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XAML Development Today, But Not From Microsoft 242

Paul Colton writes "My company, Xamlon, has just released its flagship product, also called Xamlon. It allows for XAML development on all supported Windows platform, from Win98 through Longhorn. We're also investigating Mono and Java as possible development targets. CNET recently wrote a story of our launch."
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XAML Development Today, But Not From Microsoft

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  • Promotions? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mfh ( 56 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:25AM (#10451573) Homepage Journal
    My company, Xamlon, has just released its flagship product, also called Xamlon.

    Thank you for your nice advertisement. No seriously. Why post a story to Slashdot about your own product or service? That is what the millions of Slashdotters around the net are for. It's hard enough for one of us to get a story posted... now we have to compete with the source?

    It allows for XAML development on all supported Windows platform, from Win98 through Longhorn.

    That's an example of why you should allow journalists to do their job and report news. You forgot to pluralize platform. Your sentence should read, It allows for XAML development on supported Windows platforms.

    Grammatically, you can't possibly list supported operating systems in the article by date without explaining yourself, so you should have linked to a page [xamlon.com] that would show the supported operating system. But even that page is scarce with info about supported operating systems and says: "The engine is .NET 1.1 compatible and runs on any .NET 1.1 platform (Windows 98 - Longhorn)", which is only specific if the reader knows which operating systems are included in the subset Windows 98 - Longhorn, and many do not. If you meant that you could support any operating system released since Windows 98, why didn't you just say that? It leads the reader to think that maybe there is an OS that is not supported somewhere in that subset, but you are not reporting it because of some business reasons.

    Yes, I think your product seems quite wonderful. But you're going about promotion the wrong way. I happen to like the fact that you're competing with Microsoft based off their own specs!

    FTA: Xamlon built the program from the published technical specifications of Microsoft's own user interface development software, which Microsoft itself doesn't plan to release until 2006.

    Doesn't that open your company up for lawsuits? (IANAL)
    • Re:Promotions? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by flibuste ( 523578 )

      You are right...Why is that allowed on Slashdot?

      I have the awful idea that it's only because of the "Microsoft didn't do it before us" thing.

      The post is probably yet another mean for happy ./oters to bark against Microsoft

      Frankly, I do not appreciate this attitude from Slashdot. Posters should focus on technology and not who's selling what and when.

      • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:40AM (#10451763)
        The post is probably yet another mean for happy ./oters to bark against Microsoft

        ./oters?
        Dot-Slashoters? Sounds like some funky teenage slang for drugs.
      • Who cares? (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Sqwubbsy ( 723014 )
        I'll probably get modded as flaming, but...
        If it's a tool that will help developers working in XML it shuold be promoted.
        If you don't wnat to read it, then don't.
        Nobody's forcing you.
    • Re:Promotions? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jarich ( 733129 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:29AM (#10451630) Homepage Journal
      Why post a story to Slashdot about your own product or service?

      Because it is a technical product that many technically minded people would care about...

      • by Tenebrious1 ( 530949 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:42AM (#10451775) Homepage
        Why post a story to Slashdot about your own product or service?

        Because it is a technical product that many technically minded people would care about...


        If /. were just about fuel cell powered, linux running, beowulf-clustered, fighting room vacs, we couldn't pass off reading it as *work*. Having an article about XAML in one tab, we can flip to that when the PHB walks by and say "yeah, I was just keeping up with tech... cool stuff this XAML..."

    • Thank you for your nice advertisement. No seriously. Why post a story to Slashdot about your own product or service? That is what the millions of Slashdotters around the net are for. It's hard enough for one of us to get a story posted... now we have to compete with the source?

      You know, I tend to agree. If he wants to get his story posted to Slashdot, he shouldn't submit it here. He should do what everyone else does. Send his story to Roland Piquepaille [weblogs.com]. Roland will then be the person to merely copy al

      • I've wondered what the deal was with "the Piquepaille content filter" /. occasionally applies to article postings.

        Roland's penchant for lifting text is legendary. It appears he has diversified and now rips-off graphics and layout [weblogs.com] from other popular sites [groklaw.net] as well.

        I, for one, welcome our shameless plugging overlords..at least when they have something interesting to say like Xamlon.
    • by spookymonster ( 238226 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:06PM (#10452061)
      You forgot to pluralize platform. Your sentence should read, It allows for XAML development on supported Windows platforms.

      Grammatically, you can't possibly list supported operating systems in the article by date without explaining yourself, so you should have linked to a page [xamlon.com] that would show the supported operating system.


