Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence

Avalon isn't about Web/GUI convergence. Edwin Khodabakchian echoes what seems to be a common — but I think incorrect — perception that XAML, the XUL-like layout language revealed this week to be a building block of Longhorn's Avalon presentation subsystem, heralds some kind of Web/GUI convergence

To my way of thinking, you don't have “the best of both approaches” unless you have a ubiquitous client. As Jeremy Allaire pointed out the other day, Flash is making a serious effort along these lines, and has — in Laszlo and the forthcoming Royale — its own XML-based layout techniques. I've also mentioned Mozilla's cross-platform technique, XUL. Now Microsoft is pitching a Windows-only UI renderer that targets 2006-era desktops and notebooks, while allowing MSIE to stagnate. I can see how and why they arrived at this strategy, but it doesn't seem to be the kind of Web/GUI convergence I'm looking for.  [Jon's Radio]

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