Home
Steve Gillmor sees a bright future for Microsoft’s latest initiative: Live Mesh.
Gary Edwards's Library tagged → View Popular
04 Jun 09
Shine on Silverlight and Windows with XAML • The Register : Tim Anderson
Excellent explanation and review from the Tim Anderson. I wonder how i missed this? Here is the summary statement:
"..... You can also extend XAML with custom objects. The main requirement is that classes used in XAML must have a parameterless constructor. The procedure is straightforward. Define a class; make sure your application has a reference to the assembly containing the class; then add a namespace declaration for the assembly. You can then define elements in XAML that map to your class, and at runtime these will become object instances. XAML has a curious story when it comes to formatted text, especially in Silverlight. In one sense it is rather limited. XAML has no understanding of common formats such as HTML, CSS or RTF, let alone the fancy new OOXML. Silverlight developers have to interact with the browser DOM in order to display HTML."
"... No escaping it: Silverlight .XAP bundle preserves the original XAML. That said, <b>XAML with WPF actually is a document format</b>. The full WPF has an element called FlowDocument and rich formatting capabilities. Silverlight lacks FlowDocument, but does have a TextBlock with basic formatting options via the inline <Run> object. It also supports the Glyph element. This is interesting because it is the core element in XPS, Microsoft's invented-here alternative to Adobe's PDF."
".... XPS uses a subset of XAML to describe fixed layouts. In consequence, and with some compromises, you can use Silverlight to display XPS."
"..... The bottom line is that XAML is a way of programming .NET declaratively. Its more intricate features improve the mapping between XAML and .NET. The result is we have design tools like Microsoft's Expression Blend and a clean separation between UI objects and program code, which is a considerable achievement."
".... As ever there's a downside, and with Microsoft it's the classic: this is thoroughly proprietary, and the schema issues make it difficult to validate with standard XML tools."
No mention of how the OpenXML <> XAML round-trip co
29 Jan 09
EU Might Force OEMs to Offer Choice of Browsers During Setup > Comments
Maybe the EU can right the marketplace and restore competition by identifying all proprietary formats, protocols and interfaces used by Microsoft in an anti-competitive way; then issue a directive to either replace these locks with open standard alternatives, or pay a monthly anti-competitive reimbursement penalty until such time as the end user effectively replaces these systems.
This approach is similar to the "WiNE solution" put forward to Judge Jackson as part of the USA anti-trust remedy. Judge Jackson favored a break up of Microsoft into two divisions; Operating systems and other businesses. Few believed this was enforceable, with many citing the infamous "Chinese Wall" claims made by Chairman Bill
28 Jan 09
What the EU might force Microsoft to do : comment by gary.edwards
I've pretty much stayed out of the EU action against Microsoft primarily because it misses the mark by so much. The browser is not the means by which Microsoft seeks to create a Web based monopoly. MSIE is a useful tool used to frustrate Web developers and systems providers, but we are way beyond the point where removing/replacing MSIE becomes an effective remedy to Microsoft monopolist abuses. Way beyond!
There is however no doubt in my mind that the browser is going to be the portable WebOS of the future. The problem is that browser runtimes are also host for proprietary runtime plug-ins. Like MS Silverlight! Read on freind. My comments are three part, and posted down the line, somewhere around 183. Heavy on the WebKit stuff as usual! Look for "gary.edwards".
23 Dec 08
SVG Is The Future Of Application Development | SitePoint »
I could see this coming a mile away, ana it's about time! ".... So if HTML can’t deliver for us here, what will? Microsoft wants us to use Silverlight and Adobe wants us to use Flash and AIR, of course. And Apple…? Apple ostensibly wants us to use HTML5’s canvas. Both Microsoft’s and Adobe’s contenders are proprietary, which seems to be reason enough for web developers to avoid them to a certain degree, and all of them muddy HTML, which is a dangerous thing for the semantic web.
But Apple actually has a trick up its sleeve. Like Mozilla’s been doing with Firefox, Apple has quietly been implementing better support for SVG, the W3C’s Recommendation for XML-based vector graphics, into WebKit. SVG delivers the same kind of vector graphics capabilities that Flash does, but it does so using all the interoperability benefits that XML brings along for the ride.
