**Caution** RANT ALERT!

Well, in truth, i'm not sure whether I want to laugh or cry at microsofts half-arsed stupidity. I have recently started using silverlight for a project at work, and a couple of times I have came across a few things in silverlight which seem to have been implemented half-arsed. But todays example really takes the biscuit!

Before I get to todays incident, a quick one from last week. You know the good old Windows Default "Save As" dialog that us programmers have been using for years? Well, microsoft finally implemented it into Silverlight in v3.0 (i think). Apart from one small problem - you cant set the default file name to save as in code! As a result the user has to enter a name EVERY time! FFS!

But todays example really made me laugh / cry.

Another standard windows dialog that has been implemented in Silverlight - MessageBox.Show(). Exept once again they have done a half-assed job of it. You cant show an icon. And the only button options available are MessageBoxButtons.OK and MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel. (ever wondered why you keep seeing dialogs saying "Are you sure" followed by "OK / Cancel" instead of yes / no. Thats why!). Duh! Why not add Yes / No? Surely its not that much more work???

But the real clanger? Check the response you get from MessageBox.Show(), and the associated intellisense for it:


Yup! They implemented it in MessageBoxResult, but not in the actual messagebox, then changed the description to show its not implemented yet.

Seriously, get a f*#@!&g grip microsoft!

</rant>

You realize Silverlight is not a Windows technology right? There are multi-platform considerations. If you're only interested in the Windows platform, you might take a look at XBAP or WPF.

You realize Silverlight is not a Windows technology right? There are multi-platform considerations. If you're only interested in the Windows platform, you might take a look at XBAP or WPF.

http://dotnet.uservoice.com/forums/4325-silverlight-feature-suggestions/suggestions/314361-set-the-filename-in-the-save-as-dialog?ref=title

You realize Silverlight is not a Windows technology right? There are multi-platform considerations. If you're only interested in the Windows platform, you might take a look at XBAP or WPF.

yea, i realise that, poor choice of wording on my behalf. But isnt the concept that silverlight will have the same programming API as WPF desktop applications? Right now they are halfway there, but a lot of functionality has been left out, some of it quite crucial as my two examples show.

http://dotnet.uservo...ialog?ref=title

Thanks, however I have already voted for them to fix this.

But isnt the concept that silverlight will have the same programming API as WPF desktop applications?

Similar, not same.

it takes about 5 minutes to make your own message box. Silverlight has tonnes of great features. They cram alot of stuff into each update each year. Silverlight is version 4. 5 later this year.

Makes me cry, WTF ! First man up and then chillout your little sissy issue is not that serious. Microsoft is kicking a$$ getting these Silverlight upgrades pushed. Just cut back on the Jolt cola or Mountain Dew and find a girl friend.

Makes me cry, WTF ! First man up and then chillout your little sissy issue is not that serious. Microsoft is kicking a$ getting these Silverlight upgrades pushed. Just cut back on the Jolt cola or Mountain Dew and find a girl friend.

You're lucky I can't rate down.

You realize Silverlight is not a Windows technology right? There are multi-platform considerations. If you're only interested in the Windows platform, you might take a look at XBAP or WPF.

Aren't we beyond that?

People are surprised Apple became largest company in the world. They don't do this shit. They don't talk about "synergizing between strategic vendors for multi-platform consideration interests". They make magical devices that allow you to listen to music.

No DefaultFileName? Sorry, the 80s came and went, save file dialog is what it is, removing such a fundamental feature means the framework has a show stopper and is useless.

Silverlight has tonnes of great features.[/quote]Doesn't matter. Irrelevant. Whether it's tonnes, pounds or stones. We are not in bulk land moving business, we don't get paid by "tonne of feature".

The only features that matter are those that a product needs. Everything else is, by definition, bloat. You don't put 6 extra wheels on a car because they are "great features". A car needs four (4) wheels. No more, no less.

The times of feature bloat are over. They are the Rococo, the Baroque. Pretty, fancy, but ultimately utterly useless and wasteful. In era where user interfaces are about gestures, for all practical purposes AI and <1 hour turnaround times for multi-million user projects, this is just wrong path, wrong abstraction, wrong tool.

Want an example - Nokia. They wasted 2000 man YEARS trying to polish their phone UIs. Do you have 2000 years to hammer your framework into what others provide out-of-box for free?



But the cause of problem lies deeper. It's all about "let's improve programmer productivity". Programmers are in a race to bottom. Their target workload is zero, where they aren't needed anymore and there are tens of millions of programmers capable of providing this here and now.

The question programmers should be asking is: "How does this technology help me improve the user experience, how does it help me solve the problem better". Productivity is overrated for this purpose, if one developer wastes two weeks instead of 2 days that's fine if it makes a difference between a killer product and just a follower.

In enterprise none of this really matters, but as mentioned above, that is because enterprise is ultimately aiming for extinction. At least in companies that will not grok that saving 2 minutes while making another form input mask is solving the wrong problem.

And for freelancers and indies, the real question is how do you distinguish yourself from millions of users of identical technology, who are faster, cheaper and can put in more effort. The solution is, again, not in learning to fill out the forms better or getting better at technology. That's just a rat race.