      Mr. Pot, meet Mr. Kettle.
    • by WebCowboy ( 196209 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:19PM (#10452187)
      Why post a story to Slashdot about your own product or service? That is what the millions of Slashdotters around the net are for. It's hard enough for one of us to get a story posted... now we have to compete with the source?

      Amen brotha! Give me distorted third and fourth hand information any day. Slashdot is going to hell in a handbasket...now they're posting articles from the sources. What's next, original news content? Man I can barely tolerate original book and movie reviews. Perish the thought...

      Either you were trying to be funny (I find the statement above in particular amusing), or you aren't in the journalism business. Generally, readers prefer information from "the source". I hate to break it to you, but a large part of "journalism" is driven by press releases. Over half of the content of typical magazines and newspapers is of the nature of this article.

      I can also say you're not a struggling self-employed tech professional if you think Xamlon is going about it's promotion the wrong way. This guy managed to get column inches on two huge websites for next to nothing. I'd say they've made a promotional coup!

      Yes, it is a shameless plug. However it seems to me that in marketing you have to check your pride at the door and plug away. At least this poster isn't like some others and included more than just links to his own site. Beyond that, regardless of the source of the information, it is a very intriguing development. A brash upstart was able to implement behemoth Microsoft's specs before Microsoft itself does? That sure takes the wind out of Longhorn's sales if you ask me. The possibility/likelyhood of it running on Linux/MONO floors me...that would be awesome! To think that it could technically be possible to make Longhorn-compatible apps that run on Linux before Longhorn is even released...amazing.

      You DO bring up a very important question though:

      Doesn't that open your company up for lawsuits?

      What do the license agreements attached to Microsoft's specs say about this? I remember rumblings about not being able to implement them without Microsoft's blessing, or the possibility that MS has/plans to incumber the license to such specs with restrictions forbidding their use in GPL/LGPL implementations. OTOH, Mono is a GPL/LGPL implementation of a MS spec and they have not faced legal challenges. This could be because the CLR and C# have been submitted to standards organisations. If MS is trying to maintain good will in the community and wants to make XAML an official standard then they may not be able to prevent others from implementing their specs. Does anyone out hter know the real legal situation here?
    • so you should have linked to a page that would show the supported operating systems

      What? Then he would have to pay the bandwidth bill of a /.ing. This way he gets free advertising and CNet foots the bill.
    • Re:Promotions? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pluggo ( 98988 )
      Why are you nitpicking? For one thing, the non-pluralization... why give the guy a hard time about a typo? I mean, at least one person (timothy) had to retype (or at least cut-and-paste) the story. He could have fixed that.

      Now, this is a product aimed at developers, and the story is on Slashdot. I think it's a pretty safe assumption that anyone who is in either (or both) of those crowds *probably* knows whether their platform is in the subset of Win98-Longhorn. *I* certainly understood it; I'm sorry if *yo
  • One Step Ahead (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) * on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:25AM (#10451578) Homepage Journal
    Lots of luck keeping up with Microsoft. Once they find they have competition they'll undoubtably come up with some stinky way to break your applications. Partners are less likely do suffer such a fate, but sometimes do anyway if Microsoft believes they need to retain all creative control.

    Of course, I could also be a cynic, considering Colton sold Live Software, he may be positioning his new venture for a buyout by Microsoft.

    Ob Simpsons: OK, boys, buy him out! .. I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks.

    • Since they're promising it's compatible with Longhorn (due out in 2137AD), they have clearly developed time travel. I would have thought that the better lead, even on slashdot!
    • The other option would be that of a buyout situation. Rather than develop the technology themselves, Microsoft could just buy the company. This has worked for them a couple of dozen times.
      • Could this be the business model of the future? Announce a technology and write a standard, wait for a competitor to develop it, then buy that competitor and market their work?!
    • Lots of luck keeping up with Microsoft. Once they find they have competition they'll undoubtably come up with some stinky way to break your applications.

      In this case, I doubt it. What Xamlon is doing is helping Microsoft's technology gain mindshare. It's not like they're creating a similar, but different technology that is threatening to shut Microsoft out of a particular market.

      For reference, see Chili!Soft ASP (although I think Sun might have bought that product out), which existed for many years des
    • "Of course, I could also be a cynic, considering Colton sold Live Software, he may be positioning his new venture for a buyout by Microsoft."

      Best guess, that's the exit strategy. As Woody Allen wrote: " the Lions and the Lamb will lie together, but the Lamb will get very little sleep."

