MIX

MIX conference in Las Vegas

MVVM Light V4 preview 3 (BL16, MIX11 edition!!) #mvvmlight

At MIX11, I am releasing a new preview of MVVM Light version 4. This new preview contains one small change and one large change. ObservableObject replaces NotifyPropertyChanged In the previous preview, I introduced a new class named NotifyPropertyChanged. However, I got a few suggestions to rename this class to ObservableObject, which is indeed a better name. In BL16, NotifyPropertyChanged was deleted and replaced by ObservableObject. Nothing else changes, just the name. ObservableObject is a very ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, April 14, 2011 4:16 PM | Comments (6)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (1)

The keynote is transmitted live at http://tinyurl.com/2x63xc
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:08 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08 Keynote (9)

Scott Guthrie about Silverlight Silverlight controls developedby MSFT are shipped as Open Source! Devigner role officially mentioned in ScottGu's slides! Yes I do exist! Show off new SL 2 applications AOL Builds new AOL email client using Silverlight. Using IsolatedStorage much faster and more advanced than using the browser cache. Scott Guthrie Enable user experience that doesn't exist today. Deep zoom. Based on research project. Navigates through very large images by downloading only portions of ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:18 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08 Keynote (8)

Scott Guthrie: Silverlight 2 features: Cross browser cross platform version of .NET Multi language support WPF UI framework (as a subset). Use controls, layout management. Databinding support Skinning, styling Animation support Networking (REST, SOAP, etc...) Built in support for Sockets Integrated data support, including LINQ Local cache store High performance Small download, fast install(4.3 MB download all inclusive) Linux implementation of SL2 available. Includes Calendar control, Datagrid control... ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:03 AM | Comments (0)

Deep Dive MVVM samples #mix11 #deepdivemvvm

Here is the sample code I demoed in my MIX11 session “Deep Dive MVVM”. Please download the Zip file, and then unblock it in Windows Explorer by right-clicking it, and then selecting Properties. If you see an “Unblock” button, please click it. You can then extract the content of the Zip file on your hard drive. The slides are also available for download. Last year’s session To fully understand this session, an understanding of what MVVM is should be available. I recommend the following links: “Understanding ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, April 13, 2011 3:04 PM | Comments (11)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (5)

Questions from the audience What about Adobe? Ballmer "Yeah, what about Adobe?" Adobe is a competitor for Silverlight with Flash and Flex Will remain an important company in the business for a long time We will look into supporting them well as an ISV
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:46 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (4)

Ballmer to Kawasaki "Get rid of that MacAir, we'll get you a real machine" Ballmer is a a very good mood today, and Kawasaki is a great interviewer! Kawasaki "It's a really different Microsoft today, not arrogant anymore, answer email faster than other companies, really helpful" Personal note: It's so true
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:43 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (3)

Ballmer: "I love what we do" referring to Silverlight 2 . Ballmer has "3 kind of days. Ballmer expects "more than 60 emails tomorrow" after mentioning his email address a couple of times. Hilarious bit where Ballmer takes a MacAir in the hands and acts as if it's sooo damn heavy :)
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:34 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (2)

Ballmer to Kawasaki "Yes I can say Google". Ballmer "We are the underdog in the search business". Kawasaki "So for you is Apple just that little chihuahua that you kick away?" Ballmer "Underdog in the music business too, apple is doing a really good job there"
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 9:15 AM | Comments (0)

My MVVM talk’s material is online (#uktechdays)

Quick announcement: I just had the extreme pleasure to talk at the UK TechDays online conference (organized over LiveMeeting) and had about 100 persons in the session, thanks to all for allowing me to talk to you about MVVM! I just pushed the whole sample code as well as the slides to a SkyDrive folder, so feel free to download and experiment. And don’t forget: A recording of session with similar material but with 30 minutes more time for additional samples is online for your viewing pleasure. Deep ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 24, 2011 7:35 PM | Comments (0)

DEEP DIVE MVVM at #MIX11

The public (you!) has spoken, and “Deep Dive MVVM” was selected (along with 11 other open call talks) out of 217 proposals. There were 17’000 votes! These are pretty amazing numbers, and believe me when I tell you that I still didn’t completely realize what just happened! I want to really underline the outstanding quality of many of the talks that were proposed. I decided not to reveal my votes, because I just know too many of the candidates and I had only 10 votes but let’s just say that some of ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, February 11, 2011 12:20 AM | Comments (6)

My proposals for the #MIX11 open call

Vote for: “Deep Dive MVVM” Vote for: “Exploring a Blendable Windows Phone 7 Application” Last year, the MIX team started a new concept with an open call for sessions. People from the community were invited to submit talks about pretty much anything, and the public voted to select which sessions they wanted to see. It was a huge success, since 150 sessions were submitted, of which 13 sessions were picked (don’t hold me accountable for the numbers, they are plucked from my memory ) I was very honored ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:16 AM | Comments (2)

