Shot at Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 official launch, Budapest

A short interview with the keynote presenters. I’m the third one.

Silverlight 2.0 beta 1 plugin download:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=108182

 MSDN documentation:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb404700.aspx

Maybe I’m the last one on Earth figuring this out, but here it is:

<Path StrokeDashArray=”1,1″ …

More on the StrokeDashArray and creating dashed line from code here.

The clash between decimal separators, double values and application culture already made Point type a victim. Today I found abound another one..

I had an iframe positioned above my silverlight control. Its dimensions was controlled from C# managed code (with the use of System.Windows.Browser library).
Or at least it should have been.

ERROR:

No matter I gave the right double values to set the iframe’s width, it just didn’t changed:

Iframe.SetStyleAttribute("width", value.ToString() + "px");

SOLUTION:

After a few rounds of debugging I found the solution. The problem was caused by the decimal separator being a comma instead of a point.

The fix is the same as with the Point type:

Iframe.SetStyleAttribute("width", value.ToString(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) + “px”);

Okay, I like Blend 2, but it has its tricks..

A control’s xaml when was loaded in its constructor threw a Catastrophic failure.

I designed the control in Blend 2 without touching the xaml’s source. It was a pretty simple graphic, four rectangles in a canvas.
All had unique names so the problem wasn’t related to namescopes.

To cut a long story short it occurred to me, that one rectangle had three spaces after the value in its height property. Fixing this solved the problem.

The full Exception info after the jump.

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Transcription after the jump: (more…)

I’m working on an application with the ability to upload and run Silverlight 1.1 gadgets. This means my program needs to be able to load assemblies in run-time.

After several tests and an e-mail exchange with an MS Evangelist it seams like it’s impossible.

UPDATE: Here is how I managed to do it. The trick is that the xaml downloads and loads its assembly automatically.
void DownloadXamlFile()
{
GadgetXamlDownloader.Completed += new EventHandler(GadgetXamlDownloader_Completed);
GadgetXamlDownloader.Open(“GET”, new Uri(“./Gadgets/TestGadget/Page.xaml”, UriKind.Relative));
GadgetXamlDownloader.Send();
}

void GadgetXamlDownloader_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ObjectFromXamlString(GadgetXamlDownloader.ResponseText);
}

void ObjectFromXamlString(string XamlString)
{
DependencyObject Gadget = XamlReader.Load(XamlString,true); //Namescoping is turned on
Gadget.SetValue(Canvas.TopProperty,this.Height/2-(Gadget as Canvas).Height/2);
Gadget.SetValue(Canvas.LeftProperty, this.Width / 2 - (Gadget as Canvas).Width / 2);
this.Children.Add(Gadget as Visual);
}

My old failed tests after the jump, they might be useful.

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An extended weekend of outstanding character design in animation, motion graphics and music visuals on the big screen,
with artist presentations, lectures and VJ parties.

Add the event to your Google Calendar or to your Facebook Events and see you there between 23th and 25th of November!

If you don’t have time to come, you can still order their most excellent book The Character Encyclopaedia which made me a fan in the first place.