      He may be working on versions for operating systems other than windows, but my guess is that these version will not see the light of day until Longhorn is available, for the simple reason that otherwise MS would morph t
  • I will ask again. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DAldredge ( 2353 ) <SlashdotEmail@GMail.Com> on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:25AM (#10451582) Journal
    One again, how much does one of the slashvertizements cost? I have some clients that would love to buy one but I am unable to get a price from you.

    Please let me know so we can do business together!
    • Simple, if one of your clients products are "We do it first/better than Microsoft" or "We support open source and plan on openning up the source to our product" (note, you just have to 'plan' on opening it up, you don't have to actually do it), then Taco and Co will be HAPPY to advertise free of charge, simply submit the article!
      • by AstroDrabb ( 534369 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:10PM (#10452094)
        (note, you just have to 'plan' on opening it up, you don't have to actually do it)
        This is exactly what this post is doing. The product is MS Windows ONLY and will stay that way. However, to get a /. posting, the slime put this in the article:
        We're also
        investigating Mono and Java as possible development targets
        Yup, and I am sure that "investigation" will turn into anything. The product only runs under MS Windows, and only works with IE. Even if they did get it to work with Mono/Java, what about the IE requirement? I cannot stand MS Windows only stuff, but MS Windows only stuff that only works on IE is bottom-of-the-barrel technology to me.

        This is just some dude trying to hype his product (for free) so it gets bought out and he can cash in. Move along /. nothing interesting here.

    • Re:I will ask again. (Score:3, Informative)

      by kfg ( 145172 )
      . . .how much does one of the slashvertizements cost?

      One set of balls big enough to submit selfpromotion as a story. A bonus point if they're big, fat, hairy monkey balls.

      KFG
    • This product is newsworthy.

      An informative article by C|Net is linked.

      I'm glad to hear about it. It's annoying to see press releases on the /. front page... but that's not what this is.

      The person who submitted it is doing it out of self interest, but I don't care. Quit your fockin whining.
      • Now, items like the ones below are "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters". Funny how you do not see such articles being posted to /. any more.

        Covad Communications is beginning technical trials of a DSLAM-based POTS offering that could allow its customers an alternative to the difficulties of unbundled network elements-platform and line sharing-based plans as soon as early next year.

        Covad's DSLAM supplier, Nokia, debuted a new POTS line card for its D500 IP DSLAM at the Broadband World Forum show in Venice,
    • "slashola [caedmon.net]"

      S
  • Pretty slick... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by foistboinder ( 99286 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:25AM (#10451585) Homepage Journal
    My company, Xamlon, has just figured out a way to advertise its flagship product on Slashdot.
    • Hey, this guy freely admits that he works for that company. He may be promoting himself, but he isn't a slimeball.

      I'm sure that many other companies submit articles about their products, but incognito.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:29AM (#10451624)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by RAMMS+EIN ( 578166 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:02PM (#10452007) Homepage Journal
      Well, XAML and XUL are similar technologies with similar goals. As far as that goes, Mozilla seems to have been there first, and is open source. They are therefore the preferred party. Microsoft has marketing dollars, so they are probably going to attract most developers.
    • It's also not obvious from the article if XAML is cross browser capable. Does it spit out web standards based HTML/XHTML or whatever or does it use an IE only browser plugin? They say it only supports IE on windows platforms but they're looking at Mono and Linux. Does this mean the development tool only runs on windows or that XAML will only ever run on IE?
      • by AstroDrabb ( 534369 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:22PM (#10452219)
        They say it only supports IE on windows platforms but they're looking at Mono and Linux.
        The poster just said that to get this /. post approved. I RTFA and the site. This product is completely MS _ONLY_. It needs MS Visual Studio 2003 .Net, MS .Net 1.1, MS Windows and MS IE. Nothing else will work. The bum who posted this topic is just looking to get his company bought out (by getting free /. advertising), so don't think he/they will ever develop this technology further to work on non-MS stuff.
    • by polin8 ( 170866 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:33PM (#10452315) Homepage

      XUL is a great idea, but it will never catch on unless a GUI designer is created. Hand coding UI xml sucks, hand coding UI rdf+xml is approximately as anal retentive as pointalism. [sd42.ca] XAML is noticably less verbose [joemarini.com] than XUL [ar-ent.net] and I can almost guarantee that there will be a nice GUI designer for it.

      No, XAML is not better than XUL, XUL is badass tech, but the outlook for its adoption is bleak at the moment. A nice GUI designer and pyXPCOM could fix that though.

