Articles filed in category 'CODE Framework Related'

From users to developers, mobile applications used to be (not so long ago) uninteresting. Complicated flows, non-intuitive screens and limited features available used to discourage anyone. PDAs had a poor user interface with limited colors (the first ones were only black and white). It was very complicated and boring to write any code for it. Cell phones used to be a device where you could make and receive phone calls. Eventually you could play some games. But you know w...hat? Even the games were boring most of the time! See More

The big news about Windows 8 is its new mode based on the Metro design language and UI paradigm. Metro apps are based on the new WinRT (Windows Runtime) and can be built in two distinct ways. One utilizes HTML5 and JavaScript, while the other uses XAML for the user interface definition and C#, Visual Basic, or native C++ as the language behind the scenes. Not surprisingly, the later has often been compared to other XAML-based setups, in particular Silverlight, but also W...PF. After all, “XAML is XAML,” the reasoning goes, so it should not be difficult to move both WPF/Silverlight skills as well as actual applications into the new world of WinRT. But is that really so?See More

CODE Publisher, Markus Egger, hijacks this issue's Editorial and discusses what technologies developers should spend time and resources on.

A lot of new things are going on at CODE Magazine, both online and offl ine, and both directly associated with the magazine as well as efforts even more directly related to your development efforts. You may have already seen some of the things we do with CODE Consulting (www.codemag.com/consulting) and CODE Training (www.codemag.com/training), but today I would like to draw your attention to other things.

In this article, Markus Egger demonstrates how to leverage WPF and Silverlight’s automatic layout features to create business application user interfaces that are faster to develop, more reusable, maintainable, and less error-prone than traditional approaches. By shifting layout responsibilities to stylable, layout-agnostic containers and creating custom layout panels, Egger shows how developers can separate UI structure from presentation, enabling rapid UI creation and ...easy adaptation across devices and platforms. He also introduces an action-based command model integrated into the layout, emphasizing how these techniques together enhance productivity and flexibility in real-world enterprise UI development.See More

ListBoxes suck. Except that statement is not true anymore. Not in WPF and Silverlight anyway, where ListBoxes have evolved from simplistic controls to true workhorse objects. ListBoxes have been around since the beginning of Windows (and other GUIs) and have served a pervasive yet simple purpose, which can be summed up as “show me a list of labels in a list with a scroll bar.” A premise that has its uses but is not sophisticated enough for advanced data presentation, ...which is why developers often use special controls such as “data grids” or “list views” among others. In WPF and Silverlight, however, ListBoxes are so flexible and powerful that they are the first choice for just about anything. In fact, WPF originally shipped without a data grid control since ListBoxes all but eliminated that need. Developer perception, however, was different and the power of the ListBoxes went largely unnoticed. That is reason enough for me to write an article that displays the ease, flexibility, and power of ListBoxes. See More

Markus Egger argues that relying on traditional XAML code-behind leads to tightly coupled, hard-to-test UIs and technical debt; instead he advocates a View/ViewModel approach using commands, property binding, attached properties and behaviors to decouple logic from visuals, improve reuse and testability, and simplify maintenance—practices embodied in his CODE Framework that enable building flexible XAML UIs without code-behind.

Just when you think a container is simple, your user resizes the screen and mayhem ensues. If you want to know what happened—or prevent it, better yet—read Markus’ piece about the XAML layout engine.

In the second article of the series, Markus talks about keeping your code readable and maintainable by controlling how often and where you reuse objects.

Markus shows us why virtualization gets a bad reputation and how to clean it up.

XAML properties don’t always behave as you think they might. Markus explains how they work and shows you some nifty ways to use these powerful tools.