Sample code for my #mix10 talk online

Update: Seems that not everyone is running on the latest and greatest, which is understandable. To avoid confusion, I added the version of the framework for which these samples are available. In the next few days, I will try to port them to other versions in order to have working samples in WPF3.5, WPF4, SL3 and SL4. Please be patient, thanks! Update 2: I reconfigured the samples to include all the external assemblies you need to run them (including Microsoft.Practices.Unity.dll, System.Windows.Interactivity ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 16, 2010 10:19 AM | Comments (59)

What’s new in MVVM Light V3

V3 of the MVVM Light Toolkit was released during MIX10, after quite a long alpha stage. This post lists the new features in MVVM Light V3. Compatibility MVVM Light Toolkit V3 can be installed for the following tools and framework versions: Visual Studio 2008 SP1, Expression Blend 3 Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 SP1 Silverlight 3 Visual Studio 2010 RC, Expression Blend 4 beta Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5 SP1 Windows Presentation Foundation 4 RC Silverlight 3 Silverlight 4 RC For more ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:42 AM | Comments (21)

The MVVM landscape at MIX10

Update: Shawn Wildermuth has changed his session and will be talking about Silverlight Security instead. The MIX conference this year had an open call for sessions, and 12 sessions were voted by the public out of 169. Surprisingly (or maybe not that surprisingly in fact), 3 sessions out of the 12 have the MVVM pattern in their title. This shows a lot of interest for this pattern which is helping the developer to create decoupled, testable, blendable applications in Silverlight and in WPF. Since my ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, January 21, 2010 3:06 AM | Comments (2)

MVVM Light V3 released at #MIX10

During my session “Understanding the MVVM pattern” at MIX10 in Vegas, I showed some components of the MVVM Light toolkit V3, which gave me the occasion to announce the release of version 3. This version has been in alpha stage for a while, and has been tested by many users. it is very stable, and ready for a release. So here we go! What’s new What’s new in MVVM Light Toolkit V3 is the topic of the next post. Cleaning up I would recommend cleaning up older versions before installing V3. I prepared ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:40 AM | Comments (4)

My program at #MIX10

Getting ready to fly to Vegas and MIX10 is really an exciting time! It is also a very busy time, because we are working on a few projects that will be shown on stage, I have my presentation to prepare, and of course as always the book… though these days it has been a bit on the back burner to be honest ;) I arrive in Vegas on Sunday evening around 10PM, so I won’t be able to make it to the traditional IdentityMine dinner this year. I am sure it will be fun nonetheless! My session: Understanding the ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 10, 2010 6:01 AM | Comments (1)

Schedule for my session at MIX10

Microsoft has published the schedule for the MIX10 sessions. I have a sweet spot, and I dearly hope that it stays this way (Last year I had a great spot, but it was changed last minute and then I had a much better one, “competing” against Vertigo and their Playboy app… yeah try to explain to a bunch of geeks that MVVM is better than Playboy… good luck with that ;) Anyway, this year my sweet spot is on the very first day of the conference (there are workshops on Sunday, but this qualifies as pre-conference), ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 04, 2010 7:48 PM | Comments (1)

Talking in Las Vegas: MIX2010 and MVVM

Update: The session is officially on. See the MIX10 website. This morning, very early (or very late depending how you see it), I learned that one of the sessions I submitted to the MIX 2010 open call for speakers had been picked by the public. Out of 169 sessions, only 12 were picked, so you imagine my feelings right now. Honestly, I am sure that this will be a good session, but it could have gone either way, and I had prepared myself mentally for the alternative possibility too. Understanding the ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, January 19, 2010 12:28 AM | Comments (12)

MIX 2010: Voting for sessions has begun (I got two)

This year Microsoft decided to have an open call for sessions for the MIX 2010 in Las Vegas. This conference, in case you don’t know it yet, is a great 3 days about modern client technologies, such as ASP.NET, Windows Presentation Foundation and of course Silverlight. This year, MIX is taking place from the 15th to the 17th of March 2010 in the Mandalay Bay hotel in Vegas. Today, the voting began! I didn’t count them, but there seems to be more than 100 sessions lined up, and the competition is fierce: ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, January 05, 2010 12:12 PM | Comments (0)

Using a Behavior to magnify your WPF applications

At MIX 2009, the Expression Blend team cam up with a new concept called Behaviors. In fact, the only thing new is the way that the Behaviors are packed. WPF developers have been doing what we called "Attached Behaviors" for quite some time already: see this thread (dated July 2008) to read a discussion around this topic at the WPF Disciples group. Attached Behaviors leverage a feature of WPF called Attached Properties, that allows you to add a property to an element even if this element doesn't implement ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, April 05, 2009 12:32 AM | Comments (15)

Solving cross domain access problems (via Jon Galloway)

At my MIX09 and TechDays Belgium talk recently, I mentioned the issues that a Silverlight developer faces when trying to access a cross-domain web site. If the site has a clientaccesspolicy.xml (or crossdomain.xml) policy file in place, the call is allowed. If not, the call is rejected. The solution, I mentioned, is to put a "gateway" in place to forward the call to the cross domain site. In my talk, I said that you could do that on your own web server, the server the Silverlight application is served ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, March 30, 2009 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