      • by Abcd1234 ( 188840 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:39PM (#10452377) Homepage
        What, you mean like this [mozdev.org]?
        • What, you mean like this?

          Looking at the xulmaker web page, I don't have high hopes for it:

          • Last release (0.51) August 10, 2004 (good), but the previous release (0.50) was over a year earlier (June 25, 2003 -- bad).
          • No mailing lists (none that I can find).
          • From the project status:

            The latest release of XULMaker is Version 0.51 which was released on August 10, 2004. XULMaker 0.51 is known to work with Mozilla 1.6 and Netscape 7.1 (and most likely with older versions - going back as far a

          • At the bottom of the page:

            Contributors Wanted

            If you are interested in contributing to the XULMaker project please contact me, Franklin de Graaf. In particular, I would especially appreciate some help from a graphic designer to do/redo the element icons, etc.

            You are also invited to join the mailing list [mozdev.org] and read the newsgroup [mozdev.org]. This is where most of the discussion about XULMaker will take place.

            That should take care of most questions, or at last Mr. de Graaf can answer them. I didn't post his ema

        • > What, you mean like this?

          Essentially, yes. However, I reserve judgment until I see a useful application developed with it. Last time I looked at that project it hadn't released in a year or so.
    • It also competes with the next generation of W3C tech, like xforms.
  • A wise choice (Score:4, Insightful)

    by SnakeStu ( 60546 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:29AM (#10451628) Homepage
    Having a flagship product named the same as the company name short-circuits this process for the clue-deficient. How many of has have heard their less-technically-literate people complain that their "Microsoft" crashed? (And of course, who among us would correct such an error, since it has such a nice ring to it...)
    • Much like when I interview people for the Art Department. I read the resume and see "Adobe" as known applications.

      Some people ask if we have "Adobe."

      I always have to ask "Adobe what?"

      "The program," they reply.

      Most people don't realize that A, Adobe is a company, and B, there is more to Adobe than Photoshop... I hate school-trained graphic artists... They don't know anything.
  • by codepunk ( 167897 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:32AM (#10451666)
    Why on earth would anyone use XAML over XUL which runs everywhere on every platform?
    • You can create an XAML form by dragging and dropping widgets in VS.NET? And code the backend of your application with any .NET language? That it will work in Internet Explorer without additional software (according to the demo), which has a vastly larger user base compared to Mozilla?
    • by BitwizeGHC ( 145393 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:45AM (#10451820) Homepage
      It is Nick Petreley's law of the computer press, but it also applies to mainstream IT acceptance. Things just don't catch on in the corporate world until Microsoft comes up with a shoddy implementation of the exact same technology.

      We've had X11 around for years now, but you didn't really see network-transparent GUIs and thin-client computing with a GUI catch on until Microsoft Terminal Server came out.
    • cause XUL (which version? Mozilla) sucks. It's only benefit is that it can embed HTML. For menus and such, it's usually better to build the html+javascript serverside and then send it to the browser. Even if that means shipping a lightweight server with your client-only app. For any complex gui, you're still stuck with an applet or activex type object. For all the real work of an application, you're going to need access to files, sockets, databases, and other libraries, which bluntly, xpcom mostly can
  • by codepunk ( 167897 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:38AM (#10451729)
    Build something usefull like a xul plugin for internet exploder.
  • Enough! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Enough for the advertisement already. Create a section for that, unchecked by default.
  • Deeper and Deeper (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mreed911 ( 794582 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:39AM (#10451739)
    CNET recently wrote a story of our launch

    Really now... have we sunk *that* low? We're cross-referencing slashvertisements with ad-articles from other news sites with commercial interests of their own?

    No matter how good XAMLon is, I (and likely other /.'ers) are much less likely to even *look* at the web site/article now... /. effect or not.

    :(
    • Re:Deeper and Deeper (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Swamii ( 594522 )
      No matter how good XAMLon is, I (and likely other /.'ers) are much less likely to even *look* at the web site/article now... /. effect or not.

      Slashdotters won't look at the site, especially since it's slashdotted. I've got a conundrum for ya Trebek!
  • Enough is enough! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by i_r_sensitive ( 697893 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:40AM (#10451755)
    The fine editorial staff at /. must be asleep at the wheel.

    MMD (mod me down), but really, is this news? Or even news-worthy... If I tried segueing another post into such a schmalzy plug for my product the readership would MMD into next year.

    So why does the inspired editorial staff think this is worthy of it's own post?

    Editorial staff, if folk want to plug their crap on /. let em do it through the existing banner ads. Make 'em pay for the privelege.

