Kaxaml 0.1 (Alpha) (UPDATED)

UPDATE: This is version of Kaxaml is no longer current. Get the latest at www.kaxaml.com.

Introducing Kaxaml, a “live view” XAML editor and the long ago promised upgrade to SplitView . It’s finally done-ish, and you can get it by downloading a .zip file here or downloading the .msi here. This version targets WPF RC1.

This is very much a “use at your own risk” alpha release. I was listening to a podcast of the Churchill Club this week and someone on the panel said that if you’re not embarassed by your first version of a product, then you’re taking too long to ship. Kaxaml isn’t embarrassing yet, but that’s only because my test team (me) hasn’t really done any testing. I really don’t know what kind of bugs you’re going find and that’s when it might get embarrassing. Please let me know what kind of problems you run into.

Nevertheless, it’s definitely a few steps beyond what SplitView offered. Here’s what Kaxaml brings to the table:

  • File operations (New, Open, Save, etc.)
  • Find / Replace / Goto Line
  • Snippets
  • An extensible Plugin Model (more details to come, but this means you can build and share your own plugins!)
  • A color picker (this first plugin)Â
  • Full-screen modeÂ
  • Configurable settings for: parsing timeout, backup, editor placement, editor font
  • A snazzy dual-chromatic UI

I’m sure I’ve left something out, and there is definitely more to come. The plugin model is the thing I’m most excited about. Anyone can write a plugin. It’s easy. All you need to do is create a WPF UserControl that compiles to a .dll and then set an attribute called “Plugin” on the class that you want Kaxaml to load as the plugin. The attribute is defined in an assembly that you will want to reference called KaxamlPluginHelper and has four parameters that describe the plugin. I’ll try to put a how-to document together and post it in the next week or so. In the meantime, let me know if you have any success writing a plugin.

I’ve started using Kaxaml pretty much exclusively for any scenario where I would have used XamlPad in the past. It’s great for quickly creating bits of UI that you want to insert into a larger project. The main advantage of Kaxaml over VS is that you can immediately see the results of what you’ve created without a compilation step. Please let me know if and how you use as well as any other feedback you have. Thanks.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 22nd, 2006 at 9:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

26 Responses to “Kaxaml 0.1 (Alpha) (UPDATED)”

  1. paulo Says:
    October 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 am

    The download link is broken. bye

  2. Robby Says:
    October 22nd, 2006 at 9:08 am

    Wow, that was fast! I was still testing the content once it was live. The links should work now.

  3. paulo Says:
    October 22nd, 2006 at 9:13 am

    Yes now works, thanks.

  4. Eran Kampf Says:
    October 22nd, 2006 at 10:59 am

    Looks and works great!
    Making this my new default editor :)

  5. don Says:
    October 22nd, 2006 at 8:13 pm

    could i get hold of the code

    thanks

  6. Refines.Info["Polo Lee"] : 前 WPF PM 做了一個工具... Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 11:50 am

    […] Link to notstatic.com […]

  7. Marc My Words : Kaxaml Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 1:03 pm

    […] Kaxaml Robby has been good enough to put his turbo-charged XamlPad replacement on his site. You can get it here. Filed under: WPF […]

  8. Dah Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 2:50 pm

    Cool tool and sweet styles!
    The plugin API is very simple but useful for write my own plugin!
    I hope there will be something like “code highlighting” and “intellisense” in the next version.

  9. Joe Schmo Says:
    October 23rd, 2006 at 8:58 pm

    It seams pretty cool in the screenshots but it requires the WPF. I didn’t know that! :-) I’ll try it later at home!

    System.IO.FileNotFoundException was unhandled
    Message: Could not load file or assembly ‘PresentationFramework, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35′ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

  10. David Says:
    October 24th, 2006 at 12:29 am

    Very cool stuff Robby

  11. Vladimir Says:
    October 24th, 2006 at 2:21 pm

    I downloaded your software and installed it.
    It crashes and I can’t nothing to do about it

  12. Andreas Says:
    October 25th, 2006 at 12:31 am

    Hi,

    please add some exception handling to notify the user that some or all parts of WPF are not installed.

    Regards,
    Andreas

  13. Kolya Says:
    October 25th, 2006 at 2:56 pm

    The program crashes at startup. It is really alpha version now.

    How I can see screen shots of this application?

