Win8 M3 (7989) findings relevant to Managed .net & WPF/SL developers

[SilverlightWPF]

This post continues on from the original thread where I post my findings on 7955 directed more for the WPF/SL developer.


http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...-SL-developers

[SilverlightWPF]

This is the tree for 7955 WinMetaData





This is the tree for 7989 WinMetaData

[SilverlightWPF]

Last time i analyzed the api's for Automation it was 7955 and now we are at 7989 (44 point versions since then)..

AND the good news is it's made it's way into the WindowsRuntime framework and as expected it made it into the UIElement, the most logical place to put them..

This is the original post where we talk about it missing : http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...l=1#post446224


What's interesting is that in WPF/Silverlight Desktop it was contained in an interface IAutomationPeer that was implemented in UIElement. Windows Phone Silverlight didn't have it as it handled automation differently (not sure how but it did)







In the new bits it is found in a completely new interface called IUIElementOverrides, which probably means most of the unnecessary methods go in here and thus not polluting the main UIElement...







Here are the WinMD api's for Automation, WinRT/WinMD is turning out to be an all encompassing api .. . VERY







Will this approach break compatibility between WPF/SL and WindowsRuntime , in the long run most probably..

I definetely think this was a good approach to take by the Windows 8 team.


It's interesting watching the API evolve, I wonder if part of the DevDiv Silverlight/WPF team (there the same now) are working on these api's or if it's a completely new internal WinDiv team.. I need to ask at build!

[NaiveUser]

look at Program Files\Microsoft\Windows.glcnd\ lots of XAML files.

[SilverlightWPF]

look at Program Files\Microsoft\Windows.glcnd\ lots of XAML files.

oooooo wow, next on my list to start investigating!!

[Panda X]

This is the tree for 7955 WinMetaData





This is the tree for 7989 WinMetaData

Where's the DirectUI stuff at? Has it been there pre Win8? (XP, Vista, 7?)

[SilverlightWPF]

Where's the DirectUI stuff at? Has it been there pre Win8? (XP, Vista, 7?)

it's all within the "windows.ui.directui.*" namespace

[coolio2]

[QUOTE=SilverlightWPF;449145] I wonder if part of the DevDiv Silverlight/WPF team (there the same now) [QUOTE]

how you no they same one now??? can you see are directui.controls more yet??? thanks!

[Panda X]

it's all within the "windows.ui.directui.*" namespace

I see that, I meant something else though but it doesn't matter. I find it interesting because most of the explorer uses DirectUI now and I wasn't aware it could be accessed via .NET.

[SilverlightWPF]

A while ago i mentioned how Win8 through its WinRT/WinMD is introducing some new concepts to the collection namespace. It was debatable if they were complely new concepts or just rewording of existing ones, regardless we are now starting to see concrete implementations of these collection types..

Here was the original post talking about the collections:

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/thr...l=1#post446316


In 7955 we really didn't have a good view on how these collection types were being used, the good news is in 7989 we now have a better picture..

Of interest is the VectorView , could this be a better way to build optimized & performant UI's that need to render large lists?! Total guess here BUT i think yes.

We saw concepts introduced over time to help the WPF/Silverlight/WP7 to better handle large lists and scrolling (virtualization, composition thread, caching, network call optimizations etc. etc. ). Even with those optimizations we still had problems with the scrollbar and how it rendered with virtualized large lists, problems with pixel based scrolling etc ...

I'm guessing that this new VectorView will help solve that problem... total personal guess here BUT if it does, AWESOME.. I've been dying for a solution to these problems.

Below is the interface for Vector/VectorView, as you can see a Vector produces a VectorView when a GetView is requested.

IVectorView




IVector





And bellow are the common collection based controls where we use the IVector/IVectorView. Of interest is a new control called ListView which im guessing is a more optimzed ListBox for readonly vieweing. Nice..


ListBox





ItemsControl





ItemsCollection




ListViewBase





ListView





So many questions raised, i really hope Microsoft bring out it's windiv devdiv guns to answer them all!