I’ve checked the news (sourceforge) before, but now I needed to check some information about Microsoft Expression ?suite? and I saw the videos again.
I’ve to confess that I’m impressed with their work. Not only they are managing to create a possible Fireworks/Photoshop killer but they are bringing together the designer and developer rules. This is something that I saw as a major feature of Macromedia Flash where design and code could work together with ease.
The suite is composed of 3 products, Graphic Designer, Interactive Designer and Web Designer, yet the 3 use components from each other, the main difference is the audience target or the rule of the use in the project.
Graphics Designer brings vector and pixel based graphics together, something I apreciate in Fireworks. It seems easy to use and I think it is based on Acrylic, a graphics application that Microsoft bought a few months ago. I’m not sure if this is present on Graphics Designer or it is a Interactive Designer only feature, but they support 3D objects in a native way. This means you can either create your models there or you can import them from popular 3D applications like (guessing) 3D Studio Max, Autocad, Maya and 4D. The way I see it, Graphics Designer alone is for “static” graphics like photo editing.
Interactive Designer brings the power of the graphics designer and adds C# (or other .Net language) and XAML. It has the concept of projects and in fact it integrates with Visual Studio.Net. Besides the graphics edition features, Interactive Designer enables the delopment of Forms and Controls in a Macromedia Flash way, this means, rich and visually attractive designs. You can even use the 3D features to transform (for instance rotate) your controls, even if the control is a video presentation (like they show in their demo videos). Databinding is present and you can make use of some advanced options like binding properties to other control properties (just like Macromedia Flash) and it provided real-data preview, something designers will appreciate much. In the end, you work can be deployed either as an XAML file or a Web version (which I’m not sure how it is deployed). Amazing work.
Finally, Web Designer is web developed application that continues the Visual Studio Web Express experience. Well appreciated (if it really works…) is the advertised “Standards compliant” for html/xhtml/css/xml/xslt. It works, of course, with ASP and ASP.Net, taking full advantage of ASP.Net 2.0 features. A must-to-test.
I’m really willing to try this suite which I believe to be one hell of a work. I’ll post a review after I test it.
