16.6. Windows Vista
Windows Vista is the scheduled next version of Microsoft Windows operating system, superseding Windows XP. In this version, all the graphics subsystems have been rewritten and many things will change for developers writing programs that deal with graphics, and DotNetProcessing is one of them.
Basically, there are two DotNetProcessing modules that might be affected of Windows Vista additions:
- DotNetProcessing.Environment
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This module makes use of WinForms controls included in the System.Windows.Forms namespace. On Windows Vista, controls will be much richer and with great 3D capabilities. Some new namespaces hanging from System.Windows will include the classes to instantiate them. Another important thing is that on Windows Vista, user interfaces will be completly independent of the application source code. They will be defined in a declarative XML based language called XAML.
- DotNetProcessing.Kernel
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The Kernel is based completely in GDI+, the 2D .NET engine. Unfortunately GDI+ is only a wrapper of the old GDI engine which is based on the Win32 windows API. On Windows Vista, both 2D and 3D will be handled through the Avalon subsystem. Some new namespaces also hanging from System.Windows will include the corresponding classes. In the future might be interesting to rewrite this module according to the new Avalon subsystem.
The good news is that Windows Vista will be under development still for sometime and it will include full compatibility with both GDI+ and WinForms. Microsoft is doing a lot of effort to transmit the message that this will be true. And even there will be a mechanism called Crossbow to integrate WinForms controls inside Avalon Controls and vice versa.
Anyway, it can be good to keep an eye on what's going on with all this new cool things that Windows Vista is preparing for us and see how DotNetProcessing can incorporate them. Maybe we can see some day XAML user interfaces embedded in a DotNetProcessing sketch.
The mono guys have also included a few lines on their roadmap relating to how Windows Vista can affect their project.
