Gervase Markham is attending XTech, an XML focused conference in Amsterdam. He attended my talk on Avalon/XAML and had some comments. In this post, I'll address the first of his three comments.
Avalon’s Motivation
Gervase said:
“The motivation behind XAML seems to be to make it easy to write Windows applications, or web applications in IE.”
Our goal is not JUST to make it easier to build today’s applications...I'll try to clarify. Avalon will:
1) Be the new presentation platform for Windows
We are building a new presentation platform for Windows that enables a whole new generation of applications. It is called Avalon. It will run on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows “Longhorn”. Today’s Windows applications will continue to run compatibly.
We are working with software developers from around the world to help them build great new applications that can benefit from the new capabilities Avalon offers. Many developers and business people are very excited by what we are building. If we and they do our jobs right, users will be delighted by the applications offered in the future.
2) Empower great design
Windows applications today can be built to do almost anything. Unfortunately, many things require lots of work. Many others are next to impossible. Designers often end up compromising their design due to technical limitations. We’d like to stop that.
3) Be a unified platform
We are building an integrated platform that removes many limitations that today’s platforms have. We want to provide a unified framework with several important building blocks: controls, vector graphics, media, animations, flow documents, fixed documents, and 3d. All of these technologies can work well with each other.
XUL’s Motivation
He also goes on to say:
“The motivation behind XUL was to provide a first class UI on every platform without having to do the work multiple times.”
Hey wait, I thought that was Java’s job.
I believe that Avalon will enable much better user experiences than other frameworks. It will do that while meeting fundamental requirements like accessibility, easy deployment, globalization, performance and security.
We’ll have a platform that developers will enjoy using (due to choice of great programming languages, a declarative model - XAML, ability to use the .NET class library, and a great programming model) and targeting (because of what it enables them to do for their users).
In the end, as always, developers will choose based on the power provided to them and the amount of pain that they must go through to harness it. We’ll continue to work hard to provide more power with less pain.
Does Avalon provide more power with less pain?
Please download our new Beta1 RC (release candidate) from WinFX.com, kick the tires, and tell us how we can add more power or lessen the pain.