    Or maybe he did pay for the privelege...

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Hrm (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ageitgey ( 216346 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:45AM (#10451814) Homepage
    Avalon + XAML = Xamlon

    Trademark infringement case in 3.. 2..

    At least Lindows was only borrowing -dows from Microsoft. I'd hate to see what happens when you borrow both parts.
    • At least Lindows was only borrowing-dows from Microsoft

      That's your uncle speaking...

      No, Luke, I am your father...

      But seriously, the first "in" in Lindows could be from Linux or from Windows. I'm sure Microsoft sees it as their product's name just with a different first character.

  • by Morgaine ( 4316 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:46AM (#10451825)
    Oh wait, we've got several of those already.

    Meanwhile us old timers just repeat the mantra "The Internet is not the web" over and over .... :-)
  • New Section (Score:3, Interesting)

    by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:47AM (#10451846)
    How about a "Products" section where stories about fancy new program X can be posted and the people who are interested in them can read the slashvertisments to their heart's delight. Stories like this which are really just an advertisment for something there doesn't appear to be a lot of interest in don't belong on the front page.
  • by idontgno ( 624372 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:48AM (#10451859) Journal
    and in-page advertisement:

    Entire story is (apparently) paid advocacy of product in support of Microsoft technology.

    Banner ad is for Newsforge's "The Futility of Arguing with Paid Advocates" article.

    Quoting:
    Robin "Roblimo" Miller writes: I had exactly one question for Brown: "How much would it cost to have you stop putting our Microsoft party line and start advocating Linux instead?"

    So I put that same question to the editors! How much did it cost to have you start putting out the Microsoft party line?

    /me ducks incoming...

  • What is XAML? (Score:3, Informative)

    by HateBreeder ( 656491 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:55AM (#10451934)
    For those of you wondering, here's a short explanation from www.xaml.net:

    Transaction Authority Markup Language (XAML) is a vendor-neutral standard that enables the coordination and processing of online transactions in the rapidly emerging world of XML web services - the revolutionary new model of Internet-based computing that is now being adopted by all major systems and software vendors. XAML is intended to be a completely open standard for web-based business transactions.

    The standard defines a set of XML message formats and interaction models that web services can use in order to provide business-level transactions that span multiple parties across the Internet.
    • I'm amazed how this got modded 'Informative' when the definition isn't even correct. In the article's context they are referring to XAML as the Microsoft Extensible Markup Language. Well...then again I guess I'm not amazed.
    • LOL, you mean Microsoft didn't even invent the acronym? Reminds me of the Tom Lehrer song about Lobachevsky:

      I never forget the day my first book is published
      Every chapter I stole from somewhere else
      Index, I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory

      (note that, at the time, Vladivostok probably didn't even have telephone)
  • by Sqwubbsy ( 723014 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @11:58AM (#10451973) Homepage Journal
    My company tried getting into XML but found that HTML solves most of our issues, while XML was way too complicated for our web pages.

    I mean, we couldn't even find a tag for BOLD. Any tool that will make XML easier would sure be welcome by the developers at our firm.
  • This is a nit-pick but we should not be sloppily using the term Clone, which the biotech folks have given a precise meaning. If you have built a product to an open and published spec from scratch rather than by borrowing or reusing library or other component software, I'd say you have co-evolved software. Your implementation could wind up being very different, under the hood, from whatever MS eventualy delivers in fulfillment of its spec. A clone is a copy at the implementation level in biology, not at t
    • Let me put his another way: "cloned" software gets the cloner sued by the clonee, "work-alike" software has a shot at the market share it deserves and nobody cares who wrote the requirements/specs for the product; those just a wish list and you can't get sued for makeing a wish come true just because some other guy did the wishing.
  • by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) * on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:04PM (#10452039)
    Great work furthering Microsoft guys! I'm sure your mothers must be very proud that you are helping giant corperations across the street like this, where they can then push you in front of a truck.

    If you want to do the world a favor, try to spread Mozilla's XUL around. Develop a plugin that lets you run XUL apps in IE. Work on a dev environemnt for XUL.
    • "If you want to do the world a favor, try to spread Mozilla's XUL around."

      I'm pretty sure the point of this guy's company isn't to do the world a favor, but rather to do his bank account a favor. With that in mind, it makes a lot of sense why he'd be aligning himself with M$. I don't think XUL will be generating any IPOs in the near future...

