I have a code review on Monday

**ElNono** · 04-23-2013

XAML is pretty much a ripoff of SVG. Just as C# is just a ripoff of Java. Or maybe just heavily influenced.

With Win8, I really can't tell where MS is headed with their development platform.

The problem with XAML, IMO, is that's a little monster. It has, as you said, a lot of SVG stuff, but also some of HTML and then they took all their controls and stuffed it in there too.

Copying a template for a simple button is this long turd of XML, with hordes of visual states and a third of the is either poorly do ented or not do ented at all.

I suspect Blend was supposed to make all of this easier by making it 'visual', but it simply moved the turd from a text view to a tree view.

Originally Posted by DarrinS

Some parts of the language are pretty dumb, but I have to admit, it is very readable. Also, LINQ is very powerful.

Do you use LINQ that much outside of the type converters?

**DarrinS** · 04-23-2013

Originally Posted by ElNono

The problem with XAML, IMO, is that's a little monster. It has, as you said, a lot of SVG stuff, but also some of HTML and then they took all their controls and stuffed it in there too.

Copying a template for a simple button is this long turd of XML, with hordes of visual states and a third of the is either poorly do ented or not do ented at all.

I suspect Blend was supposed to make all of this easier by making it 'visual', but it simply moved the turd from a text view to a tree view.

I suppose it's like any markup language. If you put all the styles inline, and don't use something like CSS, it can get pretty nasty. I tend to make my xaml very simple and let others to the "styling".

Originally Posted by ElNono

Do you use LINQ that much outside of the type converters?

You can do a lot of stuff with arrays using LINQ like set operations. The cool thing is, it is very generic and will on arrays of all types (even arrays of your own objects). The LINQ syntax takes some getting used to.

**ElNono** · 04-23-2013

Originally Posted by DarrinS

I suppose it's like any markup language. If you put all the styles inline, and don't use something like CSS, it can get pretty nasty. I tend to make my xaml very simple and let others to the "styling".

I do keep separate XAML files. It's still nasty, IMO. Good for you that you can drop off the styling to somebody else. No such luck here.

Originally Posted by DarrinS

You can do a lot of stuff with arrays using LINQ like set operations. The cool thing is, it is very generic and will on arrays of all types (even arrays of your own objects). The LINQ syntax takes some getting used to.

That's what I noticed. This current project uses a sqlite backend, so we let the DB do all the filtering for us, and don't have to muck much with arrays at all. Outside of the syntax, it's pretty similar to NSPredicate on iOS/Cocoa.