Posting the source code for my #mix09 and #techdays (Belgium) talk

Note: I just updated the title for this article, sorry to all of you who were waiting for the TechDays Belgium source code and didn't realize it was here :) I just posted the source code of the demo applications I used in my MIX09 talk "Working across the client continuum". The source code is structured as follows: DotNetContinuum: This solution contains the following projects: DotNetContinuum: a WCF service configured with 2 endpoints (SOAP and JSON), as well as 3 client applications: DotNetContinuum.Mvc: ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

My #MIX09 session is available in video

MIX09 is over, people are slowly going back home. I will be flying home tomorrow, quite a long trip since I will reach Zurich only on Sunday morning. I had the great pleasure to see that the video of my talk was posted online! This is great, because I didn't have a huge crowd (what do you expect when you "compete" against and Vertigo and their Playboy talk, and the amazing Corrina Black :)) But it's OK, because the people at my talk were really great. I felt wonderful during the talk, and even the ...
Print | posted on Posted On Saturday, March 21, 2009 8:09 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09 Book Signing: "Silverlight 2 Unleashed"

When: Today, Friday 20th of March 2009, 10:30 - 11:00 Where: MIX2009 Book store (in 3rd Place) What: I will be signing my book there. Come and bring your friends
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 20, 2009 4:49 PM | Comments (2)

Reminder: My talk at #MIX09

Tomorrow Thursday 19th of March 2009 Location: Delfino 4105 Working across the .NET continuum Come see how to build a continuum of client applications including HTML, AJAX, ASP.NET, Microsoft Silverlight, and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that all consume the same Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) service. Learn how to reuse as much code as possible, how to optimize the development process, and how to address key logistical issues like external servers and cross domain communication. ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 19, 2009 1:58 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09 Random Pictures

At the Venetian Workshop: Design fundamentals for developers Workshop: Hiking Mt Avalon My room at the Venetian Silverlight insiders tweetup at breakfast MIX 09 Keynote ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 8:18 PM | Comments (0)

MIX09 Keynote

Great energy in the room. Bill Buxton enters and starts talking about how lucky we are to work in Experience Design. "What do Canada and Transitions have in common? They are both dominated by the States" "It's a not a creative job, it's a negative job, because you start with a 100 great ideas, but end up throwing away 99 of them" "You cannot be anal. These things are too important to take seriously." "How can we deliver on thin client, on the web, the same rich experience as on rich devices such ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 5:40 PM | Comments (0)

#MIX09: Design fundamentals for developers (2)

Talks about Gestalt (shape), Swiss design in the 1950's, Bauhaus. Then moves on to shapes, color, contrasts. Visual language. A page is governed by a number of visual elements. "Figure / Ground" Background vs Message you want to show. The Ground is usually ignored while the Figure is observed. Make the Ground solid to reinforce the Figure. The Ground can be overwhelming the Figure, which gives a sense of confusion. "Closure" Visual effects used to create a link to the user. Feels like we're in an ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 18, 2009 7:25 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX09: Design fundamentals for developers

Speaker: Robby Ingebretsen Authors/Designers of reference Alex White Milton Blazer Saul Bass The difference between design and art is intent. "Creative brief" First document, interview with the client "Pitch" Presenting your best thinking. Interactive thing. Way of getting aligned with the client "Wireframe" Express the information design. Tell a story. Navigation. Shouldn't look like the final product. Ni visual design, focus on information design. "Interaction spec" Expresses how user will interact ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 17, 2009 6:45 PM | Comments (3)

Me @ MIX 2009

Well here is the time of the year again where choices, hard choices must be made. Yes, this is a crucial time, one of decisions: The MIX conference is around the corner and I need to complete my schedule. This year is slightly easier than the 3 previous editions, though. Since I will be speaking, I have less sessions to choose from (I asked, but apparently they don't let you attend other sessions while you're presenting yours, bummer). So here we go, this is Me @ MIX 2009: The red entries are sessions ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, March 16, 2009 9:47 PM | Comments (1)

Talking at MIX09: Las Vegas and the continuum

One of my dreams is going to come true: Since the very first time I attended MIX in 2006, I have wanted to talk there. MIX has a very special meaning for me. It is in the Venetian conference rooms that I heard about Windows Presentation Foundation and what would later become Silverlight. It is there that me and my two colleagues Andreas and James decided that we wanted WPF for the project we had just started at Siemens. A decision that was definitely the right one, from a technical point of view ...
Print | posted on Posted On Saturday, February 21, 2009 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

MIX: So many amazing demos

We saw so many amzing demos this morning. My preferate... well, I loved to see .NET play chess against JavaScript. To do this, ScottG programmed a Silverlight application, and used the exact same Chess algorithm in C# and in JavaScript. This application allowed to play against the machine, and to select with engine each player was playing with, so it was possible to let the JavaScript engine play against the .NET engine. The application was displaying the number of nodes processed while running for ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, April 30, 2007 6:29 AM | Comments (0)

.NET support for Ruby!

