Hello, Allow me to highlight Kurt Cagle's comments posted in repsonse to Mark Birbeck's "The Long Haul to Longhorn" blog story:
Kurt writes: The role of XAML establishing the entire shebang if interfaces is, and has been for some time, to create Microsoft's own little corner of the web. I have heard this spoken in varying forms from several Microsoft devs and PMs. This effectively means controlling everything from the deep level architecture (a new form of HTTP) to GUI code to data access, in essence completely bypassing any open standard. Microsoft wants, quite literally, to recreate the web on their terms. I know this sounds both audacious and unlikely, but having been in the position where they essentially were the software industry at one point, the notion of having to share the web with others is something that I think gets lost once you get onto 156th St. in Redmond. This is a big part of the reason why I don't see a lot of future in shops that specialize in XAML. Microsoft doesn't like to share. They want to wrest the publishing market away from Adobe. They want to take the multimedia market away from Macromedia, and they want to kill and bury the open standards web once and for all. Creating an alternative interpretor for XAML is useful to them only for so long as they don't have something out themselves -- it means that they get the benefit of growing a development community without the expense of tech support or user education. However, the day that Microsoft releases Windows 2006(+?) will be the day that all of these companies get served with legal notices, because having any other than the canonical version of XAML out there means that Microsoft becomes tied into a community development process that limits their options for future API development. I agree with you that setting a definite date in the sand may very well be the spur that's needed to coallesce the opposition into putting together a decent cogent package for data binding, GUI, model abstractions and so forth. Let's see who actually sees the opportunity for what it is. Source: http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2004/08/long-haul-to-longhorn.html#comments What's your take? Do you agree with Kurt that Microsoft wants, quite literally, to recreate the web on their terms? - Gerald PS: Kurt Cagle will speak at the next VanX meeting in January. See http://vanx.org/next_meeting.htm for details. ------------------------------------------------------- SF email is sponsored by - The IT Product Guide Read honest & candid reviews on hundreds of IT Products from real users. Discover which products truly live up to the hype. Start reading now. http://productguide.itmanagersjournal.com/ _______________________________________________ xul-talk mailing list xul-talk@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xul-talk