SVG is great for graphically displaying both text and images, manipulating them with declarative visual primitives, and it comes with a host of lickable effects. Ironically, SVG was originally jointly developed by both Adobe and Sun Microsystems but recently it’s Sun Labs that has been doing interesting stuff with the technology. The most compelling experiment of this kind has to be Sun Labs’s Lively Kernel project....."
03 Oct 08
Ballmer offers more on 'Windows Cloud' | Beyond Binary - A blog by Ina Fried - CNET News
"Just as we have an operating system for the PC, for the phone, and for the server, we need a new operating system that runs in the Internet,".... "Windows Cloud will be a place where you can run arbitrary applications up in the Internet that runs .NET." ..... "a shift in Microsoft's overall developer tools, means putting .Net in the browser, which we've done with our Silverlight technology," Ballmer said.... "PC applications have better user interface, and you can integrate them more. Browser applications run on non-Windows machines, and they're easier to manage. We need to bring the benefits of both of those things together on Windows, and through our Silverlight technology permit the targeting of other systems."
15 Sep 08
Word 2007 XAML Generator - Home
Project Description
A Word 2007 Add-in that converts the Office Open XML (WordprocessingML) to XAML:
For WPF, the document is converted into a FlowDocument element.
For Silverlight 2 the document is converted into a StackPanel element containing TextBlock elements.
10 Sep 08
Microsoft's Response to Google Chrome... - Google Docs
Matt Assay has posted an interesting article arguing the point of view that Google Chrome will have a difficult time catching up Microsoft SharePoint. While everyone is moving to the Web, many will be surprised ot find that Microsoft is already there. Very surprised.
Microsoft's response to Google Chrome? SharePoint | The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET News
It's surprising how many people are still asleep at the wheel while Microsoft continues to nurture perhaps its fastest-growing product (in terms of revenue) ever: SharePoint.
The Web has been aflutter with Google Chrome discussions since it was released last week, much of it centering on Google's strategy to drive a stake through the heart of Microsoft's Windows business by shifting the operating system to the cloud, rendered in a browser.
Such talk overlooks the fact that Microsoft has already started to move its own Windows business to the cloud, rendered in SharePoint.
14 Aug 08
IE aims to embrace the web again | Technology | The Guardian
-
I asked Hachamovitch, who has led the Explorer team since 2003, why it has taken Microsoft so long to address these deficiencies. "It comes down to what we were doing with our time," he said. "Between 2001 and 2003 we were building what you experience now as Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight."
These technologies display not HTML, the language of web pages, but XAML, Microsoft's proprietary code for creating rich visual content.
-
It sounds good, but Hachamovitch's warmth begins to fade when I broach the vexed subject of browser scripting. The context is important. Hachamovitch had already stated that Microsoft spent three years neglecting IE for the sake of a more proprietary technology, which is now appearing on the web as a browser plug-in called Silverlight. This is similar in some ways to Adobe's Flash, and supports rich multimedia effects within web pages, as well as the ability to run applications written in Microsoft's .NET Framework.
- 1 more annotations...
04 Aug 08
Does your OS matter in a cloud? | It's the Business Process - not the Application! | TalkBack on ZDNet
The question proposed is tha tof how OSS will be impacted by SaaS and Cloud Computing? My position, as stated in this reply, is that OSS will become even more important going forward. The comment includes WebKit, XAML, Client/Server, and the great transition to Client/ Web-Stack /server models.
01 Jul 08
Microsoft Unleashes Stream of Docs in the Name of Interoperability
-
Yesterday, Microsoft announced the release of Version 1.0 technical documentation for Microsoft Office 2007, SharePoint 2007 and Exchange 2007 as an effort to drive greater interoperability and foster a stronger open relationship with their developer and partner communities. They also posted over 5000 pages of technical documentation on Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint binary file formats on the MSDN site royalty-free basis under Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise (OSP).
25 Jun 08
Nokia and Google: Too much emphasis on the mobile OS? | ge TalkBack on ZDNet
Interesting discussion about a universal web application layer able to wrok across devices, browsers and web service systems. I reponded with a very lengthy post about WebKit.
-
Although it appears that the mobile hardware providers are competing through the development of incompatible platforms, i think there's reason to be hopeful. There seems to be movement towards a universal web application model able to join legacy Web with an Open-Web future where devices, desktops, web-stacks, and clouds connect, access, exchange and collaborate with all kinds of information systems.