That's a big news. Scott Guthrie actually demoed programming Ruby, on a Mac (so without Visual Studio), against Silverlight, with .NET!!! .NET is becoming more and more open to other technologies and platforms, and I love it. Great move
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, April 30, 2007 6:24 AM | Comments (0)

MIX10K contest: The choice is made

As I blogged before, I was one of five judges chosen to decide which of the 105 (!) entries in the MIX10K contest were the best... it was a hard, terrible choice, but now the results are public! As a reminder: The contest is organized by Microsoft at the occasion of the MIX conference that will take place in March in Las Vegas. The goal was to create a Silverlight or WPF application with only 10 kilobytes of code (about 10'000 characters of text, including spaces, carriage return, etc...) First I ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:53 AM | Comments (5)

Judging the MIX10K contest

In a previous post, I was mentioning that I took part to the MIX09 10K contest. Take a moment to read all about this contest and come back to finish this post :) Done? Great. Making this entry was a lot of fun, and I think it is really good and got a real chance to win. This is why I needed a little time thinking before I accepted the offer that was made to me to become a judge on the MIX 10K contest. Of course, when you think about it, it's an offer you cannot refuse, so I accepted it and am really ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, February 02, 2009 12:01 PM | Comments (1)

New "Welcome message" on www.galasoft.ch

I changed the "welcome message" on my website www.galasoft.ch and thought I would also publish it here :) ---- Update: In addition to the talks listed below, I will also talk in TechDays Geneva. More details here. Here are some fresh news from Stäfa! With Xmas and New Year behind us, Chinese New Year around the corner, the year 2009 is well started and looking very good. I have a number of exciting events in front of me. You might have noticed a new box titled "Sponsors" in the side bar of this page ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, January 25, 2009 10:14 PM | Comments (0)

My MIX 10K entry

A few days ago I decided to enter the MIX 10K competition. My entry is named ColorClock 10K. If you like it, please vote for it! Quick manual Installation The application requires .NET 3.5 SP1. If you don’t have this version, please install it before the next step. This is a once-only installation. Open this link in Internet Explorer to install and start the ColorClock. Usage Drag the clock to move it on your desktop. Resize the clock using the triangle in the bottom right corner. Set the options ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, January 06, 2009 9:06 AM | Comments (6)

#MIX08: Wrap-up post

MIX08 is over, and I am home with what one could call the "post-MIX" mood. It's a mix (pun intended, haha) of various feelings Obviously I am extatic to be with my family again, even more so because I was away for almost two weeks, which I usually try to avoid. It's just so good to be with them again. I wish I could take them with me every time I am abroad. Excitement about all the new things we saw. Thinking all the time of what I'll be able to improve in my various projects using these new techniques ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, March 09, 2008 9:16 PM | Comments (0)

#Mix08 Session: What's New in Windows Presentation Foundation 3.5

Check WindowsClient.net for updates Some parts of the demos are not available yet in the current build - wait for the next beta Compatibility with Silverlight is important Same tools, designers, code, markup... This summer, .NET framework 3.5 service release Improved setup Fuill install available Also client-focused ~30MB install Parts of WCF Parts of LINQ WPF Deployment of application will be simplified MSI, ClickOnce, XBAP MSDN Reader demoed, looks really good. Source code is available Add-In framework ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 07, 2008 8:51 AM | Comments (1)

#Mix08 Session: Nerd + Art: Ten Code Snippets to Empower Your Inner Artist

Robbie Ingebretsen: "This is a creative experiment" "We didn't always look into best practices" Talks about the Integrator role. Nathan Dunlap: "Designers should probably use Visual Studio more" "It's a great tool to dive into the code,check the SDK..." Snippets are distributed as a Snippet installer VSI file. Silverlight code snippets WPF code snippets By the way, check Dr WPF's snippets too! To access the Nerd snippets in the code, simply type "nerd". Displays the list of all snippets. Custom Control ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 07, 2008 7:12 AM | Comments (0)

#Mix08 session: Overview of Expression Encoder 2

Expression Encoder 2 is now a standalone product, not part of Expression Media like before. Download it from the Microsoft Expression 2 website. Live encoding, events, etc... Smart recompression, for example if you just edit some of the video, only the cut will be recompressed. Animations in XAML can be burnt inside the video. Closed captions. Improved Silverlight players, including a video gallery player. More options for interlaced content. .NET object model. Demo New codecs Aspect ratio is easier ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 07, 2008 5:37 AM | Comments (0)

#Mix08 evenings are pretty cool

So last night was the last evening for many (but not for me since I am flying only tomorrow, ha ha), and there was a number of dinners and parties going on. I was lucky to be invited to a great dinner at Zeffirino's thrown by IdentityMine. These dinners are always wonderful occasions to meet and talk to the big players in the field of WPF and Silverlight, designers and developers mixed. Yesterday was not an exception to that rule, with Scott Guthrie, Miguel Icaza (of Moonlight and Mono), Grant Hinkson ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, March 07, 2008 4:05 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX08 Session: Touch Me: Where Are Interfaces Going?

