I don't mind learning xaml and I'm sure I need to be familiar somewhat, but when I was first trying out Silverlight 1 with javascript it looked like a tremendous amount of overhead. I decided to wait until tools matured and asp.net was added. Well, asp.net has been added with Silverlight 2.0, and now I want to look at using it. But, xaml, to me, still looks like a lot of work for each small step. My experience with Flash seemed a lot more simpler for the graphics side of things (never liked ActionScript that much.) Will $500 for Blend take care of much of my xaml concerns? Can I use Visual Studio Express with the full version of Microsoft Expression Blend?
Do I need Microsoft Expression Studio 2?
Thank you.
Just as a profressional web developer can't lean on Dreamweaver's drag-and-drop to avoid learning HTML, you should climb the XAML learning curve.
Blend will still help, however- just as many started up the HTML curve by doing some drag-and-drop and studying the resulting HTML code. I did some prototyping with Silverlight 1.1 and Blend helped significantly in my understanding of XAML. It helps to have a "real" project to work on, even if it's a proof of concept. Concentrate on the containment paradigm between Canvas and other elements and you'll pick it up quickly enough. I wouldn't worry too much about the MPATH stuff, do rely on the tool for that.
Microsoft Expression Blend takes care of a lot of XAML for you and helps you create animations and setting up triggers (XAML triggers). I would hate to have to do all that by hand coded XAML. I have not used Blend with Visual Studio Express but I believe it will work just fine. Microsoft Expression Blend 2 uses the sln file to open a project.
Expression Blend will not help with databinding. VS2010 promises databinding in its WPF designer, but if you can't wait until then, look to learning some XAML.
Count XAML as one of the many new .NET 3.5 things to learn when working with WPF/Silverlight. I recommend Pro WPF in C# 2008 from APress
Expression Blend give you the ability to draw shapes, paths, Union or diff shapes, create animations (similar to Flash Tweening), wire up simple triggers (like on mouseover play an animation). All with out having to dive into XAML.
Related
I'm making a Windows Store App. Unfortunately it has some performance issues on weaker ARM devices. After reading this article about how to optimize the loading of XAML, I'm interested if there is any tool that will allow me to see a tree of where resources are referenced and/or help me optimize it.
For a visual tree you can use Document Outline in VS. Some other handy XAML tools are like WPF Snoop, or Silverlight Spy, but most of all just good 'ol Expression Blend is a dear friend when working with xaml & templates. Hope this helps.
I am trying to convert some old VB6 code to VB.NET. The VB6 uses a Canvas control, simply
Dim cv as Canvas
I cannot for the life of me figure out how to use the Canvas control in VB.NET (using VS2005). MSDN says it is in the System.Windows.Controls namespace, which doesn't seem to exist? All I see is System.Windows.Forms, which doesn't include the Canvas control. Any tips?
Thanks
You need to find out what the Canvas was in VB6, then you will be able to see what the nearest equivalent is in VB.Net.
I think it must have been an obscure third-party control or possibly some custom code. I've not come across Canvas before in VB6
In recent history things have changed a bit here. There are now two sets of windows frameworks.
Forms are the old one. The new ones are controls, and they come in the WPF and Silverlight variety. WPF is to replace windows forms, silverlight is meant for the web, etc etc.
Since you are using the older VS2005, I believe you will need to install the WPF extensions to get access to them.
Unfortunately the WPF Extensions for VS2005 are no longer supported by Microsoft:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/acangialosi/archive/2008/06/27/vs-2005-extensions-for-net-framework-3-0-wpf-wcf-ctp-is-coming-off-the-ms-download-center.aspx
You can still get them from various places, but for your own ease you should probably consider upgrading to at least VS2008 if you want to use WPF/Silverlight.
I know VB.NET, and I've been planning on creating a simple 2d game engine. I got no problems with creating such engine and running the actual game. However, I've been told that VB.NET might not be the best choice for "working too much with graphics". I'd like to know if that's true. Can VB.NET truly not manage efficiently loads of graphics simultaneously on the screen? If no, what kind of software am I supposed to use for creating this engine?
I have found that people generally view VB.NET as a subpar language, and mostly associate it with Visual Basic 6.0 (or earlier).
In the .NET world, VB.NET is a first class citizen that simply has a verbose syntax. It's particularly because of the verbosity that I would probably choose C#, if not going with C++.
Still, you can use VB.NET to work with whatever drawing libraries that you want, and you can even use it with XNA and Managed DirectX. It can even be linked against unmanaged libraries as long as you are willing to do to the required interop.
As for managing the graphics on the screen efficiently, it really depends on how well you do it, and how much you want done. If someone can do it well in C#, then you can do it well in VB.NET with the exception of unsafe code. It's too general to say either way given the vague "simple 2D game engine" description, but chances are it is more than possible.
These days, managed code is quickly catching up to unmanaged code, and while it's not quite perfect, it is really impressively good.
It's not the language you need to consider as much as the Framework.
