Rob Relyea

Starting another blog - WindowsClient.net

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:18:32 GMT

I'm not positive what I'm going to do with this blog, but I'm heavily considering moving most of my blogging over to WindowsClient.net. Just did my first post: Rob start his WindowsClient.net Era - 3rd blogs a charm (http://blogs.windowsclient.net/rob_relyea/archive/2008/02/10/3rd-time-is-a-charm.aspx)

Josh Twist: Xaml Editing with Intellisense with no VS Designer

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:42:43 GMT

I knew you could change the default from WPF Designer to XML Editor (and lose all the intellisense), but I didn't know this tip that Josh shows about Xaml editing in VS...

Visualization of progress for self measurement and public pressure/support

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 14:03:59 GMT

The other day I blogged in "My car runs on oil from a baby seal" that people would be able to conserve gasoline, reduce driving, etc.. better if they could visualize the amount of gallons they used per day (GPD).

Now I tripped over this site that talks about a similar measurement, visualization and motivation technique that Jerry Seinfeld used (and maybe still does).

Me as a Simpsons character & SkyDrive

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:54:04 GMT

Just clicked on the SkyDrive tab on the top of my blog...I decided to test this file sharing service by posting a picture that Kevin Moore made a few months ago of me with an online tool to draw somebody as a Simpsons character:

Skydrive is likely easier for me to share files that others can find than having to mess with RobRelyea.com...

Have your own blog on blogs.windowsclient.net

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:42:27 GMT

WindowsClient.net, is of course, the Windows client technology community website...like asp.net is for ASP.Net developers. Now you can have your own blog there:

Interested in blogging with the WindowsClient.NET community? Well now you can, with your own blog on the site. Read the terms of use and if you agree, click here to sign-up.

Brian Noyes - Databinding in WPF on .Net Rocks TV

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:09:07 GMT

First Adam Nathan on Silverlight, WPF, Popfly...now Brian Noyes digging into Databinding...love it.

Rob Burke - with Objectsharp now

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:20:12 GMT

Glad to see Rob Burke blogging a bit about WPF again! Looks like he has landed in Toronto. Look forward to seeing you @ Mix?

Adam Nathan on .Net Rocks - Popfly, Silverlight, WPF

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:12:17 GMT

Listening to Adam on .Net Rocks now...on Popfly and Silverlight (and a bit of WPF)

In the intro, they mention type converters from System.Windows.Converters...yes, type converters are key to Xaml's ability to convert "strings to things".
Wow, he has learned to love Javascript...
21:20 - discusses using designers for development...

Is Xaml human readable...

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 11:02:05 GMT

Scott Koon thinks not: http://scottkoon.org/2008/02/08/i-still-hate-xaml-though-quo/

Remember, my November 2004 blog post "Our 7 Goals for Xaml" - human readability was one of the goals...not the only goal.

Concise FlowDocument representation in Xml (with converter)

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:59:06 GMT

Interesting seeing an xml format with property elements like "<body.head>" and "<body.content>"...

Here is an example of the xml format that looks like it tries to be an html like representation of a document that is convertable to a flowdocument (from XML to FlowDocument Converter)

The decision – which also applies to cargo services – is significant, said industry watchers yesterday.Although the December 2008 date had been set four years ago, there was no certainty that all members of the 10-nation grouping would agree to free up air travel by then, they said.
Mr Anthony Concil, a spokes man for the International Air Transport Association, a 240-member airline grouping told The Straits Times last night “Clearly, this is a big and con crete step in the right direc tion...What we are seeing is tha Asean has picked up the bal and is moving forward.”

[update: turns out that format is NITF, which I've never looked at, I believe...which the Syndicated Client Experiences Starter Kit uses...funny that they seems to have used a Period in a tagname before Xaml did. Back in 2004 I listed some options we were considering for the syntax of Property Elements]

TechReady, ski holiday, Mix

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:51:23 GMT

Just saw that Laurent Bugnion is about to go on ski holiday...me too. Love the picture! TechReady (internal MS conference), ski @ whistler, Mix with lots of coding/work in between. Should be a fun/crazy next 30 days! Looking forward to sharing some of the things we're doing on the WPF team @ Mix...

My weekly skiing at the local mountain (Snoqualmie pass) has been interrupted the last few weekends due to heavy snow, closed highways (I-90) through the mountain passes, etc... Hope I can ski this Saturday.

WPF, Xaml, Silverlight - mentions in blog posts growing

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 10:38:48 GMT

Love to see the progress on all fronts: http://robrelyea.com/wpf/mentions

WPF likely picked up since more people are seeing VS2008 and trying File/New Project...hey a WPF application! Mix will likely help again...I'm giving a talk or two there...hope to see many of you there...

