PDC 2005 (RSS)

PDC 2005

PDC to November CTP XAML tool

I was working on some XAML projects from the PDC demo's and was having problems with the PDC XAML misbehaving latest Avalon (WPF) bits.  If you are, try using the "mini-language" fix tool from Adam Smith on the Avalon Team.  It can be found on Karsten Januszewski's blog as part of the code samples. 

Sean

posted Friday, December 02, 2005 5:43 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

Cool XAML node of the day

When I was at the PDC they had a great Hands on Lab for XAML, C# and Ink.  Adding ink ability to a WPF application is super easy.  You just add an InkCanvas element.  Here's the XAML to add ink to your WPF app.  Just cut and paste into XAMLPad.

<Grid>

<InkCanvas Name="inkCanvasArea" Background="LightBlue"/>

</Grid>

 

Strangely enough there's not a XAML example in the MSDN WinFX SDK.  But there is this nugget, a nice "Getting Started with Ink" article where you can find more interesting bits.

 

Enjoy.

posted Friday, September 23, 2005 5:48 PM by Sean Gerety with 2 Comments

XAML Pro's and Con's

One of the things talked about here at the PDC is the User Experience. 

One of the ways to improve your experience is to use 'the technology formerly known as Avalon' now called Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).  So if you're not just going to create all of your UI using flat out C# code, you're going to use XAML.

Here's my list of Pro's and Con's

 

Pro's
  • Advanced Effects are easy
  • Vector based graphics (no more jagged edges as you zoom in)
  • Self documenting for the UI (read the XML)
  • DirectX powered
  • Easy to create custom controls
  • Multiple deployment options (web know as .wba or wuuba's or Winform)
  • 2D and 3D
  • Storyline animations
  • Richer User Experience!
  • Runs on WindowsXP SP2 OS and up.
Con's
  • No Designer Wait - there's Sparkle!
  • YAXL (Yet Another XML Language for people to learn)(Not really an issue)
  • No Datagrid or other Visual Studio type controls(Yet?)
  • Will not run on pre WindowsXP SP2 OS

Sean

posted Thursday, September 15, 2005 1:21 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

At the PDC

Here's my first post from PDC.  The event hall is huge and I"m here at internet alley, which is rows and rows of terminals for everyone to use.  So far I've run into DonXML, Marc Fussell and Pablo Fernicola.  Pablo's got some good pic's of the stage.  It's great seeing Don.  I haven't seen him since I traveled/lived in New York.

And everyone here is tight lipped about all of the cool stuff, until Bill Gates is done with the keynote.  I guess you'll find out when I do!

 

posted Monday, September 12, 2005 8:59 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

PDC - Here we come

Monday we have a whole crew (5 people) shipping out for PDC!  I have to say that the ratio of people going from our dev team is relatively high compared to other folks I've spoken with.  I'm really stoked.  I'll be at the Hilton if anyone wants to meet up and chat about XML, XAML and the presentation platform formerly known as 'Avalon'. 

 

Sean

posted Sunday, September 11, 2005 11:54 AM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

Simple Complexity

One of the promises of Avalon (WPF) and XAML, for me, is of new and beautiful UI's.  Something that I call "Simple Complexity".  What is "Simple Complexity".  It's something you experience everyday.  It could be the smell of a rose; rich, layered, sweet and peppery and at the same time condensed down into a simple experience.  Or the experience of great food, be it Bar-B-Q, Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream or green tea crème brulee.  In that experience each item has many components that boil down to one thing.  It's parts come together into a wonderfully simple single experience.  Now I'm not saying that by using WPF and XAML that people will love your app like Carolina Style Bar-B-Q, unless your secret sauce is a design that is rich, layered, well thought out and tested. 

 

To follow the food metaphor, if you think about how many restaurants are out there and how many fail and how few become superstars (Flay, Seeger, and the like) we're bound to see the same thing happen with new app that use XAML & WPF. 

 

Remember the early days of HTML?  The dreaded Blink and Marquee tags?  How about 23 colors and 17 different fonts on the same page.  Brace yourself, because we're going to see the same thing again.  However the good news is that some folks out there are going to get it right. 

 

Do you need a starting point?  Check out what's being done in Vista and Tiger.  And emulate them.

 

posted Friday, August 05, 2005 3:47 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

New PDC XAML Flair

I've created some new PDC Flair with something that you'll actually see at PDC.  Avalon and XAML.  Since that's what I'm interested in seeing and promoting, I created mine out of XAML.  And I also want to create a round grid.  First here's the flair image.

XAML PDC Flair

 

To use this flair just copy and paste:

<a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc/pdcfriends.aspx"><img src="http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/photos/metablog/images/131255/original.aspx" border="0" alt="PDC'05 - Developer Powered" /></a>

And here's the Flair XAML.  You can either toss this in AvPad.  Or create an Express application in VS.NET 2005 and replace everything except the top Page tag.  You will need to add the Height attribute to the Page tag (This keeps the grid round by constraining the page size).  If there's any questions as to why I did what just post them in the comments.

<Page

xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/avalon/2005"

xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/xaml/2005"

Height="200">

<Border HorizontalAlignment="Center" BorderBrush="HorizontalGradient #6daae9 #3367bd" Background="LinearGradient 0.1,0.1 0.97,0.99 #3367bd #eee" BorderThickness="5" CornerRadius="180" Padding="15" Margin="10">

<Grid ShowGridLines="False">

<Grid.Resources>

<Style TargetType="{x:Type ColumnDefinition}">

<Setter Property="Width" Value="Auto" />

Style>

<Style TargetType="{x:Type RowDefinition}">

<Setter Property="Height" Value="Auto" />

Style>

<Style TargetType="{x:Type TextBlock}">

<Setter Property="FontFamily" Value="Palatino" />

<Setter Property="FontSize" Value="21" />

<Setter Property="TextBlock.Foreground" Value="#ececec" />

<Setter Property="LineHeight" Value="20" />

Style>

<Style x:Key="oldNumeralStyle">

<Setter Property="TextBlock.FontFamily" Value="Seven Monkey Fury BB" />

<Setter Property="TextBlock.Foreground" Value="#323232" />

<Setter Property="TextBlock.FontSize" Value="21" />

<Setter Property="TextBlock.TextAlignment" Value="Right" />

Style>

Grid.Resources>

<ColumnDefinition Width="20" />

<ColumnDefinition />

<ColumnDefinition />

<ColumnDefinition />

<ColumnDefinition />

<ColumnDefinition />

<RowDefinition Height="20" />

<RowDefinition />

<RowDefinition />

<RowDefinition />

<TextBlock RenderTransform="rotate 45" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Grid.Column="3" Grid.Row="4" Style="{StaticResource oldNumeralStyle}">PDC 05TextBlock>

<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="5">AvalonTextBlock>

<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="0">XTextBlock>

<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="2">MTextBlock>

<TextBlock Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="3">LTextBlock>

Grid>

Border>

Page>
posted Tuesday, July 12, 2005 4:59 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments

My PDC 2005 Flair

Here's my bit of flair for the PDC.  Generated from http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

 

PDC'05 - Developer Powered

 

Just paste the following to your site:

<a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc/pdcfriends.aspx"><img src="http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/images/dotnetjunkies_com/metablog/328/r_churchsign.jpg" border="0" alt="PDC'05 - Developer Powered" /></a>

 

posted Monday, June 27, 2005 7:05 PM by Sean Gerety with 0 Comments