Microsoft Expression blend

[HowTo]

What is microsoft expression blend all about?Somebody explain please
thank you

[baja_yu]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expression_Blend

[gep13]

Hey,

Put simply, it is the IDE for developing XAML User Interfaces.

When Microsoft started WPF and Silverlight, the intention was that the developer would work in Visual Studio, doing what he/she does best, i.e. working on the code. The designer on the other hand, would work in Expression Blend, doing what they do best, i.e. designing the user interface.

They could both happily work in these two separate IDE's, touching the same files on the file system. The idea was great, but in practice, it didn't quite work out as well as they expected.

Gary

[HowTo]

It means blend is only for creating xaml user interfaces(i.e;only design);no coding(VB or C#).

If so then why did microsoft allowed the programmers to design the user interfaces also in the wpf applications of the visual studio?

Why dont they allowed only the coding part in the visual studio and the design part in the expression blend?I think if they would have done this then expression blend would have gained more popularity

Everyone will prefer an IDE where they can do both design as well as coding......hence visual studio get more popularity than expression blend........am i correct?

[baja_yu]

Coders rarely do design too. So a designer can create the interface in Blend without having to either install (or buy) Visual Studio to do it, and the coder can later use the design.

[HowTo]

Just for giving a try,i installed blend 2 and i already had vs 2010 and vs 2005 installed in my system.Now vs 2005 dont have the wpf ; but vs 2010 do have.

So i opened the blend 2 IDE ; click File -> Open -> Project/Selection -> then i selected a vs 2010 wpf project .sln file and clicked ok to get it in the IDE of the blend but i did not get the same.........

Is it such that vs 2010 wpf projects are not compatible with the blend 2 ?

please help

thank you

[HowTo]

Coders rarely do design too. So a designer can create the interface in Blend without having to either install (or buy) Visual Studio to do it, and the coder can later use the design.

i want to ask microsoft wants the designer to use the expression blend and the developers to use the visual studio then why did microsoft let the designers also design in visual studio IDE?

Designers can design in both visual studio as well as expression blend.....why?

why not only in blend?

[baja_yu]

If you were a designer that doesn't do any coding, what would you choose of these two

Visual Studio 2010, cheapest option $799, can only design interfaces.

Expression Studio 3 (Blend comes with it), cost $599, can design interfaces (Blend), website design and programming (Expression Web), graphics editing/drawing (Expression Design) and video editing/encoding (Expression Encoder)?

And why can you design interfaces with Visual Studio? What if you are making an application that requires a simple interface that you (the coder) can do yourself? Would you like it if you, just for that, had to buy a new application for it?

[HowTo]

If you were a designer that doesn't do any coding, what would you choose of these two

i would choose the blend since just a moment before i saw that in several cases i dont need to write any XAML code in blend(such as rendering transformation to a control,etc which i can do in the design without writing a single line of XAML code)

What if you are making an application that requires a simple interface that you (the coder) can do yourself? Would you like it if you, just for that, had to buy a new application for it?

So you want to say that for simple application interfaces,microsoft integrated the designer IDE in visual studio wpf projects ......did i get you correct?

can you reply my thread #6 please?

[gep13]

Just for giving a try,i installed blend 2 and i already had vs 2010 and vs 2005 installed in my system.Now vs 2005 dont have the wpf ; but vs 2010 do have.

So i opened the blend 2 IDE ; click File -> Open -> Project/Selection -> then i selected a vs 2010 wpf project .sln file and clicked ok to get it in the IDE of the blend but i did not get the same.........

Is it such that vs 2010 wpf projects are not compatible with the blend 2 ?

please help

thank you

Correct. As far as I am aware, WPF/Silverlight projects created in VS 2010, will not work in the current version of Blend, you need to wait for the next release.

Gary

[gep13]

i want to ask microsoft wants the designer to use the expression blend and the developers to use the visual studio then why did microsoft let the designers also design in visual studio IDE?

Designers can design in both visual studio as well as expression blend.....why?

why not only in blend?

They are two very different spaces, and Microsoft is trying to give the end user as much choice as possible. Blend has far more features in terms of design, compared to though available in Visual Studio. The designer got a lot better in VS 2010, but it still isn't quite there. If you are going to be doing serious design work, then in all likelihood, you are going to find yourself using Blend.

Gary

[HowTo]

so gep did you used the expression studio?

[gep13]

Hey,

Yes, I have used it, but not to any great extent. Let's put it this way, a designer I am not

My colleague is a far better designer than I am, and I know he used it a lot, and likes using it.

Gary

[HowTo]

one more thing i would like to ask........is=f i design i blend then i need to do the coding similar like wpf applications;right?

or i can also do the coding similar to what i do in the win app?

I am asking this since there are several differences between the code of a win app(which have form) and the code of a wpf(which have window)

please help

[gep13]

Hey,

Which differences are you referring to?

Essentially, you will write very similar code, i.e. code to use the file system, or to connect to a database etc, will all be the same, but the code that you write to talk to the user interface, will be completely different as this is using a completely different set of controls.

Gary