InfoQ

News

The Buzz on Acropolis

Posted by James Vastbinder on Jun 18, 2007 12:21 PM

Community
.NET
Topics
.NET Framework ,
Artifacts & Tools
Tags
Visual Studio ,
XAML ,
WPF
For over a year Microsoft has been silent about the next evolution of the Composite UI Application Block, CAB.  On June 5, David Hill of Microsoft announced the coming of a new client application development framework code-named Acropolis.  Through recent years developers have relied on SCSF and CAB to build complex Windows client applications in the .NET Framework.  Especially favorable to the community was the fact the application framework was open source and hosted on CodePlex.com. 

However, with Acropolis, Microsoft will ship it as an add-in to Visual Studio with its own design surfaces.  Still up for discussion is support for the Visual Studio Express editions. 

 The intent is to ship in one year's time a set of components and tools to ease the development of complex many-screened modular client applications using XAML and WPF on the .NET Framework.  While XAML and WPF both shipped with the 3.0 release of the .NET Framework, UI development support for XAML and WPF in Visual Studio 2005 has been lackluster at best.

Expectations for coming Community Technology Previews have been set.  The first several releases are entirely subject to change with coming releases as expressed during Tech Ed 2007.  The community site for Acropolis is being hosted at at windowsclient.net and contains videos, documentation and forums.

The community reaction to Acropolis has trended in the positive direction.  Understandably, Ward Bell of IdeaBlade weighed in with his thoughts and concerns with this summary voicing both anticipation and consternation:
"Acropolis intends to be far more approachable without sacrificing architectural integrity. We should be able to build simple Acropolis applications quickly and then grow them as the waves of requirements roll in – without having to scrap our initial implementation and re-build the foundation.

This will be a neat trick. Can they do it? I think so. But they are off to a rocky start."
Glenn Block posts the beginnings of an early FAQ on Acropolis and the most poignant point related to SCSF/CAB:
"With the announcement of Acropolis, we currently have no further plans for SCSF releases. That being said, our customers should rest assured that we are not dropping support for SCSF."
Only time will tell if Microsoft can deliver on its intended vision for Acropolis improving support for WPF and XAML client application development in Visual Studio.
SCSF future and Prism by Glenn Block Posted May 28, 2008 3:46 AM
  1. Back to top

    SCSF future and Prism

    May 28, 2008 3:46 AM by Glenn Block

    Hi James Based on Acropolis being pulled and folded into the framework we shifted our direction a bit. We revved Smart Client Software Factory for Visual Studio 2008 (msdn.microsoft.com/smartclientfactory). We additonally started on a new deliverable codenamed "Prism" for developing composite applications in WPF (www.codeplex.com/prism). This will be shipping very soon. Glenn

Educational Content

Bindings, Platforms, and Innovation

This presentation focuses on the Internet and separating myth from fact, history from the future, and the mundane from the imaginative. Bob Frankston presents a vision of what could and should be.

Orchestrating Long Running Activities with JBoss / JBPM

This article explores the use of JBoss and jBPM to implement design solutions that effectively address the issue of orchestrating long running activities.

Neo4j - The Benefits of Graph Databases

This presentation covers the use of graph databases as an optimal solution for data that is difficult to fit in static tables, rapidly evolving data or data that has a lot of optional attributes.

Realistic about Risk: Software development with Real Options

This session introduces Real Options and shows how it can help in running your project. Real Options is a decision-making process that can be used to manage risk.

Communication Flexibility Using Bindings

This article discusses the use of bindings on services and references (including the instance of non-configured bindings) as the means to implement SCA communications in a Web and SOA environment.

Writing DSLs in Groovy

After a short introduction to DSLs, Scott Davis plays with the keyboard showing how to approach the creation of a DSL by typing working snippets of Groovy code that get executed.

Scaling Agile with C/ALM (Collaborative Application Lifecycle Management)

IBM Rational and InfoQ present, Scaling Agile with C/ALM, an eBook showing organizations how to become “finely tuned software delivery machines” by enabling team integration and scaling.

Concurrent Programming with Microsoft F#

Amanda Laucher presents a real life enterprise application written in F#. She shows actual code snippets, explaining design decisions and suggesting how to use some of the F# constructs.