Cynergy.Labs, cool concept of "no touch gesture", with a "pinch" gesture to manipulate objects Challenges with Touch-based interfaces It's ambiguous. You're never sure where the next "touch" is going to be. Dominant hand plays a role in tactile interfaces "Now we can detect the shadow of the finger and know where it will land" Voice is going to be the next big move in user interface "Having a developer and a designer in a room is like having a humidifier and a de-humidifier in the same room" :) ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 11:20 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (7)

Ballmer really knows his facts. First time I see him speak, I find him impressive. Better than last year's keynote with Ozzie, and I would even say better than 2006's keynote with Gates and O'Reilly
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:10 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote with Steve Ballmer and Guy Kawasaki (6)

Ballmer: "Silverlight for iPhone is interesting, we want to have Silverlight everywhere" Ballmer "But I am not sure that Apple will welcome a royaltie-free, open platform running on their phone" Ballmer "All the relevant applications we have on the web will move to Silverlight" Woman from the floor "I love it that there are no bathrooms line here" Q&A from the floor is really going well. Ballmer did the monkey for web developers :) ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

#MIX08 Session: Creating Rich, Dynamic User Interfaces with Silverlight 2

Karen Corby NB: Code will be posted on Karen's blog User control, motivations Re-use Modularization Encapsulation Same concept as in WPF No more need for "InitializeFromXaml()", good news. The "XAML hook" is done for us by the framework KeyDown Event can now be handled on any component level, not just the application level like before Databinding in Silverlight, how much sweeter can it get. Can't wait to play with it... Wondering how well the MVVM pattern can be used in Silverlight. Oh yeah, flow ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 7:16 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Bug in the Session matrix viewer

Oh my god, huge bug in the MIX08 session matrix viewer. Shows that localization is really not as straightforward as some may think :) Tip for the developers: On a french culture PC, the date is written "05.03.2008" meaning 5th of March 2008. On a US culture PC, "03/05/2008" means the 5th of March. When you convert from one culture to the other, you really need to look into the CultureInfo class :) Kind of embarrassing for MSFT :) ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 6:10 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08 session: Real World Design: Working with Silverlight and WPF in the Design Studio

Q: Who owns the XAML? A: Noone does, it's a tool between the designers and developers. Personal note: In my opinion, there are multiple types of XAML: Functional XAML, owned by the developer. Look&Feel XAML, owned by the designer. Also, we have a UI custodian role, a mediator between product owners and development teams. He owns the UI. Blend is used more and more as (or instead of) interaction wireframes, because oif the ease of use and how much more interactive it is. Lots of interesting questions ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:41 AM | Comments (0)

Silverlight: Installation Tips for Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008

http://weblogs.asp.net/brad...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:40 AM | Comments (0)

Silverlight: No more synchronous web request...

Apparently, one big thing was removed from Silverlight between Alpha and the current Beta 1: It's not possible to make synchronous web requests anymore. I must be honest: I have always been recommending against synchronous requests from a web browser to a web server. But it was nice to have the possibility to do it. I can think of a couple of scenarios where it makes sense. What I don't quite understand is why they removed it. The reason given yesterday (that it blocks the UI thread) is not really ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:58 AM | Comments (9)

Silverlight: Downloading the Beta 1 bits

Silverlight 2 Beta 1 runtime Download Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 (contains the SDK) Download Microsoft Expression Studio 2 Beta (contains Blend 2, Design 2, Web 2, Media 2 and Encoder 2) Download Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview (can be installed side by side with Blend 2) Download Microsoft® Silverlight™ 2 Software Development Kit Beta 1 Documentation Download Source Code and Unit Tests for Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Controls Download ...
Print | posted on Posted On Thursday, March 06, 2008 4:49 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Day 1 is over (well, except for the party at Tao)

So, day 1 is over. I met so many people and had so many great talks that I am, again, really happy to be there. Quite tired too, though, so I need a shower and then it's out for dinner. Tonight also features a party at Tao, a club into the Venetian. Another great occasion to network, I just hope the music won't be too loud (am I getting old or what) because when I am tired and its loud, it's harder to understand the English language :) but I am sure I will be fine. More to come tomorrow, for MIX08 ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 2:23 PM | Comments (2)

MIX08: Building Rich Internet Applications Using Microsoft Silverlight 2, Part 2

NB: All the demos from the talk are on Mike Harsh's blog. Create a Custom Panel Add new class Inherit from Panel Public default constructor (for XAML) Override Measure and Arrange Use in XAML AnimatingPanelBase (by Robbie Ingebretsen) demoed by Mike Harsh right now, nice! Showing customization of controls using Styles and Skins. IsolatedStorage, nothing is new, same as in Alpha version of SL. INavigationState interface allows Back and Forward button to work with the Silverlight app easily. DeepZoom, ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 1:33 PM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Building Rich Internet Applications Using Microsoft Silverlight 2, Part 1