  14. ek Says:
    October 26th, 2006 at 2:49 am

    kaxalm doesn’t start, there is an instalation error (0×00000135)

    ek:(

  15. Joem Says:
    October 26th, 2006 at 3:53 pm

    Much better than xamlPad. Clever name choice. I’m running it on XP under vpc with a clean install of the Net 3.0 and VS Express. Everything works, more or less :)
    I strongly recommend to everyone: CLEAN INSTALL on a fresh copy of XP sp2. Follow Microsoft’s instructions. I always have a fresh copy of XP-sp2 under Virtual PC ready to go. Clean, Clean, think clean and vpc. Once you have a working system, save off a vpc copy and work with the copy. In fact several levels of backup is recommended, disk space is cheap. This is all prerelease stuff. Don’t pick on Robby!!

    Robby, keep up the good work. Kazaml looks very promising.

  16. Sam Gentile : New and Notable 117 Says:
    October 26th, 2006 at 10:59 pm

    […] I learned about Kaxaml from nonstatic. As he says, “Introducing Kaxaml, a “live view” XAML editor and the long ago promised upgrade to SplitView .  It’s finally done-ish, and you can get it by downloading a .zip file here or downloading the .msi here. ” He has a screen shot here. I’ve switched over from XamlPad to do all my XAML editing. You need this if you are serious about Avalon. […]

  17. 寝ても覚めても.NET（？） : kaxaml 0.1 Says:
    October 27th, 2006 at 10:31 am

    […] kaxaml 0.1 YamakiさんのところにもありましたがKaxaml 0.1 (Alpha)ちょっと使われた感想が書かれていますのでとっかかりにまず。実際のサイトについてはこちらKaxaml 0.1 (Alpha)kaxaml 0.1を使うには、.NET Framework 3.0 RC1がいるようです。Kaxaml 0.1 Requires .NET 3.0 RC1kaxaml 0.1のスクリーンショットも公開されてました。（Yamakiさんのところにもありますが・・・）Kaxaml Screenshot 公開 27-10-2006 01:55 投稿者 libaty ã‚¿ã‚° .NET […]

  18. nat Says:
    October 31st, 2006 at 6:25 am

    Awesome, I have been looking forward to this. Nice product; not as limited as XAMLPad but also not to complicated for a new XAML developer like expression.

    I love the new UI too.

  19. Nandu Says:
    November 2nd, 2006 at 7:24 pm

    If a non-existant resource name is mentioned in the XAML, the app crashes.

  20. rajiv Says:
    November 7th, 2006 at 3:29 am

    nice … can you please provide teh design of the plugin helper

  21. Guy Ronen Says:
    February 15th, 2007 at 2:37 am

    This seem like a very nice tool.
    Sadly, none of the snippets are parsed successfully.

    mosty of them contains a line like that:

    which produces an error like that:
    “Key attribute can be used only on a tag contained in an IDictionary type property”

  22. DeveloperZen : Goodbye XAMLPad, Hello Kazaml! Says:
    March 19th, 2007 at 3:52 am

    […] Goodbye XAMLPad, Hello Kazaml! Robby Ingebretsen (ex-MS WPF PM) from notstatic.com released his new XAML editor today - Kazaml.Unlike XAMLPad which, other than displaying a given XAML, had no helpful features, this new editors features: File operations (New, Open, Save, etc.) Find / Replace / Goto Line XAML Snippets (Awesome!) An extensible Plugin Model A color picker plugin Full-screen mode Configurable settings for: parsing timeout, backup, editor placement, editor font A snazzy dual-chromatic UI I’m making this my new default XAML editor… Technorati : WPF, WinFX, XAML Del.icio.us : WPF, WinFX, XAML Ice Rocket : WPF, WinFX, XAML Posted: Sunday, October 22, 2006 10:30 AM by ekampf Filed under: .NET, .NET 3.0, WPF, WinFX […]

  23. Lista de fontes do sistema em WPF sem código - Bruno Sonnino Says:
    July 10th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    […] No XamlPad (se você não tiver instalado o Windows SDK, pode usar outro editor XAML, como o XamlCruncher ou o KaXaml), digite o seguinte código: […]

  24. Karen Says:
    August 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am

    Can you please publish an Orcas version??

    Thanks,
    Karen

  25. dan plesse Says:
    November 29th, 2007 at 4:14 am

    It works! thanks. I am not sure if it does “code highlighting” and “intellisense” but that would be nice.

  26. Vladimir Says:
    December 7th, 2007 at 4:56 pm

    Hello!
    Nice tool, but it crashes on this XAML:

    Thanks for work!

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