animation. Today he’s back exploring the use of WinFS to build a tiny CRM app.

Karsten wraps up his book, “Developer Guide to Migration and Interoperability in ‘Longhorn’”, with a chapter on recommendations for preparing to make the best of your Windows Forms code under Longhorn. This chapter includes sample source code.

Karsten Jkdjflksjdf (or however you spell his last name : ) pointed out two excellent security articles today. The first is “Developing Software in Visual Studio .NET with Non-Administrative Privileges.” Longhorn applications are going to run much better assuming fewer privileges, so getting yourself out of the habit of testing and running your own code as an Administrator is something you can do today to prepare for Longhorn tomorrow.

Another excellent article on this topic is from Keith Brown, a DevelopMentor colleague and security arch-Nemesis of mine (he never did like my plan of branding “bad” applications by setting the first bit to 1 instead of 0… : ). Item #7 in Keith’s online book in progress, A .NET Developer’s Guide to Windows Security, is entitled “How to develop code as a non-admin” and well worth the read for the practical advise as well as Keith’s pleasant writing style.

Here.

Oliver Drobnik extracted a question out of a Q&A session with BillG asking about speech recognition in Longhorn. After BillG makes a very funny comment, he talks about the current state of speech recognition and synthesis today and a bit about the plan for Longhorn.

And Oliver? I’d rather not know what you’re planning on commanding your computer to do… : )

Rob Relyea, a Lead PM on the Avalon team, posts some history of XAML as well as a description of how it’s compiled into BAML and then into code. He also talks about CAML, which is used today in the PDC bits, but going away in the future.

I love these kinds of posts (and these kinds of articles) because they provide insight into what the designers of a particular technology had in mind, making it so much easier to learn. Having spent years of my life reverse-engineering the intentions of the COM designers out of the header files (because the docs and marketing materials actually pointed us in the wrong direction), it’s great when the folks behind the technology spill their guts. Thanks Chris and Jeff and Rob (and Mike and Don and the rest of the MS bloggers).

The shell-meister himself, Dino Esposito, digs into the one of the most prominent of the new shell features in Longhorn — the Sidebar — by showing you how to add your own tile, including how to create the flyout and properties views and how to extend the context menu. Sample code included. Enjoy.