I am not going to touch the topic of "Do designers do things so differently that have to have need a different shell/operating system etc"....
But from what I understand Visual Studio is not the easiest Shell in the world to extend/ integrate with and Blend is the first client to use a new extensible shell created at Microsoft Where are we going with it? Who else is going to use it? -No idea. What is my preference? One shell/one paradigm and simply additional functionality based on additional roles/tasks. Joseph asked the rhetorical question: "Would you like an IDE that was forked off adobe illustrator?" If it gave me all the functionality in the way I wanted to use it I don't think I would care if it was forked off of notepad<g> Which of course begs the same question for other business in Microsoft - Like why doesn't Office have: file new > Spreadsheet or Document or Email or Presentation.... Or better yet, alter the experience based on what I am trying to do i.e. if I am writing a letter and added a table change the experience to that of a spreadsheet. ( I believe some smart company referred to this as being "document centric" <vbg>) (Shane could probably tell me why I really don't want this<g>) -So I guess I am siding with Nick in principle -Chuck From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nick Randolph Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 12:54 PM To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 You mean idioms such as not being able to dock windows like in Expression? The thing about VS is that it can be skinned to look/work just as the Expression tools work today and yet still giving you the full platform capabilities of VS. It's not about trying to get designers to work in a dev tool - VS has been extended to be much more than a simple dev tool, as illustrated by SSMS (which is based on the same shell). I understand that designers work in a different way and I'm not asking them too. I just find it frustrating that MS has gone down the path of releasing a tool that is missing basic "platform" features such as window docking etc because they wanted to appeal to a different market and a team didn't understand the direction that VS was going. Nick Randolph M: +61 412 413 425 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Joseph Cooney Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 10:50 AM To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 I don't agree Nick. I think designers are probably used to lots of different idioms and behaviour in their applications that are different to Visual Studio. By making blend a SKU of VS you're asking those people to conform to the developer way of thinking (or not use the product). Would you like an IDE that was forked off adobe illustrator? Joseph From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nick Randolph Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 12:13 PM To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 Shane As a long time user of VS I don't agree. I think that Expression should just represent another sku of Visual Studio. The way that the VS shell has evolved over time has been specifically designed for this purpose - to the point where you could almost get the same "black" look as the current Expression tools while still having it based on the VS shell. Nick Randolph M: +61 412 413 425 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Shane Morris Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 10:05 AM To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 I too think we can expect more and more 'leaking' of features between VS and Expression. But I hope the products do not end up merging. Speaking as a user interface designer, it would be very hard to mash together all the features of Blend and the many, many features of VS along with the two very different UI styles. Not enough 'control surface' (as we say in the trade - i.e. realestate) to accommodate both in the one app, IMO. Shane From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Glavich Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 11:44 AM To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 I think the reality is that a majority of development in Silverlight will be done by devs and so will necessitate a combination of both (eg. create in blend, modify is VS, go back and do an anim in blend, go back and modify in VS). I find myself doing just that all the time, and again, I think that situation will be the majority. In some uber cool dev shops, the designer types will use blend only, and perform a "dismount" of the design onto the devs who will happily code away, culminating in a visual feast of an application, I just think that it will be a small subset of users and Microsoft working towards that ideal is simply delaying the inevitable. Having said that, I dont see the 2 merging in any short timeframe so thats the way it will be I guess. I think we will see some features from both creep their way in until some happy joining of the two and in a way, it will probably result in a better overall product, just a little longer in timeframe than I would hope. - Paul Glavich ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bec Carter [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 11:28 AM To: listserver@ozsilverlight.com Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 I try to wear both hats too... but the designer half of my brain hurts when I try to use it. :S ________________________________ Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 08:40:10 +0800 From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: listserver@ozsilverlight.com Subject: Re: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 I don't like that. I know the Expression suit is targeted at designers, but I'm a developer who is trying to use Blend for the visual stuff. Not having Intellisense discourages me from using it. One nice thing though it seems the latest Preview of Blend 2 (Sept) can now render the XAML in my projects again. Not sure why but was getting render errors both in Cider and Blend. Something in there it didn't like but now its OK again. I can see why there is tool separation but Designers and Developers are not always separated. I wear both hats so why can't my software? There is a VS for developers, database guys, testers, and architechs... Why not designers? I think all of the Expression suite could be integrated into the Visual studio suite. One app to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them. cheers, Stephen On 10/3/07, Damian Edwards <[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> wrote: Blend 2 still doesn't have any intellisense of any sort, XAML or Javascript. That is strictly the domain of Visual Studio. Not sure I agree with that idea but that's the way it is. I guess you could use one of the Express editions of Visual Studio to get free IntelliSense for your Silverlight projects, but basically Blend is for designing only, no code. Regards, Damian Edwards Readify | Senior Developer M: 0448 545 868 | E: [EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | C: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | W: www.readify.net<http://www.readify.net/> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>] On Behalf Of Bec Carter Sent: Wednesday, 3 October 2007 08:26 To: listserver@ozsilverlight.com<mailto:listserver@ozsilverlight.com> Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 Well I have the full license for Blend 1, so... Can you possibly tell me what cool features Blend 2 preview has? Javascript Intellisense for Silverlight 1.0 projects? It may be argued that the coding should be left to Visual Studio I guess (and Orcas does have the Intellisense as you know), but a lot of the graphical effects need some sort of code anyway, and so I'd expect Intellisense to be available in Blend. ________________________________ From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: listserver@ozSilverlight.com<mailto:listserver@ozSilverlight.com> Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 16:05:51 +0800 Subject: RE: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 Not that I know of. You could possibly make the project first in VS and then open it in Blend1? But it's not for me to make claims about VS so I'll leave that to others... In any case Blend 2 preview is free, so do you have a particular need to use Blend 1? Shane From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>] On Behalf Of Bec Carter Sent: Tuesday, 2 October 2007 1:28 PM To: listserver@ozsilverlight.com<mailto:listserver@ozsilverlight.com> Subject: [OzSilverlight] Expression Blend 1 Is there a Silverlight 1.0 project template available for Expression Blend 1? ________________________________ Enter here. Win tix to see Crowded House live at the Greek Theatre, LA!<http://ninemsn.com.au/share/redir/adTrack.asp?mode=click&clientID=800&referral=windowslivehotmailtagline&URL=http://music.ninemsn.com.au/crowdedhouse> ------------------------------------------------------------------- OzSilverlight.com - to unsubscribe from this list, send a message back to the list with 'unsubscribe' as the subject. 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