The Future of MS Platform Apps Development

I'm sure everyone knows by now that the next generation of apps for the Win platform will make use of Xaml (extensible application markup language), which is an Xml dialect used to define UIs - one set of markup will work just as well for thin and thick client apps (see my earlier posts on Xaml and Avalon pt. 1, & pt. 2, now known as Windows Presentation Foundation).

A lot of people recently have been comparing Xaml with Flash, and it's true - you will be able to have real whizzy graphical effects in your apps. Within a few years, the programs you use and develop today will be unrecognisable.

"So," everyone asks when I tell them this, "does that mean I need to become a graphic designer?"

MS have quietly released a preview version of a graphics tool called Acrylic, which apparently now exports to Xaml.

This tool will find its way into the next generation of dev tools from MS (apparently there's also another related tool on the way) - we're talking a year or two down the line once Vista is out - but you can begin to imagine what things will be like.