Suggest you look at XNA:
Your First Game - XNA Game Studio in 2D (step-by-step tutorial)
Also, DirectX:
DirectX Developer Center
Learn DirectX
VB.NET Already supports XNA including on Windows Phone 7. So if you are looking to develop games and if you language of choice is VB + XNA you are all set to go.
Take a look at the official announcement: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lisa/archive/2011/03/28/xna-is-coming-to-visual-basic.aspx
Visual Basic's primary use is for Win 32 Apps with a standard GUI. If you are planning on building a game I definitely recommend C++. It has faster execution speed and better libraries for game development. Visual Basic will not deliver as good of performance of C++ would give you. IMO It would be better for you and the user.
I don't know much of the graphics issues in vb but as far as i have heard you can't create games for xbox using vb.net, it only supports PC.
XNA game studio can be used for game development. Although it is supposed for c#, you can find how to use it with vb in here...
http://www.alanphipps.com/VisualBasicdotNET-XNA.html
If you are still relatively new to programming then C++ is more than likely to make you quit early.
Don't aim at C++ until you have at learned C#.
C++ is a great and diverse language but definitely not friendly grounds for anyone who hasn't been programming for a long time. This is ESPECIALLY considering if your first language is one such a VB.
To Answer the Topic?
Yes vb.net can make a game, arcade,FPS,RPG,MMO or what ever you what within your ability to code. if you wanna learn some find playing with open source engines to get the feel helps. so try looking up some and give that a go.
my comment is at the person above's comment,
Visual Basic can do alot, and we find out new stuff all the time.
i seen vb6 game engines work well, graphical and feature wise.
wile visual basic is more down to earth for writing, C++ isnt ik its not, ive tried it.
but VB i can pick up easyr.
my experience ?? 2007 to present day, ive work with vb6 mmo game engine source codes,
Mirage,Elysium,Eclipse,EA,EFF
ive also tried using irrlect engine years back.
for a beginner should learn VB.net or C# .
C++ is to complex.
I'm used to winforms development, haven't done any WPF and I'm starting a Silverlight project. I understand xaml and all (and I've got some resources for learning it) but I'm wondering if there's any resources available that shows what controls are used in what kinds of situations.
For instance, if you look at the BusinessApplication template in vs2010, they use a border or a grid in cases where I would think of a panel. Things like that.
I'm looking for more of a 'tips' kind of thing than a tutorial or reference. References normally just say what a control is; not when, where or why you would use a particular control.
These two should help you out...
http://samples.msdn.microsoft.com/Silverlight/SampleBrowser/#/?sref=HomePage
http://www.silverlight.net/content/samples/sl4/toolkitcontrolsamples/run/default.html
I am interested in using Xaml with expression blend for creating user interfaces in an application. However, because of the limitations of the target architecture, I cannot use WPF or C#.
So, what I am interested in is in any examples / existing projects or advice from anyone who has experiance of this technology on the use of Xaml in it's "Pure" form as a specification language not tied to WPF.
Specific questions:
1) Is it possible to use Blend + Xaml without the WPF elements, or without C# backing classes?
2) Are there any other implementations of Xaml parsers etc. which use different architectures, and can they work with blend or similar tools.
3) Are there alternative editor / designer tools which can help in this situation?
I am aware of the MyXaml and MycroXaml projects, and have found a lot of resources on the web about Xaml, but 99% of it relates directly to WPF. This is fine for understanding the concepts of Xaml, but doesn't help with the implimentation I need.
Many thanks!
Have you checked out the XAML spec.
http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/A/6/0A6F7755-9AF5-448B-907D-13985ACCF53E/[MS-XAML].pdf
XAML 2009 and the system.xaml.dll in clr 4.0 is probably going to be a god send for you if you can wait for it.
here is the PDC presentation on it.
http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/TL36/
Now since you said you can't use C#, I am guessing you are not able to use the .net framework?? or using Mono. as far as I know there are no plans to implement XAML support in Mono. So either you would have to write your own XAML parser, and Object graph.
Of course if you are willing to do that you may want to wait for XAML 2009 spec as it adds significant improvements to the xaml language.
Douglas
Does Silverlight help you in anyway?. Now there is an Eclipse plug-in available for you to use Silverlight with eclispe. So you will be able to use Expression blend to design your UI and use Java for the backend coding(Future plan I think). Check out this link for more details. http://www.eclipse4sl.org/
I am using a XAML-based XML document as the core of the new AppMaker v3. I'm currently parsing it in Ruby to generate various output including pure XAML/C# WPF apps.
XAML is very easy to parse especially if you take an 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 issue, about which we need more information, is what kind of GUI you are trying to generate. The Canvas explicit positional layout in XAML is easy to parse and generate some simple Win32 controls and drawing. If you get into the constraint-based layout like StackPanel then you will have to recreate much WPF behaviour.
If your not using WPF then Xaml as its core is no better than XML really. Xaml has a few flavours but they are essentially addition functionality in the form of libraries. You could use Vanilla Xaml as a base but then you would essentially have to build a parser that reads it and then a framework of code that it essentially maps to. Xaml does not know what a StackPanel is it essentially sends the Textual data off to be compiled by whatever does know what it is, this is the part you would be missing, and its a pretty big part.