Alarming Development

I have submitted the final version of my OOPSLA paper. What’s cool is that I got some very helpful comments on the blog and mailing list. I want to particularly thank Jacques Carette, Matt Hellige, and Macneil Shonle, whose comments were incorporated into the paper (and are acknowledged therein). Thanks to everyone else for their feedback and encouragement. It really means a lot to get this kind of grassroots support. I just hope I can now actually build something worthy of your interest.

I have established a beachhead of sorts. A subset of the new model and UI is implemented. Everything is in place to launch the attack on conditionals. I have accumulated enough battle experience with C# and WPF to assess their strengths and weaknesses, which is the substance of this report. The bottom line is that WPF has some serious design defects, but as a package with C# it still looks like the best choice for my needs. Continue reading “Beachhead Dispatch”

I appreciate all the advice people offered in response to my last post. I have decided to stick with my previous choice of WPF for the UI. I hope it doesn’t turn into a quagmire. Continue reading “Staying the course”

OK, so maybe going with WPF wasn’t such a great idea after all. It is just so incredibly over-generalized and over-engineered. I am hitting my gag limit. I don’t have the time or the interest to become an expert on this monstrosity. I am scared of having to debug the mysteries hidden within this black box. They are simplifying it for Silverlight, but that is not ready. I have this sinking feeling that I have made a big mistake. Continue reading “You are in a maze of twisty little classes, all alike.”