http://www.silverlightshow.net/ Silverlight articles, Silverlight tutorials, Silverlight videos, Silverlight samples SilverlightShow.net http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Argotic Syndication Framework 2008.0.2.0, http://www.codeplex.com/Argotic en-US estoychev@completit.com (Emil Stoychev) <p>Ribbons are fine, once you get used to them. To that extent, the changes in the Windows Explorer are welcome.</p> <p>What bugs me is the limited functionalities of the Internet Explorer in the Metro interface. It should have the same functionalities as those of the Internet Explorer in the Desktop interface.</p> <p>The fact that Metro interface has been designed keeping essentially the touch-screen capability in view so as to be compatible with a tablet, but works well with a laptop with no touch-screen hardware is good.</p> <p>I  think keeping an app in a suspended state when switching to another is a good idea on Windows phones, in which the processors are less powerful and the available memory is limited, but replicating it on laptops where multi-tasking  and running an application in the background is the norm, may not be a welcome feature, even though, if I understand correctly, this would happen only in the Metro mode.</p> <p><br /> </p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment8756 shamimhalim http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Thu, 27 Dec 2012 08:03:00 GMT <p>Perhaps in 4-6 years, the time it took for Vista to become Win7, these SDKs will be robust for Win8 application development.  However what happens during this period?  Silverlight is a GREAT product and perhaps one of the best things to come out of Microsoft.  Based on the diagrams shown XAML will be only for Metro style apps.  What about other platforms?  So we will never be able to develop something which works on an iOS device and Windows system?  Forcing the entire MS dev world into a forced Metro-or-nothing-dev environment will guarantee a major loss of followers to the Microsoft development environments and platform.  Silverlight is a powerhouse platform being used for major and sizable 3D applications for the enterprise.  How in the world is HTML5, which is still an alphabet soup mess, along with future yet-to-be-released-ideas about XAML, going to replace this?  It all great to discuss how Microsoft intends to cut off its legs to compete in the mobile tablet and phone world with new SDKs, but I think a good hard look needs to be given to who at Microsoft decided not to support Silverlight.  Clearly this was a fully political decision and not one based on how well received Silverlight was and how heavily it is now being used.  Of course the news media loved pitting it against Flash, which only increased the internal politics within Microsoft.  Yet it was not created as such and was never intended to replace a light-weight-plugin.  Silverlight is a fully functional abstract run-time which can run highly complex applications.  Flash/ActionScript/Flex were poor attempts which never really made it away from banner ads and simple video playback.   It had no chance of becoming a language of choice for application developers.  BTW, Silverlight was build from the start to work on ARM systems.  Rember v2.0 running on pre-Intel Macs?  At least Silverlight 5 should be released for ARM tablets.  Otherwise Microsoft is releasing yet another hardware platform without serious cross platform tools to address the market who wants to focus on development and not on bleeding edge HTML/Javascript/JQuery app development.  These have proven time and again to cost more money, take longer to test and eventually can't scale to larger development teams due to how scripting techniques being so personalized.  I understand not putting as much effort behind Silverlight 5 moving forward, after all it is relatively feature-complete, but it should be supported on all platforms from day one and a small group at Microsoft should continue providing updates and releases.  Why not add Metro style capabilities into Silverlight?  </p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment8081 NilsLahr http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Mon, 21 May 2012 20:22:48 GMT A well written, interesting article. Well done! http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7742 RoyBerger http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Thu, 29 Mar 2012 06:16:36 GMT <p>@styx Although I understand about people being wary of metro IE10 not running plugins and that it will take time for people that have developed plug-in based sites to either re-write or create a plugin free site.  I understand that a lot of people (myself included) would rather not write javascript code for a LOB app, but should someone that is a wizard at javascript and html be shunned just because of their choice of language?</p> <p>Why should you be happy with your site/app being a second class citizen that runs in a browser when you could turn it into a first class citizen with a live tile, a search provider and potentially more? Sites like YouTube will most likely have an app with a live tile that will sit there on the start screen and provide searchability through the windows search mechanism.</p> <p>Imagine being a purchaser who is required to order equipment and rather than having to open a browser and navigate to a site you often purchase from just typing in what you're looking for in windows search and because you have that companies app installed it feeds you a deep link into that app which you can just click and off you go into the app at the right page/item. Not only would you be able to do this on your pc at the office but also on the move with a tablet/laptop.</p> <p>It seems to me that Microsoft is envisaging a new way for users to interact with the web/applications and for applications to interact with the users. With change there is always a learning experience, there will be people that don't like it because it's not what they're used to but inevitably it happens.</p> <p>Just my ten cents worth.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7463 Giftednewt http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:57:10 GMT <p>@styx IE10 does support plugins just like any other popular broswer.</p> <p>It's only the Metro version of IE10 which does not. Which makes sence when using a device where battery life is important, no one wants a plugin like Silverlight or Flash wasting power. Other mobile broswers, like on the iPhone/iPad, went this way was well.</p> <p>But where Win8 is great, is we'll still have the choice to switch to the desktop version of IE, if our device supports it.</p> <p> </p> <p>Love it or hate it (I'm not a fan of Javascript eaither). Javascript has been adopted as the standard for rich internet applications.