Above the metal, at the web application layer, there is a war between competing runtime engines. The recent Web 2.0 Conference was a showcase for Sun Java FX, Adobe RiA, and Microsoft .NET Silverlight. The exhibitors floor featured a large and prominent Microsoft Silverlight-Mesh island surrounded by Flex RiA providers, with currents of IT and developers asking the same question; Can Adobe run with Microsoft?
24 Jun 08
Is Microsoft slow to the punch on SOA, or just waiting for the right moment? | Joe McKendrick TalkBack on ZDNet
Extesnive reply to Joe McKendrik's article about Microsoft and SOA.
-
I agree with DonnieBoy. Microsoft will try to leverage their MSOffice monopoly to dominate the newly emerging marketplace of Web-Stack and Cloud Computing solutions. I also believe that for Microsoft, the final pieces of this puzzle fell into place on March 29th, 2008 with ISO approval of the MSOffice-OOXML document format.
05 Jun 08
Do we need two open source office suites? | TalkBack on ZDNet
Response to ZDNet article about Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice. Dana gets it terribly wrong, claiming that Lotus Symphony is "open Source". I respond by setting the record straight. Couldn't help myself though. I dove into the whole "rip out and replace", government mandates, ODF vs. OOXML thing. ending of course with the transition from client/server to client/Web-Stack/server and the future of the Web.
-
Symphony isn't based on Lotus 1-2-3 and AmiPro (WordPro). It's originally based on OpenOffice 1.1.4. And has since been updated by Sun's StarOffice group to OpenOffice 2 something.
The history here is that IBM ripped off the OpenOffice 1.1.4 code base when it was still under the dual SSSL-LGPL license. Here it languished as IBM "WorkPlace", finally to be released as Lotus Symphony.
29 May 08
The Fall of Microsoft Office
More confusion about the MS announcement of native support for ODF, with delayed support for whatever ISO finally determines to be ISO 29500; "OOXML". Damn but these guys are all twisted up about this. The truth is, ISO National Bodies traded their vote in favor of OOXML for MSOffice support for ODF and Microsoft's joining the OASIS ODF TC. It's not complicated. MS wants ISO approval of OOXML because it established MSOffice as a "standards" editor. The rest of this kurfufull is all about anti trust concerns and Microsoft's need to put htose concerns to bed before the world figures out that they are leveraging the MS desktop monopoly into an MS Web monopoly. ISO approval of OOXML is the final piece of very complex puzzle.
The harmonization of OOXML-ODF is impossible. MS knows this. So why not join OASIS ODF TC if it means putting aside the anti trust claims from ISO NB's and getting that all important standardization of OOXML? Both ODF and OOXML are both XML encodings of entirely application specific binary formats. There is no possible to way to reconcile the file formats without also reconciling the applications! Incuding feature sets and layout engines!!!! Impossible!!
The real game is the transition from client/server to the emerging client/Web-Stack/server model. MS is the "client" in client/server. No way were they about to give that up without a plan to control the transition of MSOffice documents to the emerging client/Web-Stack/server model. They sought to fully control the formats, protocols and API's of this new model. ISO handed it to them.
The thing to watch is the MSOffice SDK where one can find a very cool OOXML <> XAML converter. XAML is totally proprietary, but "web ready". Meaning, MSOffice is a "web ready" application. It's just that the web readiness is 100% MS .NET-Silverlight.
The great transition to client/Web-Stack/server is now on. Thanks to ISO. All this ODF stuff is just background noise designed to quiet the anti trust crowd. Despicable, but well done.
~ge~
-
On the same day that the state of New York published a report supporting open formats for electronic documents, mighty Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) said that it would support the open-source ODF format in Office 2007. Redmond's own Open Office XML specification may be heading for the great Recycle Bin in the sky, never to come back.
-
Add Sticky Note
- UH? When is this going to happen? How is it that OpenOffice, Google Docs and Zoho enter an existing MSOffice business workgroup? Where are the conversions of scripts, macros, OLE, security settings, data and media bindings? That's right. They are no where to be found. Which means that these application interlopers have no means of entering an existing MSOffice anchored workgroup, workflow or business process.
- on 2008-05-29
- UH? When is this going to happen? How is it that OpenOffice, Google Docs and Zoho enter an existing MSOffice business workgroup? Where are the conversions of scripts, macros, OLE, security settings, data and media bindings? That's right. They are no where to be found. Which means that these application interlopers have no means of entering an existing MSOffice anchored workgroup, workflow or business process.
