Gerald asked: Is XML too hard for mere mortals? Looking at it from the XAML perspective (and the MyXaml perspective at that), I think one has to look at the issue holistically regardless of whether coding in XML or another style. It's not that it's too hard but that it doesn't have all the conveniences of directly coding in C, C#, C++, or whatever.
I hope I'm not mixing apples and oranges here, but one of the factors that makes XML unattractive as the native coding format for a UI is that it's not user friendly. I'm actually looking at this in the MyXaml Designer--for example, if I start of with a tag like: <ComboBox... I'd like a popup that shows me the attributes with auto-completion and help. As it is right now, I have a barely functional designer and I need a reference document open all the time so I can look up properties for the different controls. It's not a very efficient work mode. If the programmer saw that the "usability" of programming directly in xml was as good, if not better, than writing native code in an IDE, then I think it would be accepted as easily as any other programming language. As to non-XML syntax alternatives, I much prefer the xml. Anything else adds another layer of confusion, IMO. The ".value" syntax just doesn't fly with me. I guess (and this goes back to an earlier discussion), the "modern" programmer expects a few things: Intellisense prompting Popup help Auto completion On-the-fly syntax checking Debugging (yes, complex xml needs to be debugged, IMO) In other words, an IDE to make writing xml usable and promoting xml to a first class citizen in the world of computer languages. That's how I'm planning to address the issue of complexity with xml programming, rather than "dumbing down" the syntax. Does that answer the question to some degree? Marc ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click _______________________________________________ xul-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xul-talk
