XAML - What's the point (to print)?

Question

I am currently studying WPF and Silverlight. So far, I have developed in Delphi and C # (Winforms). If you look at some books about WPF and watch some introductory videos on the Internet, I get the impression that this XAML thing is a step backward in terms of efficiency and usability (for the developer). Especially in online video, people happily type in XAML code to create forms and controls, which I thought was a technique that became largely obsolete with the advent of visual form designers, etc. Long. Why do I want to create a button or grid by typing a text view in XAML if I use the form designer much faster? Why enter a color or font name when it selects it much faster from the drop-down list in the property inspector? Are real application GUIs really developed with XAML input ?

I am sure that something is missing here, although I cannot understand that ...

Answer 1

I try to write all my XAML manually, because I have not yet mastered Blend. But some of the other developers I work with love use Blend, and this is great for customizing things like gradients.

I recommend that you download a trial version of Blend and try it, it works great with Visual Studio and will save you a lot of time if you learn how to use it.

Answer 2

This is pretty much the same as writing the original HTML manually rather than using the WYSIWYG editor: having much finer control over the result, without having to go through unnecessary cycles with the editor.

Answer 3

Are real-world GUI applications developed by entering XAML?

In a word, yes. Maybe not so much, but it is definitely happening.

My experience with visual designers is that they typically add unnecessary panels, fixed sizes and absolute positioning, while a more flexible, properly scalable layout is required. For example, check out this recent question on stackoverflow.

Also, if you write custom controls, you often have to do extra work to make them compatible with visual designers, this extra work is not required if you can directly edit xaml.

Answer 4

If you can print XAML, then you understand XAML :) (imho)

The point of knowing how to introduce it is to know how to debug, reorganize and reorganize it. All this cannot be done at present in Expression blend, but for large projects you need everything.

Another issue raised here is that manually writing XAML gives you more control, not as strong a point as with html. XAML has a more structured structure than html and editors like blend expression or others pretty much give the same XAML you write manually, with a few exceptions.

Answer 5

Well, designers tend to use Expression Blend, which is a powerful xaml designer. But yes, I know many developers who edit xaml as text and find it easier than designers.

Answer 6

If you want to use the constructor then get Expression Blend.

You are right, although there should also be some rudimentary designer in VS.

Silverlight, although it came from a different direction, typical controls are a recent thing in silverlight in the early days.

Having said that the developer, I prefer to type XAML in much the same way as I prefer to type HTML. Designers (and the mix are no exception) dump too much extra stuff into the markup that I'd rather not be there.

Answer 7

Once you understand how to use the various panel structures that are part of WPF, writing XAML manually is easier than using a constructor. I find that I can enter controls into the form much faster than with any constructor, and I have more control over how XAML looks and spreads out.

I use only the constructor to sometimes set a property for a control already on the form. And I use Blend for animation since I don't have XAML for this yet.

Answer 8

XAML can be compared to Glade XML, a format for storing graphical interfaces based on GTK +. GTK +, unlike Windows Forms, and like WPF, is actually smart enough to use relative positioning. In Windows Forms, absolute positioning becomes PITA when people start customizing their fonts and your GUI looks like shit with lots of text clipping.

Relative positioning is easy to enter manually, as opposed to absolute positioning, because you do not need to align coordinates!

Answer 9

Because it works better in version control, so can other people change it at the same time without conflict? Because you can develop an entire application in emacs? Because you could write generators and inspectors for this material easily? Because it’s easy to control how this GUI will look for every little thing?

Answer 10

I print it.

I hate nothing more than sloppy, non-deterministic and tight control over the conclusions of designers, be it HTML, be it XAML.

Basically, if I create a XAML file, I do it exactly the way I write each piece of code.

I start by segmenting the entire object into the grid, setting the exact pixel size to EVERYTHING (except for the odd "free floating" space where I put the "*"), deciding what happens, and then adding comments and empty lines to structure the XAML.

In addition, I reject every XAML that does not comply with this standard as “unusable”, which has a very good educational effect.

Negligence and negligence of best practices are deadly sins, and I never tolerated them.