Dax Pandhi: Realistic UX goals to aim for

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 15:09:25 GMT

Seems like a good start for a developer: Realistic UX goals to aim for

Nukeation Studios reuxables - themes for WPF

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:49:36 GMT

Dax sent me a pointer to Nukeation's first release of Theme Collections for WPF. Check them out...

Saveen Reddy: Visio exporter to Xaml Vectors

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:03:37 GMT

I was excited to see VisioExportToXaml on Codeplex from Saveen Reddy (with credits to Thierry Bouquain and SharpVectors).

Saveen blogs about it in "Updated Add-In for Visio 2007 to Export to Xaml"

Original Visio

XAML rendered in in Expression Blend

"My car runs on oil from a baby seal"

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 11:17:31 GMT

Had a work lunch with a teammate and a few folks from another Microsoft group the other day. I drove the 4 of us to lunch (in my wife's new hybrid). My teammate, contrasting it with my hybrid, said his Porsche "runs on oil from a baby seal." :-)

Gallons per Day (GPD)

My gallons per day interest continues, but Ski season (a 90 mile roundtrip once per week in my SUV to the mountains) has hurt my numbers...I also haven't taken the bus for several weeks... :-( Since October I'm averaging 1.53 gallons per day. My wife is a similar 1.57 gallons per day.

Good idea of the Day - cars which help drivers understand their GPD

Would be great if my car could automatically report to me my gallons per day...the last few days, average performance for the year, etc... In fact, everybody's car should do this - getting the right data in front of people in a grokable fashion is the key to awareness and change.

New Category of Posts - GreenRob

This post and a few of my previous posts are now marked with the "GreenRob" category.

Karl Shifflett - WPF: Expander whose content overlays the page

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:51:36 GMT

Karl explains how to create an "Expander Control With Popup Content" to enable this:

[via Christopheer Steen's Link Listing]

Matthias Shapiro - WPF: Wrapping Text in a ComboBox

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:47:15 GMT

Matthias wrestled with ComboBox in "How Do I Wrap Text In The ComboBox?" to get this scenario to work and shares his solution, which enables:

[via Christopheer Steen's Link Listing] -- (I created a new "WPF - Scenarios with Controls" category to point out things like this...)

Kent Boogaart: Functional and Aesthetic Xaml

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:37:04 GMT

Ran into a comment by Kent on Kevin's post about WCF serialization with Xaml where he pointed toward this "Xaml" post where he discusses Xaml verbosity and separation of concerns into Functional and Aesthetic Xaml.

Kevin Moore: Update to Bag-o-Tricks, WPF Set, and Xaml with WCF

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 12:49:11 GMT

Kevin, o, Kevin. I miss you in these halls of building 10...

But I'm very happy to see you continue your WPF blogging.

Notable posts of late:

Book List: WPF Book List

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:36:11 GMT

WPF Book List

Charles Petzold: 3D Programming for Windows (Pro - Developer)
First book devoted to WPF 3d. Adam Nathan's book has a 53-page chapter on it.
Charles Petzold: Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation
Now shipping. From the author that many people learned Windows Programming from.
Chris Anderson: Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (Microsoft .NET Development Series)
Now released! Chris made a tremendous contribution to WPF as one of its chief architects. What does that perspective show? (I haven't read it yet...). SimpleGeek.com is Chris' blog.
Matthew MacDonald: Pro WPF with VB 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5 (Pro)
First VB focused WPF book!
Matthew MacDonald: Pro WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.0 (Pro)
I met Matthew earlier this year at the MVP summit. Walt had good things to say abot his ASP.NET books. It has been well received.
Chris Sells/Ian Griffiths: Programming WPF
2nd edition now out. Ian and Chris had the first book on WPF back in beta1 or beta2 timeframe. Now, 8 months after WPF has been released, they've now majorly updated and expanded it.
Adam Nathan: WPF Unleashed
Now shipping. Good depth and focus on useful tips focused on common scenarions that aren't as simple as they should be in WPF. Update: very well received by devs.

Custom List: WPF Resources

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 12:30:30 GMT

WPF Resources

WPF Forum on MSDN
Ask your questions to a bunch of WPF geeks (like me).
WPF Bloggers List
For WPF and related teams (by Tim)
Installing .Net 3.0 and Tools
Tim's great list of tools you'll need (plus other useful ones).
WPF SDK
WPF.NetFX3.com
Official WPF Community Site
Tools, Converters, and Controls
Mike Swanson's list
WPF App List
Application list on WPF Wiki. Try out great apps.
WPF Wiki
Xaml Editor List
List of simple xaml editing tools (for wpf and wpf/e) with live preview capabilities.