Hello, Allow me to highlight Martin Maat's posting about diving into XAML and trying out Xamlon and MyXAML.
Martin writes: For the last couple of days I have been trying to get started with XAML and I am having mixed feelings so far. I first want to share my experiences and then ask a specific question. A couple of months ago I first read about Xamlon and thought it would be worth while to check out. When I was finally ready to do so, having an application in mind, I looked a bit further and found MyXaml and wanted to know the differences upfront in order to make the right choice, not willing to learn both. I learned that Xamlon targeted Longhorn, with the ambition to be as close to the final Longhorn XAML as possible once that would be released. Fine, that was basically what I was after. Then I read about MyXaml, which had some smart-ass author that was critsizing the Avalon team for most everything they were doing on the XAML front. His MyXaml would be much cleaner, better, blah blah, et cetera... Well, it didn't seem unreasonable but since my first aim was to prepare for Longhorn, I chose Xamlon. After a day and a half of sheer agony I removed Xamlon and installed MyXaml after all which, up until now, leaves a far better impression. I will present the biggest drawbacks of Xamlon as I experienced them. "Not to bash you guys, I just want you to do better" (that's what the MyXaml guy says to the Avalon team all the time, I like that approach). - It "messes up" the .NET namepaces, inserting all sorts of extra bits, particularly in System.Windows.Forms. Pretty indiscrete. It installs a ton of assemblies, creating name clashes and ambiguities with existing .NET classes. - It has this wizard/plug-in that sets up your application which is nice, the first time, but then it won't let go. It re-applies that script every time you compile, ruining every modification you made. It has ideas about how to distribute code over files and what to name classes and objects (and files). "You want to change that? Ha! We laugh in your face. We'll take care of that for you! Again and again and again..." Well, not anymore, it's gone now. - it is just not half finished, 0.9 beta 5 is suggesting way more then it delivers. For instance, it inserts pointless C# code like <property> = null; in the initialization section of the form that causes the application to blow up. You have to remove it first. A moment later the line is added again. It doesn't get more annoying than that. - it has some controls which suggest they enable you to embed XAML into your own app. I remember ElementHost. If you use that and work your way against the plug-in grain towards compilation and manage to run the app, it blows up at run-time complaining you need to use some other control first. Oh, by the way, these components are not installed by the installer, I had to browse to them and add them to the toolbox myself. It said something about frames, I tried the frame and it gave me some other error at runtime leaving me guessing what I was doing wrong. Well, don't I read the documentation? Am I just going by trial and error here and expect things to work? Yes, because there is no documentation. It does have shortcuts to what should be on-line documentation but the page is empty. It says something like "coming soon". We have all seen that before. Finally, the de-installer doesn't work. It does take out the assembly registrations from the GAC (good thing!) but the files under Program Files are left untouched. Okay, i can take care of that... Xamlon just did not seem targeted at the developer at all. So I went for MyXaml, the stuff from the smart-ass with the beard and hat standing on top of the Rocky Mountains and I haven't been disappointed yet. Much cleaner, just a number of assemblies all discretely using the MyXaml namespace, well documented with examples and tutorials, no annoyances so far and it has a nice validator (MyLint) that helps you getting your source right. There is one thing that seems to be common among XAML sub-systems though. They all (well, at least the two I looked at) seem to assume that I want to create this application featuring this one main XAML form. That is not what I want. I want to say "This is my container (just a control acting as a parent), this is my XAML, now go ahead and combine them for me". I want to host a piece of XAML in my own application and interact with it. I haven't found a single example doing that, they all start with Form as the outer element. If I replace Form with something else it probably works but it blows up as soon as the control finds it has no parent. Fair enough. But can it be done? It seems such a common application that everybody wants. I may have missed a thing or two, these are just first impressions from a fairly experienced programmer getting his feet wet with XAML. Martin. What's your take? Do you prefer MyXAML over Xamlon? Has anyone tried out Xamlon or MyXAML? What's your experience. Let us know. - Gerald --------------------------- Gerald Bauer Rich Client Conference (RichCon) 2005 - http://richcon.com ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: YOU BE THE JUDGE. Be one of 170 Project Admins to receive an Apple iPod Mini FREE for your judgement on who ports your project to Linux PPC the best. Sponsored by IBM. Deadline: Sept. 24. Go here: http://sf.net/ppc_contest.php _______________________________________________ xul-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xul-talk