XAML Dialect Comparer Tool

Source code checked in, #15166

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Source code checked in, #15165

Project Collection Service Accounts — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 21:13:14 GMT

Checked in by server upgrade

Updated Wiki: Home

MarkusEgger — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:08:55 GMT

Project Description
This tool allows for comparison of different XAML dialects and utilized framework namespaces. Want to know if your Silverlight project will translate well to Windows 8 Metro? And whether your Metro assets can be reused in your Windows Phone app? And how about that WPF app?

This helpful tool provides some interesting metrics. Note that it only compares types/classes and all their members. It makes no comparison of behavior differences between classes and members of identical names.

Overview

The idea behind this utility is to compare different XAML "dialects" (WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, Metro) or, more accurately, the framework objects used by those dialects.

This first version is a rough draft that needs a lot of cleanup (and as a result has some serious performance issues, especially during first startup).

Questions? Contact Us!
Just because this tool is free, doesn't mean it's unsupported! If you have questions or need help analyzing your results, please contact Christopher Reynolds or call 832-717-4445 ext 13.

Updated Wiki: Home

MarkusEgger — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:06:45 GMT

Overview

Questions? Contact Us!
Just because this tool is free, doesn't mean it's unsupported! If you have questions or need help analyzing your results, please contact<a href="mailto:cReynolds@codemag.com"> Christopher Reynolds </a> or call 832-717-4445 ext 13.

Updated Wiki: Home

MarkusEgger — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:05:48 GMT

Overview

Updated Wiki: Home

MarkusEgger — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:03:13 GMT

Overview

Commented Issue: Account for Metro<->SL/WPF namespace changes [451]

MarkusEgger — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:22:34 GMT

Right now the tool straight-up compares namespaces and ignore the new Win8 Windows.* WinMD namespaces. A partial list of those namespaces can be found @ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/hh465136.aspx#porting_your_ui
Comments: ** Comment from web user: MarkusEgger **

I am actually already mapping the ones I am aware of (or at least was aware of when I wrote it), but there certainly could be more.

Created Issue: Show public documentation [454]

JustinJosefAngel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:02:30 GMT

When showing full property/method/event/class details, please show the corresponding public documentation is such is available for that member.

It's possible to use the MSDN offline help viewer, open up fiddler, ask the help viewer to download "Metro" / "Windows Phone" / ".Net 4.5" help packages and get the help CAB files from there. Those should contain MSHC/HSX file formats.

Created Issue: Only compare public classes, not internal/private classes [453]

JustinJosefAngel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:59:38 GMT

In the current reports between Win8 and WP7 you can see "Mirosoft.Internal.*" namespace. It would be great of any non-public types could be filtered out.

Created Issue: Change the report format from "text" to "code" [452]

JustinJosefAngel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:58:48 GMT

Current reporting format is something like:
"Type: Camera
Type not supported at all in Metro"

Instead, I'd rather much rather see: "
namespace Foo {
public class Camera {
}
}"
where "Camera" is strikethrough. Instead of having a textual report, make it a code based output for the public APIs and if they were added, removed or changed.

Created Issue: Account for Metro<->SL/WPF namespace changes [451]

JustinJosefAngel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:57:13 GMT

Created Issue: Add support to docx output [450]

JustinJosefAngel — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 15:55:45 GMT

Since the results of this tool are extremely long it would be great if it could be viewed in offline mode.

Updated Wiki: Documentation

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:30:18 GMT

Overview

The basic idea behind this tool is simple: Fire it up (which may take quite some time the first time you do it...this is something that should be improved), pick the namespaces you are interested in (or use one of the Select... buttons at the bottom to pick likely set of namespaces that seem to be used a lot), pick the version of XAML you want to compare from (such as "WPF" if you are currently using WPF and want to convert from WPF to some other dialect) and then pick the target (such as "Metro" if you are wondering how hard it will be to convert your WPF app to Metro... or whatever the case may be) and click "Go". This then creates a compatibility report.

What Really Happens

The tool has a list of all types and members used by WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, and Metro, and it creates a Matrix that can be used to compare what is available. This takes a long time the first time around, so please be patient. Subsequent times us a cache file (see below).

Note that a) this tool is in beta and provided "as is" (there could be issues with the code that might create misleading results), and b) the results have to be taken with a grain of salt, because the tool only compares the types to see what exists. The tool does not know however, whether classes, properties, methods, and events of the same name and signature, do in fact behave the same way or not. As such, the tool is only to be used for general guidance and you have to draw your own conclusions based on the created results.

The Cache File

Since there is so much to compare, the tool creates cache files in your "My Documents\XamlAnalysis" folder. Note that this can be large, so you may consider deleting that cache if you do not need the tool anymore. It does however significantly speed up startup (which can take 15 minutes or more on some systems, the first time the tool runs).

Note: This performance problem is due to a) the large size of the data set, but b) also due to how the tool has grown and needs to be cleaned up. Consider it a "beta issue" ;-)

Updated Wiki: Documentation

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:29:51 GMT

!Overview

The basic idea behind this tool is simple: Fire it up (which may take quite some time the first time you do it...this is something that should be improved), pick the namespaces you are interested in (or use one of the Select... buttons at the bottom to pick likely set of namespaces that seem to be used a lot), pick the version of XAML you want to compare from (such as "WPF" if you are currently using WPF and want to convert from WPF to some other dialect) and then pick the target (such as "Metro" if you are wondering how hard it will be to convert your WPF app to Metro... or whatever the case may be) and click "Go". This then creates a compatibility report.

What Really Happens

The Cache File

Updated Wiki: Documentation

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:24:56 GMT

Updated Wiki: Home

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:22:31 GMT

Overview

The idea behind this utility is to compare different XAML "dialects" (WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, Metro) or, more accurately, the framework objets used by those dialects.

This first version is a rough draft that needs a lot of cleanup (and as a result has some serious performance issues, especially during first startup).

Updated Release: Beta 1 (Mar 29, 2012)

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:16:26 GMT

This is a first beta version of this tool (as shown at DevConncetions in Vegas, March 2012). Community participation and suggestions are appreciated.

Released: Beta 1 (Mar 29, 2012)

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:16:26 GMT

This is a first beta version of this tool (as shown at DevConncetions in Vegas, March 2012). Community participation and suggestions are appreciated.

Created Release: Beta 1 (Mar 29, 2012)

MarkusEgger — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:14:27 GMT

This is a first beta version of this tool (as shown at DevConncetions in Vegas, March 2012). Community participation and suggestions are appreciated.