Summary

As you've seen through this chapter, there is a lot to learn about XAML, and yet this is just an introduction covering XAML's core features! Chapter 10 will cover many more advanced features of XAML, but this chapter should have given you enough to get started developing user interfaces in Silverlight, and you will use many of the concepts covered here in the following chapters.

The power and flexibility of XAML, unfortunately, results in a steep learning curve that even experienced and productive developers in other technologies will need to climb. This will take some time and possibly lead to some frustration and will require patience and a willingness to learn. Expect to be less productive as a developer than normal while you get up to speed. However, once you do so, you will really start to appreciate the benefits and new possibilities that the use of XAML provides. You will also be able to transfer many of these new skills to WPF development, which shares most of Silverlight's XAML concepts, and to Windows Phone 7 development, whose applications are mostly developed using Silverlight, as it gains in popularity as a technology for developing rich desktop applications.

The best way to learn XAML is probably to start with dragging controls from the toolbox onto the designer, setting properties in the Properties window, and observing the XAML that the designer produces. The designer, however, won't always be there for you, and you may find that you have to resort to writing XAML by hand at times. Therefore, a complete reliance on letting the designer write the XAML for you is probably unwise. Inspecting existing XAML files created by other developers or designers and cross-referencing the XAML in them with what's been discussed in this chapter is another method that might help you get up to speed.

In the end, you may choose to use the designer for most tasks and let it produce the XAML, but it's important to at least understand the underlying concepts of XAML and have some familiarity with its syntax. If you choose to hand write XAML, or find yourself needing to do so, you will find that once you understand the syntax, the IntelliSense in both Visual Studio 2010 and Expression Blend make writing XAML a breeze.