Don, > XAML - Extensible Application Markup Language. It is a > markup language that can be used to express ANY .Net object. > I highlight ANY, since it is not just for the new .Net based > graphics API known as Avalon. You will be able to use XAML > to create your own Domain Specific Languages (aka DSL), that > is as long as you wrote your Domain Objects in .Net (version ?).
I'm glad you brought this up ;). XAML is often described as a 'declarative' language, but really all that is happening is that--as you say--you can create your UI (Avalon) objects using XML instead of some other language. But so far, I have seen no further layer of abstraction. An example of an 'abstraction' might be an XForms input control that has a run-time manifestation that uses either SVG or VoiceXML. Which language is actually used to instantiate the widget has no effect on the original application source code. Think Grease Monkey and Aspect Programmings' love-child. Some more illustrations of declarative mark-up--for those who might be interested!--can be found in a paper I presented at a W3C conference on the subject of Web Applications: <http://www.w3.org/2004/04/webapps-cdf-ws/papers/webapps-workshop-standards- based-vm.pdf> XAML on the other hand would use XML mark-up to create an Avalon-based input box, initialise it with values, give it styling, and so on. But despite the angle brackets, it would still be a procedural paradigm. (And need to be converted to C#.) So, despite its name, XAML is not an 'extensible' language for writing applications; it gets the 'extensible' in its name from XML. Whilst many on this list seem to be 'scared' of Avalon and wondering about the future of SVG, I would say that the most important question is not about what vector graphics language you use to produce your UI, but what programming language you use to produce your applications. Languages such as XAML are not really 'the future', but actually the tail end of our current array of procedural languages; XAML+.NET objects+Avalon is not a patch on XHTML+XBL+XForms+SVG. So, SVG could have an important role in the future, but only as part of a bigger story, taking its place within more powerful--and yes, abstract--languages. It certainly does *not* have a future as an application development language on its own--with or without sockets. Anyone who wants to read more on XAML and its relation to CSS, XForms, SVG and the need for new programming paradigms, might find my blog from last August -- "The Long Haul to Longhorn" -- of interest: <http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_internet-apps_archive.html> Regards, Mark Mark Birbeck CEO x-port.net Ltd. e: [EMAIL PROTECTED] t: +44 (0) 20 7689 9232 w: http://www.formsPlayer.com/ b: http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/ Download our XForms processor from http://www.formsPlayer.com/ ----- To unsubscribe send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -or- visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers and click "edit my membership" ---- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/svg-developers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
