March 2009 - Posts
Random news on the .NET4/XAML/BAML front…builds more info on top of last month’s XAML State of the Union
Localization
- Doing WPF Localization review internally today…
- Separately talking with Silverlight, Blend, Cider…on how WPF/Silverlight should both Localize. Any feedback on Silverlight’s Loc model…and what you’d like to see there???
- Met with Windows Build lab recently to discuss getting WPF localization working with Windows’ localization process. Currently it fails due to delay signed assemblies and “LocBamls” reliance on Assembly.Load().
BAML
- We are doing a bunch of Perf optimizations in Baml2006Reader which is making its XAML node stream much less useful for analysis… We aren’t sure if our first Beta will have a BamlReaderAsText mode enabled or not. Trying to make it happen… Want to see FxCop/etc… scenarios enabled early in release to get feedback.
Performance
- We are making steady progress getting Baml to Object scenarios on par with v3. Still not all the way there yet. We may even adapt the BAML format in v4 (or a known types table in PF.dll) a bit to get optimizations that we now need due to new features that Types can tap into. (The old parser used to hard code many things…now that we’ve made those opt in for any type, we currently have to check many types and properties to see if they have opted in.)
- Our tallest dev is looking to see how multithreading a BAML load could speed things up some more. We’ve been discussing this option for a while. Application.LoadComponent craziness won’t make it easy…
Compatibility
Project Descry has 4 nice examples of data visualization using Silverlight, with some articles, downloadable code, etc…
This is published on the Mix Site.
Silverlight: Silverlight 3 Out-of-browser Update Model – should be fun…
IE: IE8 is released. Sadly, I don’t yet have a build that works on Windows 7 (I’m still running on the beta build)…but that will get fixed at some point…
MarchMadness: Due to 2 other commitments, I wasn’t able to watch my game live…so I just finished watching an on-demand Michigan v. Clemson @ http://ncaa.com. (Michigan won!) I like the Silverlight HD video experience…but it can get better. My home monitor is ~1690x1280, when I went full screen, it wasn’t great quality. I’d like the option to go bigger than the default, but less than full screen…or I’d like them to pump out even better quality signals.
On my previous blog @ live spaces, I had a number of posts about Data Visualization. I need to make some of my more worthwhile posts from the past easier to find and reference.
I love using WPF/Silverlight to visualize information in more useful ways.
I’m very excited about Blend3…you should check out some of the innovations coming out for WPF/Silverlight devs.
The SketchFlow blog post by Christian Schormann also goes into detail about Mix09 sessions drilling deeper (those will all be online within about 24 hours after they are presented.)
Fun stuff (one of many exciting things shown @ Mix09)
Steve Ballmer just sent out a company wide email about Microsoft and our commitment to the environment. I’m glad to see a multifaceted approach here…I haven’t dug deeply, but he points us (and you) to http://www.microsoft.com/environment/
I’m happy to see this, and look forward to more progress from Microsoft and others on these fronts.
When you work at Microsoft, you get a membership to a huge club nearby called the ProClub. I swim there with the kids, play racquetball, and occasionally get motivated for other workouts as well. There is a program there, called 20-20, which is basically a plan to help kickstart people into eating and exercising right…it includes a major diet change and working directly with a trainer at least 3 times a week. A great program.
Anyway, I’m not doing that.
What I am doing, is, my self titled, 20-40 program. I’m starting to row again…so I’m doing what I used to do when I was 20 (I rowed for the University of Michigan for 3 years), now that I’m almost 40 (still have 14 months to go).
Driving by Lake Sammamish last Friday night, I saw 3 rowing shells…and I missed rowing. I checked out the Sammamish Rowing Association’s web site, did a float test. This morning, I rode in the head coach’s launch during practice as he coached 3 shells.
Afterwards, I had my best erg workout in years…I forgot that ergs can be fun when you have something to work for.
Friday morning, I’ll row on the water. :-)
P.S. Funny coincidence…I got a Facebook friend request from the Michigan rowing coach this morning.