Here. Ouch. I resemble that remark...

Mobiform is one of two 3rd party vendors that have been building a XAML parser that runs under the current version of .NET. Today, Mobiform went one better by releasing a working preview of an interactive XAML Editor that runs under the current version of .NET. Plus, the XAML that I created in the editor works on the PDC Longhorn bits.

Now there’s something other than the 101-Key Text Wizard to use when designing XAML for Longhorn. Mind you, what Mobiform has put together isn’t Illustrator or even Paint Brush yet, but it’s an amazing start.

Normally I like to consume something before I recommend it, but his stuff is always so good that I’m going to point out Ian’s new piece on graphical composition in Avalon before I’ve even read it. Here’s the conclusion to whet your appetite:

“The new composition model in Avalon removes many of the visual design constraints that applied to most Win32 applications. It also improves performance by making more effective use of modern graphics cards, reducing the frequency with which the OS has to call the application back to keep the display up to date, and enabling a much higher quality of user interface.”

Enjoy.

Love markup but can’t wait for Longhorn/Avalon/XAML? Check out Joe Stegman’s WFML (Windows Forms Markup Language).

[via Chris Anderson]

I know that I'm no longer untainted because I work in the big house, but I just don’t get this. Do developers really want to build the same thing over and over, project to project, app to app or do they want to spend their time building cool, new stuff? Is .NET or Whidbey or Longhorn any different from continuing the foundation that we've built before? Does anyone really miss building their own file system or declarative content flow or toolbar? Will anyone miss building their own animation, object serialization or secure communications framework? I mean, building these infrastructure pieces is fun, but even more fun is pulling these pieces together to build something that’s never been built before.

Jeremy Mazner has posted another in his series of compelling WinFS scenarios. Personally, this is one of my favorite, simply because it talks about the massive developer benefits of having an object-based stored built into the OS.

The slides from the European tour showing off Longhorn are available on codezone.info. The usual topics are covered, i.e. Avalon, Indigo, WinFS, as well as an overview of Whidbey and a keynote from David Chappell on the foundations of creativity. I wish the vocals were up, too, but the slides are informative all by themselves.

I have never really understood the machinations that you have to go through to enable SSL, but Scot Gellock has posted a script to simplify part of it, i.e. getting the certificate. And he does it with freely available tools, which is always a nice bonus. : )