  • by Skraut ( 545247 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:14PM (#10452132) Journal
    Grab the Nuke Anything [mozilla.org] extension for firefox. Highlight the slashvertisement, right click and choose remove selection.

    *Poof* It's gone. It's just temporary, but it always makes me feel better at the end of the day.

  • by jrexilius ( 520067 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:18PM (#10452184) Homepage
    Let me know when it supports more than Winblows.

    Would love to use something like this for my company but I need cross-platform capability.

    Give me a version that outputs W3C spec compliant UI code and runs on either Linux, OSX, or Solaris and I will make the investment.

    And your website sign-up form is broken, by the way. At least it doesnt work in Mozilla on Linux. Would like to sign-up, but can't.
    • And your website sign-up form is broken, by the way. At least it doesnt work in Mozilla on Linux. Would like to sign-up, but can't.

      Honest question:

      Did you really expect it to work on a non-IE product? They can't make their flagship product compatible, why would they bother with the website?
      • If I were posting to slashdot I would make sure my site could handle both the load and non-IE browsers.

        I guess expecting intelligent engineering out of a software company that is MS-centric is a bit of a stretch, though.
        • I guess expecting intelligent engineering out of a software company that is MS-centric is a bit of a stretch, though.

          Ummm... maybe, just maybe, other users don't matter to them? It may surprise you but if you write a programming tool that only runs in Windows on IE, isn't it realistic to expect that your potential customers will be running some flavor of the same?

          And I take umbrage at your comment. I work for an MS-centric software company. I happen to think we do quite intelligent engineering.

          There
  • So many people are complaining about this being a slashvertisement. When there was a story about Yellow Dog 4 coming out no one complained. Or the distro with the swahili name. If announcing new software or new versions is so horrible why isn't everybody up in arms about the freshmeat section on the front page?

    If you really feel that FOSS is the better answer and that FOSS projects can compete solely on their merits then equal exposure is not only fair, it is critical to proving that. If someone posts abou
  • by Ingolfke ( 515826 )
    This is really some brilliant work. Paul saw an opportunity to take what will become a defacto standard when Longhorn is shipped (or shortly thereafter) and beat Microsoft to the punch. This is a great way for big companies to play with big giants like MS, and take advantage of their slow development times for huge projects.
  • From the article:

    The software giant has created the eXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML), which allows developers to create a Web page's layout using tags, rather than programming code.

    I thought this was called HTML...
  • Slashdot is a good way to attract readers... Why would it be OK to promote open-source software releases and not interesting non-open-source ones?

    Well, now that I think about it, let me take the opportunity to talk about XL, the future of programming [sf.net]. XAML is so passe, you know. This Xamlon act is the proof that it's no longer interesting: there is an implementation that works.

    No such problem with XL. It's a real, true to geek do-it-yourself futureware. Complete with almost-but-not-quite-working source co
  • by rnd() ( 118781 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @12:44PM (#10452425) Homepage
    With all the generously moderated posts about slashdot advertising, the herd has forgotten about this OPEN SOURCE PROJECT [myxaml.com] that does the same thing as Xamlon!
  • by Gary Destruction ( 683101 ) * on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @01:44PM (#10452958) Journal
    Microsoft is advertising XAMLON as being a key feature of Longhorn. With XAML available for Windows versions as early as 98, the upgrade cycle might be breaking. The outcome should be interesting.
  • by VStrider ( 787148 ) <giannis_mz@NOSPAm.yahoo.co.uk> on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @01:51PM (#10453011)
    XAML is still vaporware, MS could change the XAML specs lots of times till 2006. Applications based on Xamlon would probably need lots of modifications to work on MS XAML. And still you are only targeting windows.

    XUL on the other hand is multiplatform and you can code XUL apps right now. A problem with XUL atm is that you cann't write stand-alone apps. Your XUL apps need to run through a mozilla browser.

    That is all to change though, with the release of XRE http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xul/xre.html and GRE http://www.mozilla.org/projects/embedding/GRE.html

    I just hope these runtimes are released before MS releases XAML.
  • This Xamlon forum topic [xamlon.com] invites customers (presumably potential as well as current) to discuss why they'd find a port of Xamlon to Mono useful.

    Presumably such discussion is more likely to be taken into account should it go there rather than here.
  • by hqm ( 49964 ) on Wednesday October 06, 2004 @04:08PM (#10454259)
    Laszlo Systems [laszlosystems.com] just announced an open-source cross-platform XML/Javascript based app building tool. That is much more interesting news I would think.
  • by antic ( 29198 )
    Awesome. I'm going to bust this one out in Scrabble!

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