Joe Stegman, Mike Harsh V2 Beta1 today V2 Beta2 (go live) in Q208 No date for final release yet Visual Studio packages all necessary files into a XAP (which is actually a Zipped archive) New layout elements (Grid, StackPanel, etc...) New controls (TextBox, Button, etc...) Using WebClient for simple HTTP requests asynchronously (confirming that synch HTTP requests is just not possible anymore!) Converting XML for .NET objects: LINQ to XML XML Reader XML Serializer Very cool formatted datagrid demo! ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Working with Data and Web Services in Microsoft Silverlight 2

Pretty full room. Sorry VERY full room. Glad I cam not too late, even managed to find a plug for my laptop. Any application will need to communicate wit a source of data outside of the browser Product catalog, product database, etc... What kind of data? media (images, sounds, videos) feeds specific services for your app Existing Intranet services public internet services Silverlight 1.0 connects to Media already to connect to other services, use JavaScript and AJAX In Silverlight 2, managed code ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 10:36 AM | Comments (6)

MIX08 Keynote (11)

WeatherBug New Silverlight application running on Nokia Cool app, "very easy to develop using Silverlight" Scott Guthrie Wrapping up and summarizing. Time to have lunch
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:56 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08 Keynote (10)

Cirque du Soleil Use WPF application to track cast information Cirque du Soleil recruiting ScottGu for their shows. Good idea. "Come see the Man Who Never Sleeps". Scott Guthrie Performance for WPF videos and image handling MUCH better. Pretty cool Write custom effects in WPF and they are pushed to the hardward for acceleration. (for example ripples, shadows, etc...) Effects applied to controls during runtime, physics engine calculation, all pushed to hardware for better performance. All these included ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 7:50 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08 Keynote (7)

Scott Guthrie: Strategic alliance with Move Network using SL2. Windows Media Services 2008: scalable solution, runs on top of WIndows server 2008, is free. Progressive download: IIS7 media pack shipped last week with Bit Rate Throttling and Web playlist, also free. Business opportunities with advertising in Silverlight John Harris, Senior PM on Expression: SL 2 advertisement demo New ad templates for Silverlight with built-in banners, including animations for appearance, etc... Move to Blend to position ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 6:54 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote (6)

Dean Hachamovitch (IE General Manager) IE8: Select an address, choose "Live map" from a context menu and get a Live Map view of the place. Web slices: User can subscribe to parts of a web page. Hover on a part of the site, icon shows up, select a "web slice" and subscribe.Displays a new bookmark, live view of the web page "extract". Beta 1 of IE8 available for developers after the keynote Scott Guthrie Quick peep of live Silverlight sites. 1.5 million installations of Silverlight per day, should ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 6:26 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote (5)

Dean Hachamovitch (IE General Manager) CSS2.1. Demo in Firefox, Safari, looks the same. Opens in IE7 and it doesn't look the same.IE8 supposed to be the answer to that. First time showing IE8 to the public Focus on CSS and understanding standards the same way than developers are. Legacy web. Legacy pages developed for IE look bad in Firefox and in Safari. IE8 has a "Emulate IE7" button for legacy pages. In the future, IE8 should behave just like Firefox and Safari, at the risk of breaking legacy ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote (4)

Ray Ozzie keynote: "Many amazing technologies available today, but I would like you to bet on us" Oh really? Scott Guthrie keynote: Just launched .NET 3,5, VS2008, IIS7, Windows Server 2008 Scott talks about the new features in ASP.NET 3.5, mentions LINQ IIS7 makes deployment and administration much better Dean Hachamovitch (IE General Manager) Introduces IE8 Cool T-shirt #Mix08 ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 6:11 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote (3)

Ray Ozzie keynote: "Connected entertainment vision" Office offering: Desktop, Mobile and Web, all connected in a seamless experience. Office Live: Linking, sharing and tagging of documents for the social mesh. Connected business. CRM like MSFT Dynamics used by half a millions small firms worldwide. "Utility computing within the enterprise". Power of choice (again). XNA, .NET WPF, Silverlight, ASP.NET Expression Studio for designers Visual Studio for developers .NET in the middle of it all #Mix08 ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 6:08 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote (2)

Ray Ozzie "can't talk much about the Yahoo deal". Ray talks about the community and its importance for the technology. Advertising is really important forMSFT strategy. "Ensure a vibrant advertising ecosystem on the web". "3 core principles that we are using" "Web as a hub, for our social experience and social mash", linking, sharing, tagging on the web will become familiar to all of us. "Number and variety of devices on the rise". Web as a hub to simplify our life in managing the devices. "Power ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:45 AM | Comments (0)

