ShawnVN's Blog

AndreMic on creating power-aware apps with WPF

Shawn A. Van Ness — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:47:12 GMT

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this blog -- the projects I've been working on for the past few months aren't publicly disclosed, so it's tough to find time (and material!) to write about.

Andre Michaud is a rising star SDET on the Tablet PC platform team. He helped deliver InkCanvas and stylus input in WPF, but wasn't satisfied that the NetFX v3.0 didn't do anything to make writing battery-conscious applications any easier.

So, he wrote a few words about how to do this. And now it's the headline article in this month's MSDN Magazine!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/07/07/PowerAware/default.aspx

Great stuff. Want to see power management features baked into the CLR for NetFX v4 or later? Write your local representatives...

Windows Vista Mobile PC App Competition at CodeProject.com

Shawn A. Van Ness — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 07:46:01 GMT

Today’s apps must work in an increasingly mobile environment and must allow new means of input: ink, touch, and more. Build a great application that encompasses these needs, write an article about what you’ve done, and you may win one of three cool Samsung Ultra-Mobile PCs.

One winner per month, 3/15/07–6/15/07.

Check out CodeProject.com for more details.

ColorComb: Yet Another Color-Picker Dialog for WPF

Shawn A. Van Ness — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 08:08:00 GMT

WPF v1 doesn't include a color-picker dialog (or a font dialog). A variety of SDK samples and community samples will undoubtedly fill this void. That's ok with me -- I've never been happy with the traditional Windows color-picker UI, anyway. I can never find the color I have in mind, looking at this flattened-out-color-wheel-with-dingy-grey-bottom......(read more)

AutoClaimsFX

Shawn A. Van Ness — Wed, 31 May 2006 11:07:00 GMT

In celebration of WinFX Beta2, I've attempted to recreate the Tablet PC SDK's beloved AutoClaims sample in WPF.

This sample demonstrates:

InkCanvas
- collecting ink in multiple transparent layers, over an Image resource
- databinding for Strokes
- DefaultDrawingAttributes defined in static resources
- animated Opacity and ZIndex properties for smooth transitions among layers

TextBox.InputScope
- defines a pattern to coerce Tablet Input Panel handwriting recognition for the Year (YYYY) field

Scrolling and resizing
- relative layout techniques
- ScrollViewer around the Image and InkCanvas elements

...all in 100% pure XAML!

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/autoclaimsfx.html

Ok, admittedly it probably would've been easier to code some of those lengthy EventTriggers for managing the layers in C#. And I'm a little bummed to discover than I can't set Panel.ZIndex in partial trust (else you'd be running this app in your browser right now, not reading about it).

Still, it's a fun exercise in what can be done with InkCanvas and XAML, with so few lines of code compared to our WinForms platform. You really have to compile and run the mundane old WinForms version, and peruse the code, to appreciate this WPF rendition.

Have fun!

MSDN WebCast: Developing Tablet PC Applications with WinFX

Shawn A. Van Ness — Tue, 23 May 2006 03:51:00 GMT

I'll be hosting a WebCast on MSDN tomorrow (Tuesday, May 23rd) 12 to 1pm Pacific time... should I reprise my PDC'05 talk, or should I just spend the whole hour writing code? There's so much cool stuff to show off, for the upcoming beta release...

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/webcasteventdetails.aspx?eventid=1032294694&eventcategory=4&culture=en-us&countrycode=us

Description:

Part of the WinFX Runtime Components 3.0, Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly code-named "Avalon") incorporates a number of features previously found only on the Tablet PC platform, such as digital ink and stylus input. This means WinFX applications will be able to collect, render, and edit digital ink on any system—not just Tablet PC systems. It also means Tablet PC applications will be able to do things that were not possible before, such as collect ink over video, or render ink in 3-D. Join this webcast to learn about the InkCanvas element, Stylus input events, and other Windows Presentation Foundation features that can help you develop richer Tablet PC applications in less time.

Presenter: Shawn Van Ness, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation

ScrollViewer for Lefties

Shawn A. Van Ness — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 08:09:00 GMT

Josh says “Windows Presentation Foundation (aka WPF, aka Avalon) is the best thing to happen to Tablet PC's.”

Josh, I couldn't have said that better... well done! (We're trying hard to live up to your expectations, anyway. :-)

This reminds me -- at a recent talk, I happened to mention (to a group of Tablet PC developers) how ScrollViewer could be re-styled to align the scrollbar on the left, for left-handed users. The response was quite enthusiastic! Here's the XAML...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/leftiescrollviewer.html

WinFX Ink: Fun with VisualBrush

Shawn A. Van Ness — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 07:51:00 GMT

Just in case anybody who reads this doesn't read Petzold... http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/inkcanvasvsvisualbrush.html

WinFX Nov CTP: Fun with InkCanvas

Shawn A. Van Ness — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 06:09:00 GMT

Here's a fun little InkCanvas sample app, in celebration of the Nov CTP release of WinFX... yeah that's right, it's tic-tac-toe. What? This ain't rocket science. (It does, however, include source code for a very, very simple handwriting recognition engine. :-)

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/tictactoefx.html

Here's the URL to launch the game: http://www.windojitsu.com/tictactoefx/tictactoefx.application

My Fifteen Minutes on Channel9

Shawn A. Van Ness — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 17:39:00 GMT

PDC has been fun... for those of you missed me, here's your chance for a virtual/vicarious chat with me:

http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=116335

I've been taking some heat for how dull and austere my office looks... but hey look, it's not much worse than Bill's!

New Tablet PC Team Blog Online!

Shawn A. Van Ness — Fri, 05 Aug 2005 07:33:00 GMT

New Tablet PC Team blog is up on blogs.technet.com...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/tabletblogs.html

Tablet at PDC

Shawn A. Van Ness — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 16:39:00 GMT

Some folk have asked about Tablet PC sessions at PDC...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/tabletatpdc.html

Digital Ink in Avalon

Shawn A. Van Ness — Mon, 11 Jul 2005 07:38:00 GMT

An introduction to the Tablet PC platform features built into Avalon...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/inkinavalon.html

Physics Illustrator Hints

Shawn A. Van Ness — Sun, 22 May 2005 22:41:00 GMT

I've never really blogged much about Physics Illustrator -- the little animated shape-reco funlet for Tablet PC, inspired by research from MIT, that my homie Peter Gruenbaum and I wrote at Leszynski Group.

But some mates of mine asked me about it last night, and I googled it... whoa boy! I've never seen such love and praise written about any piece of code I've touched. Here are some hints, along with a few PI downloads, worth perhaps a few extra hours of fun...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/physicsillustratorhints.html

Snipping Tool Hints

Shawn A. Van Ness — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:19:00 GMT

Some usage and setup hints for v2.0 of Microsoft Snipping Tool for Tablet PC...

http://www.windojitsu.com/blog/snippingtoolhints.html

Avalon: March CTP bits now available

Shawn A. Van Ness — Thu, 17 Mar 2005 06:26:00 GMT

The March CTP release of Avalon and Indigo is now available, to MSDN Subscribers... link here:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/

Hopefully it'll be available for wider download, real soon now.

This release is still a bit lacking on Tablet PC features... the InkCanvas control is there, and all visual elements have support for stylus events -- the plumbing is in place -- but that's about it. By the time of the next CTP / first Beta, we hope to be showing off a few more Tablet specific features! (Else, I don't get paid.) Stay tuned...