- 1 more annotations...
16 May 08
Is MSOffice the new Netscape? | Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog:
Microsoft faces down threats from Google, IBM and SalesForce.com with it's threat to enterprise IT - MSOffice as the ultimate browser.
- Google Office productivity alternatives are "trapped inside the browser". MSOffice, Silverlight, Live Mesh and Adobe Flex "RIA" browser alternatives are comparatively feature rich and powerfull. - garyedwards on 2008-05-02
-
One of the cornerstones of Microsoft's competitive strategy over the years has been to redefine competitors' products as features of its own products. Whenever some upstart PC software company started to get traction with a new application - the Netscape browser is the most famous example - Microsoft would incorporate a version of the application into its Office suite or Windows operating system, eroding the market for the application as a standalone product and starving its rival of economic oxygen (ie, cash). It was an effective strategy as well as a controversial one.
-
Add Sticky NoteGoogle is trying to pull a Microsoft on Microsoft by redefining core personal-productivity applications - calendars. word processing, spreadsheets, etc. - as features embedded in other products. There's a twist, though. Rather than just incorporating the applications as features in its own products, Google is offering them up to other companies, particularly big IT vendors, to incorporate as features in their products.
It's easier to re purpose MSOffice for the Web rather than try to replace it. For consumers, replacing MSOffice is easy. For businesses and organizations that depend on MSOffice bound business processes, rip out and replace is impossibly difficult, disruptive and costly.
Microsoft owns the client in "client/server". They seek to own both the client and the Web-Stack in the emerging "client/Web-Stack/server" model. For Microsoft, this means controlling the transition of MSOffice bound business processes from the desktop to the Web-Stack.
To pull this off, Microsoft had to garner control of the formats and protocols future web enabled business processes would depend on. MSOffice does not produce clean, standards clompliant W3C HTML, XHTML, CSS, XForms, SVG, SWF, PDF or RDF. And it never will if Microsoft has their way.
Instead, Microsoft has provided these transitioning business processes with a complete set of proprietary dependencies based on ISO approval of MSOffice-OOXML and a conversion component to the proprietary XAML "fixed/flow".
XAML is of course part of the proprietary Windows Presentation Foundation layer set of technologies. Other aspects of WPF include Silverlight, Smart Tags and LINQ. All proprietary.
The Microsoft "Web-Stack" is based on the Exchange/SharePoint/SQL Server core, which has in recent years become an unstoppable juggernaut - rolling OSS and proprietary alternatives alike. The success of the MS Web-Stack is based on one simple advantage: superior integration and interop with the MSOffice-Outlook desktop "cliient".I would argue that MSOffice can be re purposed using the developer plug-in model provided for MSOffice, and, reverse engineering the relevant MSOffice-Outlook <> Exchange/SharePoint connecting protocols. Using the plug-in model, we are able to to produce standards compliant open web formats. Using the reverse engineering approach, we can tap and redirect connectivity channels and collaborative computing features.
Nick Carr waxes eloquent on the potential of Google Office alternatives. So far Google has been unable to lay a glove on the MSOffice business processes, enabling MS the time to get their ducks in order. ISO approval of MSOffice-OOXML establishes MSOffice as a standards compliant web editor. The December MSOffice SDK beta featured a slick and easy to implement OOXML <> XAML converter. And the MS Web-Stack juggernaut is rolling up businesses like nobodies business. The great transition is just beginning because finally, Microsoft is ready to put the desktop into play.
If Microsoft succeeds, we run the risk of breaking the web into two sides; the consumer web and the business web. Each side will have it's own formats, protocols and API's. since the consumer web will be based on open standards, it will be easy for Microsoft to coopt what they please, and disrupt where they see a challenge. The "business web" however will be based on MS WPF-.NET proprietary formats, protocols and API's. This web will be outside the reach of anyone but MS licensed and approved partners.
The problem Google faces is they will most likely be relegated to the consuemr web, while Microsoft will be in position to provide a converged platform for consuemr-business systems. Meaning, MS will threaten Google far more than Google will ever be able to threaten MS. Unless of course some smart guy figures out how to re purpose MSOffice before the juggernaut reaches critical mass.
~ge~
- on 2008-05-16
- 3 more annotations...