MIX08: Keynote

So here we are, the breakfast was had, and now we're getting ready to listen to MIX08's keynote. I will do my best to post new information as we receive it. To make sure that you don't miss anything, check this page: http://hashtags.org/tag/mix08/ That's an interesting project: It scans through all the twitter feeds carrying the tag "#mix08" and aggregates them. Many tweeters here are using this setting, so it's a good way to keep track of what's happening in real time. I just regret that there is ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:25 AM | Comments (0)

Silverlight: Running on Nokia mobile phones

Published today in Yahoo News, the news that was announced earlier that Nokia phones will run Silverlight mobile. Great news indeed, even if the details are not known yet. I find it funny that Yahoo News publishes this news in the "Linux/Open Source" section :)
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 04, 2008 3:04 PM | Comments (1)

MIX08: Random pieces of news (3)

Interesting concept for localizing Silverlight applications using a "resource" JavaScript file. Presented by Brad Abrams. Amazing set of new controls for Silverlight 2, including a datagrid. Where's the WPF-based one, Microsoft? Multiline textbox in Silverlight 2.0 (but you're not supposed to talk about it :) ASP.NET MVC framework for URL mapping. I think that ScottGu blogged about that before, something I definitely want to look into (when I'll have time, ah ah ah) Tim Sneath on WPF and Silverlight: ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 04, 2008 7:33 AM | Comments (1)

MIX08: Random pieces of news (2)

Next version of Expression Blend is going to be V2.5 Expecting another important announcement about Microsoft Expression tomorrow. XNA (game development platform) may allow web programming soon? Many Silverlight-related announcement coming up tomorrow. I expect to see a lot of Silverlight mobile at the key note
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 04, 2008 6:49 AM | Comments (4)

MIX08: Random pieces of news

Expression Studio V2 is coming this April. It will include V2 of Expression Design!!! (Yes, finally) Expression Design V2 allows selecting a "slice" of your design and export it to XAML directly. Seems that the export process improved a lot. Not sure about roundtrip export-import though. V2 of Expression Studio contains Blend, Design, Web, Encoder, Media. Expression Web 2 supports PHP with Intellisense, Syntax coloring, Local preview with Cassini (development web server). Insert Flash, ActiveX, Window ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:46 AM | Comments (0)

MIX07 day 1 (cont)

The big news We were expecting a big news today, there are actually two: Silverlight will be able to run .NET. This was actually announced to us under NDA a few weeks ago. Here's a great opportunity to create service-enabled application on the web without JavaScript. Quote from Ray Ozzie: "Silverlight brings .NET to the Universal Web". Silverlight will have three pillars: Video, .NET and Services. Microsoft Expression shipped today! We heard rumors that this might be true, now it's confirmed! Congrats ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, April 30, 2007 5:03 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: It's starting

For those of you who read this blog from Nebula IV and are not aware of it yet, MIX is starting this week. Today is the pre-conference event, Together@MIX.This morning is packed with sessions, and this afternoon we will take part to some "fun" events. For my part, I am going to take part to a horse ride in the desert, that will be fun for sure. During the conference, I will report as much as I can on various channels: For blog reports, stay tuned to http://blog.galasoft.ch (that's exactly the same ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, March 04, 2008 5:45 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Building the schedule

I am in Princeton NJ for the weekend, after spending a few days with our graphics designers, working on our WPF application. It was very nice again, and I love the new design we have. I miss my family, but determined to make the best of this trip and to take life positively as usual. I plan to drive down to Philadelphia tomorrow for a short visit (I have been in Philly once before, in 2001). I finally managed to build my schedule for MIX. I was very strict this year and selected only maximum two ...
Print | posted on Posted On Saturday, March 01, 2008 4:02 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Session builder missing?

Update: The session builder was made availableone day after I published this. It's available for registered user in the "sessions" area of the MIX website. I remember that there was a Session Builder last year on MIX's website allowing you to build an agenda of session you want to see. Am I mistaken? Is this feature available now? I can't seem to find it anywhere
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:33 AM | Comments (3)

Scott Guthrie talks about the future or ASP.NET and Orcas

The ReMix event was nice, well, not really comparable to Las Vegas, of course, but it was nice to see the demos again. For me, in fact, the real opportunity was rather to connect with other people interested in these technologies, and in this aspect it was really nice. I've been wanting to meet Ronnie Saurenmann (the guy behind the Zurich Airport XBAP and the "Outlook-like" WPF hands-on lab) for quite some time, I hope for the beginning of a nice collaboration. Of course the icing on the cake was ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, June 18, 2007 8:17 PM | Comments (0)

ReMix 07 in Zurich with Scott Guthrie

Today, the ReMix 07 event is taking place in the World Trade Center in Zurich, Switzerland. Lots of great speaker, includign Scott Guthrie, Wayne Smith, Beau Ambur and more. Wayne Smith just showed his video encoding and XAML editing demo, pretty much the same demo as in Vegas, but very well received here anyway! You got to love his accent :) but more important, the content is great. One new thing presented today compared to the Las Vegas edition is a new plug-in for LiveWriter which allows embedding ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:04 PM | Comments (0)

