Share via

Better than the dream...

  • Article

We just finished wrapping up the May CTP release of Cider and we're really excited about how far we've come since the Feb CTP!

Of course, it is important to remember that these are still very early previews of the direction that we are taking Cider.  That said, we haven't added any new features, in fact we've cut some and have really shored up the behaviors and quality.  Check out the release notes.

For this release, my main area of focus was serialization.  In the Feb CTP, unless you had a relatively simple XAML file, it probably didn't load.  Not true in the May CTP -- the support for XAML Load is greatly improved, have a look at some of these cool UIs loaded in Cider:

healtcare mediamania welcomescreen HyperBar

Click on them to see a larger version.

Of course, there are some caveats -- these have been modified to work around my documented XAML Load Limitations. 

The biggest issues you'll run into are:

  1. No in-project references are supported, and only file referenced assemblies are supported.  https://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Cider.MayCTPProjectLimitations
  2. StaticResource references are not resolved in Application.Resources.  https://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Cider.MayCTPResourceLimitations
  3. External (i.e. separate XAML file) ResourceDictionaries and MergedDictionaries are not supported.  https://channel9.msdn.com/wiki/default.aspx/Cider.MayCTPResourceLimitations

Nonetheless, it's a very exciting release that's definetly worth checking out.  The May CTP is tied to the Windows Beta 2.  In order to try this out you'll need:

Additionally, you may be interested in:

Have fun and let me know what you think!  If your XAML file doesn't load, please post the project and description to the Cider Forum.

Comments