06 May 08
Live Mesh as the next information bus :: Incremental Blogger » Blog Archive »
More review of the Gilmopre Gang interview
03 May 08
What's up at the OpenDocument Foundation? Linux.com - Wikipedia Link
<p>The Wikipedia "OpenDocument Foundation" page is continually re edited, changing the factual truth to portray the Foundation in the worst light possible. Every time we try to repair the page to reflect the truth, the liars jump right back in. Is there a Wikipedia resolution for liies? Our facts can be verified by the five year history of the OASIS membership and ODF TC records that are public information.</p><p> This anonymous post to Joe Barr's Linux.com article is perhaps the best explanation on the Web of why the Foundation choose CDF, and could not use ODF.</p><p>Good explanation of MSOffice-OOXML and the MS Web-Stack :: MS Cloud.</p><p>No mention of the December 2007 MSOffice SDK beta that provided us with that first all important glimpse of the MSOffice-OOXML <> XAML converter component. I take it the article comment was written before that most important discovery. XAML "fixed/flow" is an alternative to W3C/ISO XHTML-CSS and ISO PDF.</p>
-
Re: Finally, the beef...<!-- #$loop:item['xar_title']# -->
<!-- show changelog -->
<!-- end changelog -->
Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 76.14.48.79]
on November 12, 2007 11:32 PM
02 May 08
Australia blows $51 million on Microsoft Office | One more reason for open source | The Open Road - The Business and Politics of Open Source by Matt Asay - CNET Blogs
Once again it's the business processes bound to MSOffice that bind users to MS products. The Massachusetts ODF Pilot Study first uncovered the business processes bound to MSOffice issue tha tmade implementation of ODF impossible. The IBM "rip out and replace" approach simply does nto work anywhere there are these bound business processes. Massachusetts CIO Louis Gutierrez correctly identified the problem and the solution: coem up with an ODF plug-in for MSOffice. Replace the docuemnt format - not the application and bound business processes.
-
Opposition Leader Martin Hamilton-Smith yesterday said the computer "blunder" saw thousands of Health Department computers loaded up with $675 versions of Microsoft Office software, which the computers did not use or need. Just 4000 of the 16,000 computers actually used the software, Mr Hamilton-Smith told Parliament.
Health Minister John Hill was quick to defend the decision and insisted that all of the licenses are in use (on "computers that monitored patients, analysed pathology data or kept patient records and staff records using specific software designed for those purposes"
30 Apr 08
Microsoft Silverlight - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Silverlight Wikipedia description
-
The international, non-profit European Committee for Interoperable Systems ("a coalition of Microsoft's largest competitors"[50]) fears that with Silverlight Microsoft aims to introduce content on the web that can only be accessed from the Windows platform. They argue that use of XAML in Silverlight is positioned to replace the cross-platform HTML standard. Effectively, if Silverlight usage becomes widespread enough, users will risk having to purchase Microsoft products to access web content[51].
California and several other U.S. states also have asked a District Judge to extend most of Microsoft's antitrust case settlement for another five years,[52] citing "a number of concerns, including the fear that Microsoft could use the next version of Windows to 'tilt the playing field' toward Silverlight, its new Adobe Flash competitor," says a Seattle Post-Intelligencer article.
Microsoft has also been criticized for not using the Scalable Vector Graphics standard for Silverlight, which, according to Ryan Paul of Ars Technica, is consistent with Microsoft's ignoring of open standards in other products, as well.[53] However, according to David Betz, an independent .NET technologies specialist, Microsoft would have needed to alter the SVG specification to add .NET integration and UI constructs on top of SVG to make it suitable for scenarios Silverlight uses markup for (UI and vector markup, by default). Consequently, the "choice by Microsoft to use XAML over SVG, served to retain the SVG standard by not adding proprietary technology [to extend SVG]".[54]
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Sponsored Links
Ads by Google
Top Contributors
Groups interested in XAML
Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information. Learn more »
Join Diigo
XHTML + CSS is the base. Add XForms, SVG and SMiL where needed. Study the work being done on microformats. Like most modern portable XML file formats, the basic packages are those of content and presentation. In CDF speak, this is XHTML content and CSS as the portable presentation package. ODF and MS-OOXML both struggle with the legacy tradition of the presentation package being application specific. Meaning, the portability is limited to other applications that are either of the same version, or, share the same layout and rendering model so that the exchange of the presentation package is lossless.