ReMix Zurich tomorrow

ReMix 07 Zurich I will be attending ReMix in Zurich tomorrow. This event will be specially interesting this year due to the presence of Scott Guthrie for the keynote and 2 presentations. I'll hear even more of Scott in the evening, at the DotMugs (.NET Managed User Group of Switzerland) where he will be speaking about ASP.NET and Orcas. I am very happy to hear Scott again, this will be the thrid time (after MIX06 and MIX07), and I sure hope I will have many more occasions ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, June 17, 2007 8:39 AM | Comments (0)

MIX day 3 (cont)

Gee, I almost forgot one session I attended: Booyah! Designing and Developing Line-of-Business Applications That SIZZLE Once again a nice demo, concentrating on the specific problems and challenges you encounter when you develop 3D applications. Nathan designed beautiful glass tubes which are filled with data. I loved his mention that in WPF, he is actually working with materials and textures. When he says that, I get the impression that his working is actually sculpting 3D objects. I think that ...
Print | posted on Posted On Friday, May 04, 2007 8:59 AM | Comments (0)

MIX day 3

Today was MIX's last day, and it's almost painful to have to leave. I can't believe how fast it went, how packed with information it was, and how many great people I had the chance to meet. To all of you, I want to say thanks for the great time I spent here. The organization was, as usual, spotless. Now I have so much information to process and sort, this will keep me busy for a long time... Oh how I hope to make it to MIX08 ;-) Extending the Browser Programming Model with Silverlight If I had to ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, May 02, 2007 4:46 PM | Comments (1)

MIX07 day 2

On Tuesday, most of the day was packed with sessions. I managed to see very interesting information. Microsoft is really pushing SIlverlight a lot, and while it's great news for web applications, I really hope that they will not release their effort on WPF. We're waiting for V2!! Building Silverlight Applications using .NET (Part 1 of 2) This session was most probably great for developers without experience with WPF. For me, however, after a certain point, I found myself thinking "I know all that ...
Print | posted on Posted On Wednesday, May 02, 2007 4:01 PM | Comments (0)

MIX day 1 (cont again)

I attended 3 sessions yesterday afternoon, all very interesting. MySpace megasite Quite interesting talk by the MySpace team about what strategies they are using to run, maintain and upgrade what must be one of trhe busiest website worldwide. The sheer volume of video, MP3 and pictures theys deliver simultanously is tremendous. And all that runs on ASP.NET and Microsoft platforms. Very impressive. They also developed their own tools for code management, allowing to release and if necessary rollback ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 9:52 AM | Comments (0)

MIX pictures on Flickr and on my PhotoAlbum

I just posted a bunch of pictures from yesterday on Flickr and on my PhotoAlbum. More pictures will follow shortly. Stay tuned
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 4:11 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Debugging remotely from VS2005 on a Mac!!

I know, I posted about this already, but this is so great it deserves a separate post: Using Visual Studio 2005, you can actually remotely attach to a Silverlight process running on a Mac, and debug! Isn't that cross platform pushed to the max
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 2:04 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Day one review (morning)

Amazing day yesterday. It all started with a great breakfast set up by the Venetian team. They really do an amazing job. The hotel is just great, not only because it's so big and luxurious, but also because every details is taken care of, every detail is perfect. I had the same impression last year, impression confirmed. The key note was great, though to be fair last year's was better. Ray Ozzie just cannot beat Bill Gates, charisma wise. I was very happy to see Scott Guthrie on stage again, this ...
Print | posted on Posted On Tuesday, May 01, 2007 2:00 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Silverlight streaming announced

One very exciting news: Microsoft is going to host up to 4GB of videos per person, free of charge. The tool Expression Media will allow very easy encoding of these videos in a format and quality compatible with Sliverlight. Once encoded, upload your video to the Microsoft site, and you get a URL which you can then embed in your website. The nice things is that the videos are streamed, and this is supported natively by the SIlverlight engine
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, April 30, 2007 6:46 AM | Comments (0)

MIX07 day 1

Getting started Breakfast was had (great buffet like last year, and the dining room is pretty impressive and huge!) Trying to recognize known faces, but no luck yet! I also registered and got my goodie bag. The notebook looks great, even nicer than last year (I am still using last year's one, actually, and the pen). Apparently the myspace.com gadget is a CD opener. Man, that's bad engineering! These CD cellophanes are actually so damn hard to open that someone has to come with a gadget! Wouldn't ...
Print | posted on Posted On Monday, April 30, 2007 3:41 AM | Comments (0)

MIX: Here I am

That was a LONG trip, but here I finally am. Check in went fine, the room is nice though less impressive than last year (well, last year I had, for some reason, received a huge suite). This year, I "just" got the "regular" suite in the Venezia tower. Seriously, the room is great. After check in and a long hot shower, since it was too late to register for the conference, I just went downstairs for a bite, and for a small walk in the casino. The energy here is amazing. I will register tomorrow morning, ...
Print | posted on Posted On Sunday, April 29, 2007 6:15 PM | Comments (0)

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