In my previous article I explored expanding enumerations into combo boxes and the markup that's required to achieve that effect. While the syntax for this approach is verbose what this means, in terms of what is possible within the bounds of markup, is very compelling - being able to call methods directly from markup really opens the door (or Pandora's box) on the possibilities for declarative programming within XAML.
Having said that what I would like to explore in this article is not the power of declarative programming but attempt to improve of the syntax and verbosity required for the solution provided; to that end I want to talk about "Markup Extensions". ()
Google Goodness
| Off Topic
I was just checking my and discovered that +55% of my traffic for this site, in the last 30 or so days, has been coming from Google search queries; I was intrigued to know what people were searching for to find my site and then what they found when they got here.
A quick look in Google Analytics -> Traffic Sources -> Keywords revealed that the top hit was "compilewith.net" (no surprises on a good hit rate there) followed by "wcf quickstart". That got my attention; I put the latter in to the browser and my WCF Quick Start Guide article was the top hit!
So at the timing of writing this post one of my articles is the #1 article on a (in the UK at least - I think on the search I'm #2). I must admit I'm quite chuffed. I don't know how long it'll last for, I also don't know if I'll ever manage it again - but hey, it's always nice to know that the stuff that you put "out there" is being read and hopefully helping others.
Enterprise Architecture
| Architecture, CommentUPDATE: This post was read out by Richard on DNR in the John Lam on the DLR show! My bit can be found about 5:30 minutes into the podcast. However, I have yet to see any swag :-D
I rarely blog about .Net Rocks! or any specific episode that Pwop have published; this is generally because I think all their content is golden; therefore all episodes have equal value and billing in my eyes, they should all be listened to (twice! at least!). However, the most recent broadcast warrants some additional comment:
It rocks! - if you are in anyway-what-so-ever involved in the architecture of an enterprise, right from requirements to implementation, you need to take an hour out of your day and listen to this.
The pieces that really struck home for me were the elements on:
- The pointless nature of canonical forms e.g. what is a Customer - man alive! If I hear that just one more time, I'm gonna...
- The common problem of the delivery of quality software to the tumbleweeds
Very refreshing to hear someone with experience (who is not a blue badge) who also has credibility within the industry talking pragmatically and honestly about architecture.
Carl and Richard I thank you for your all your content ("RunAs", "HanselMinutes" and "Mondays" very much included) and thanks also to Roger for this particular episode.
WPF and Binding Enums
| .Net, WPF
Data binding in WPF is probably one of the best stories of data binding that can be told today. My experiences go back as far as trying to data bind against Access 1.0 and VB 3, not a pretty sight. The story has gotten better over the years to a point where it was actually usable in Windows Forms on .Net 2.0; it would produce code that you would write... for the most part.
With WPF they raised the bar and now data binding is a trivial affair that requires very little mental RAM for it to work... for the most part. ()
With WPF they raised the bar and now data binding is a trivial affair that requires very little mental RAM for it to work... for the most part. ()
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