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Hi,
Allow me to repost my XUL News Wire story titled
"XAML In Action: A Closer Look At Microsoft's XUL
Rip-Off" online @
http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lang.xul.announce/127
In true style Microsoft hypes up XUL as the greatest
experiment since - now I'm not making it up - Adam and
Eve.
Yeah, you read that right. With XUL Microsoft now
challenges God itself with the creation of an
alternative Windows universe.
Charles Petzold writes in the article titled "Code
Name Avalon: Create Real Apps Using New Code and
Markup Model" published in the Redhell Apostle
(formerly known as Microsoft Developer's Magazine):
For thousands of years, philosophers and scientists
have attempted to explain the cosmos in terms of dual
opposing but coexistent principles: good and evil, yin
and yang, matter and energy, mind and body, waves and
particles, and, of course, programming code and markup
languages.
Programming and markup currently coexist in an
uneasy truce. In theory, programming languages can do
anything the computer is capable of, but they're often
clunky for the job of laying out text, images, and
controls in a simple visual interface. Markup is great
for defining highly textured pages of text and images
that adapt to different screen sizes and environments,
but is hopelessly inept when it comes time to interact
with the user in any nontrivial way.
In creating a new programming interface for building
Windows client applications, the developers at
Microsoft have decided not to deny this dualism, but
to embrace and celebrate it. They have created an
environment in which programming and markup boldly and
intricately mesh in mutually supporting roles. The
result—the presentation subsystem code-named
"Avalon"—may well be the greatest experiment in
synergistic duality since Adam and Eve. Vive la
différence!
Now let's look what a button looks like in the
"revolutionary" Microsoft XAML thingy:
<Button Background="LightSeaGreen" FontSize="24pt">
Calculate
</Button>
Whow. Compared to the XUL version:
<button label="Calculate" style="background:
lightSeaGreen; font-size: 24pt" />
This is truly revolutionary and a bold step for
mankind.
Charles concludes:
The most recent Win32 API version of this program
(called COLORS1 in the fifth edition of Programming
Windows) is 250 lines long. The Windows Forms version
in Programming Microsoft Windows with C# is about 100
lines. This new version is only about 60 lines long,
and I'm pretty sure that it can be pruned even more by
using inheritance. From 250 lines to 100 and now 60.
And that, my friends, is what is commonly called
progress.
Avalon and XAML represent a departure from Windows
application programming of the past. In many ways,
designing your application's UI will be easier than it
used to be and deploying it will be a snap. With a
lightweight XAML markup for UI definition,
Longhorn-based applications are the obvious next step
in the convergence of the Web and desktop programming
models, combining the best of both approaches.
Amen.
Full story @
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/04/01/Avalon/default.aspx
Any comments?
- Gerald
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