Xaml not WPF

Question

I am interested in using Xaml with a blend expression to create user interfaces in an application. However, due to the limitations of the target architecture, I cannot use WPF or C #.

So, I am interested in any examples / existing projects or tips from anyone who has experience with this technology in using Xaml in it. The "clean" form as a specification language, not related to WPF.

Concrete questions:

1) Is it possible to use Blend + Xaml without WPF elements or without C # support classes?

2) Are there any other implementations of Xaml parsers, etc. that use different architectures, and whether they can work with mixing components or similar tools.

3) Are there alternative editor / designer tools that can help in this situation?

I know MyXaml and MycroXaml projects and have found many resources on the Internet about Xaml, but 99% of them are directly related to WPF. This is great for understanding the concepts of Xaml, but does not help in what I need.

Thank you very much!

Answer 1

You have checked the XAML specification. http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/A/6/0A6F7755-9AF5-448B-907D-13985ACCF53E/[MS-XAML†.pdf

XAML 2009 and system.xaml.dll in clr 4.0 will probably become a god for you if you can wait for it.

Here is a PDC presentation. http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL36/

Now that you have said that you cannot use C #, I assume that you cannot use the .net framework? or using Mono. as far as I know, in Mono there are no plans to implement XAML support. Thus, you have to write your own XAML analyzer and object graph.

Of course, if you want to do this, you can wait for the XAML 2009 specification, as it adds significant improvements to the xaml language.

Douglas

Answer 2

Does Silverlight help you anyway? The Eclipse plugin is now available for using Silverlight with eclispe. That way, you can use the Expression blend to develop your user interface and use Java to encode the backend (future plan, I think). Check out this link for more details. http://www.eclipse4sl.org/

Answer 3

I am using the XAML-based XML document as the core of the new AppMaker v3. I am currently parsing it in Ruby to generate various output, including pure XAML / C # WPF applications.

XAML is very easy to parse, especially if you are using the XPath approach:

windows = [] REXML::XPath.each(doc, "//Window") do |xml| windows << Window.new(xml) end #... invoking ... @items = [] xml.each_element("Canvas/*") do |itemXML| @items << WindowItem.makeItem(itemXML) end 

The real problem that we need more information about is the GUI you are trying to create. XAML's explicit Canvas positional layout easily parses and generates some simple Win32 controls and draws. If you get into a constraint-based layout like StackPanel, you'll have to recreate a lot of WPF actions.

Answer 4

If you are not using WPF, then Xaml as its core is no better than XML. Xaml has several flavors, but they essentially complement library functionality. You can use Vanilla Xaml as a base, but then you will essentially have to build a parser that reads it, and then the structure of the code to which it essentially refers. Xaml does not know what a StackPanel is, it essentially sends text data for compilation, regardless of what it knows, this is the part that you are missing, and its rather large part.