XAML Intellisense and Visual Studio 2008

When it comes to programming/development skills, I typically learn something new by reading a book, stepping through the code (if there is any), and creating some type of custom demo which I can understand. Back in the day, I would typically use C header files (which contain function prototypes) to explore a new api. Now a days, it is even easier if I'm able to use Visual Studio's Intellisense.

So, one of the new technologies I've been learning is Silverlight. An important aspect of the Silverlight development model are .XAML files. These are XML files which contain markup for an application (eXtensible Application Markup Language). However, I was somewhat stymied in my efforts to explore XAML because Visual Studio's Intellisense wasn't working for XAML files. I think I've figured out what was wrong.

There is a lot written on the web about no intellisense for XAML files - just google it. But nothing I seemed to do worked for me, until now. For me, it wasn't that I didn't have the proper XML Editor registered. Rather it was that I had one too many schema's signed up for XAML files.

When I examined the schema's property for my XAML file, I had three schema's used: silverlight.xsd, wpfe.xsd, xaml2006.xsd. Evidently, two of these files had the same schema for the XAML intellisense. So, I did a bit more research and found out that the silverlight.xsd must have been installed as part of a Silverlight SDK. Then when Visual Studio was upgraded, it didn't need it anymore. But instead of automatically handling both schemas, Visual Studio doesn't use either one. Hence, no Intellisense for XAML files.

So, I got rid of the silverlight.xsd and did one more thing. I changed XAML files default Open With from the XML editor to the Source Code Editor. Now I have XAML Intellisense (yea!).

Language Versions

Some of the languages I've learned and used in the past have been: FORTRAN, COBOL, 360 Assembler, PL/1, Pascal, C, and C++. Currently, almost all my work has been in C#. Prior to C#, the languages I have been very static. I had assumed the same of C#. While I'm cognizant of the fact that API change (like win16 to win32), I'm not really used to the notion of languages having versions. However, the .NET platform has shaken that basic assumption.

 There are a number of fundamental changes which have occured to C# since it's initial release. What has made this more abscure is that there have also been changes in the version of the .NET Framework leading to the following matrix:

This is somewhat confusing because there are framework versions, CLR versions, and language versions.

As I'm looking at doing some new work, I've been keeping current on the latest events in the .NET world. I've been pretty good about keeping up with changes in the framework api and changes in the CLR (per my review of Jeffrey Richter's book CLR via C# - it's a great book). However, since I've never expected much evolution of languages, I didn't pay too much attention to changes in the C# language. Well, I've been doing a little bit of updating lately. So what type of things have changed since version 1.1?

• Lambda expressions
• Expression trees
• The var keyword, object and collection intializations and anyonymous types
• Extension methods
• Partial methods
• Query expressions

Over the next/past couple of weeks, I'll be logging postings here which discuss these new features as well as what looks to be the future of ASP.NET and the data story coming out of Microsoft.

I use a Microsoft Wireless Elite Keyboard on my desktop system. It's nice because it is ergonomically designed and is easier on my wrists when I type. However, the keyboard driver remaps the function keys. It's driving me a bit crazy because it remaps them even when you're in Visual Studio. So, all the keys I'm used to using when I'm debugging are not working. For example, the F10 key means single step through the code in VS. The keyboard driver has remapped F10 to Spell Check. I tried disabling the keymap in the control panel but it disables the key, not just the spell check remapping. I'll try poking around the software a bit more but after that I think I'll change back to a keyboard I know works well with VS.