</p> <p>If a device supports the desktop mode, i'm guessing it all depends on the manufacture and what hardware/chip they are using. In the end we will have the choice on what device we want to buy.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7415 MichaelSchaeffers http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:03:15 GMT OPEN http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7413 jaypee http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:11:10 GMT <p>OK, so PC users can get back to the classic desktop and run Silverlight in that context. But the classic desktop doesn't make as much sense for a touch-only tablet device. Will the classic desktop be available on all Windows 8 tablet devices as well? (Because it sure feels like this chimera desktop is likely to get axed on some devices).</p> <p>Put differently - could you please confirm whether Silverlight be able to run on touch-only tablet devices? Or is it PCs only. Thanks.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7409 paylett http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:50:25 GMT <p>But to get back to the articles real topic. I have to ask why they would consider releasing a web browser that doesnt support plugins. The most popular websites all use plugins, anything claiming to be multimedia needs to. If Joe Public has to keep switching to desktop mode before he can look at youtube, why would he bother with the metro interface at all?</p> <p>Delay the launch, develop an interface for WinRT that the plugin developers can use, then carry on when you have an os that isnt a huge step backwards. And while they're at it, they should find whoever thought going back to javascript *shudder* was a good idea and slap him silly.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7406 styx http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:54:05 GMT <p>@mdonatas</p> <p>I <em>loathe</em> fact that they're context sensitive. It means your options are constantly moving around. It makes it much harder to find a command because not only do you have to hunt through the random different sized buttons interspersed with submenus but you have to repeat the exercise several times with different contexts. "Why can't I find my command? Ah, its because I've got an object selected instead of clicking on the background. How was I supposed to know that?"</p> <p>Neatly ordered menus, where the names of the commands are vertically aligned for easy visibility, along with the fact that an option is greyed out as a cue that you need to change selection, is a much more userfriendly interface.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7405 styx http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Sat, 14 Jan 2012 13:49:22 GMT <p>@styx and stones</p> <p>It took some time to get used to the Ribbon but in the end it's a lot better than menus. Commands are easier discoverable and I like that it's context sensitive too (especially in Word when working with tables).</p> <p>For me it was a shame that Outlook 2007 wasn't given a ribbon and now I'm loving Outlook 2010.</p> <p>You could share some details as to what you don't like about the ribbon.. or is it that you are just stubborn and reject anything that's new?</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7404 mdonatas http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:56:07 GMT <p>Thanks for the good info Gill.<br /> I understand, suppose Fsharp's emphasis is along another track (server/cloud side computation maybe), but did you hear anything about Fsharp at Build?</p> <p> </p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7400 Art Scott http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:38:41 GMT <p>In the early 90's we had touch screens on high-end Xerox copiers. But when Xerox added electronic scanners and editing functionality, everyone forgot about the touch-screen and started using the mouse instead. </p> <p>Basically, the reason was that the buttons started getting too small as more and more functionality was added to the screen. I reckon this is where Microsoft is coming from - the touchscreen is ideally suited to a certain type of application (e.g. browsing) but not at all suited to many mainstream business apps. </p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7396 robdbooth http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:14:50 GMT <p>@styx I neither like nor dislike the ribbon.</p> <p>For the normal user they are much better than plain old menuitems.<br /> I have transisioned to ribbons on our inhouse app, and the users like them a lot.<br /> For the poweruser, they offer the same functionality, so what is all the fuss about?</p> <p> </p> <p>Great article, Gill, following the visug session of last year I attended.<br /> Looking forward to upcoming articles.</p> <p>Oh, and happy newyear ;o)</p> <p></p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7368 sting http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:48:34 GMT Great article; it's nice to see a voice of reason amidst all the hysterics going on. I guess some people enjoy drama and playing the martyr too much to be bothered with the facts. http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7363 ckapilla http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:45:53 GMT <p>Yes, we get the 'terrific' interface that failed on phones, will fail on tablets, and will be only used to activate the desktop view.  And any browser that does not support plug-ins (Safari anyone?) is useless IMHO as well.</p> <p>Styx : You are not the only ribbon hater out there.  Guess I'm in your part of the world as well.  I quit using office and went to OpenOffice just to avoid the ribbons.  If you look up useless in the dictionary you see a picture of a ribbon toolbar next to it.</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7362 stones http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Tue, 03 Jan 2012 18:32:36 GMT <p>Yet again, news about windows 8 fills me with despair. As if the return of javascript from what we all hoped was its grave wasnt bad enough, now we've got this ridiculous bifurcation of the entire platform. A web browser that doesnt support <strong>any </strong>plugins? What on earth is the point?</p> <p>And just to rub salt in the wound, now I find out that we're going to have damn ribbon bars rammed down our throats outside of office too. I don't know anyone who will admit to liking ribbon bars, surely I cant be sat perfectly in the middle of the only ribbonbar-hating part of the world?</p> http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx#comment7361 styx http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Windows-8-and-the-future-of-XAML-Part-1-An-overview-of-the-Windows-8-platform.aspx Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:07:46 GMT