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Microsoft to take on Adobe with graphics 'Everywhere'

WPF will run on Vista and Windows XP, the current version of desktop Windows. With WPF/E, Microsoft is hoping that developers will use its tools to write Vista applications and then alter them slightly to run them on other operating systems and browsers, said Microsoft's Key.

"The idea is that you can target the richest part of the user experience, which is 90 per cent of the machines out there with Vista and XP, and also target a subset with the same design and the same code," he said.

When it delivers Vista and accompanying tools, developers can write full-blown Vista applications and have them display in Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser and Firefox on Windows using WPF.

With WPF/E, developers can write less functional front-ends for Safari or Firefox on the Mac with a choice of languages -- JavaScript or Microsoft-specific languages C# and Visual Basic. The visual layout and other graphical elements are built with XAML, a new Microsoft language meant to ease interactions between developers and designers.

To display WPF/E applications, machines will need a browser plug-in, which can potentially be packaged with an application beforehand, Key said. Microsoft is also providing a tool set called Atlas for interactive Web browser applications. But they will not be as graphically rich as WPF/E applications and cannot show vectors or video, for example.

Microsoft will release licensing details for WPF/E in the coming months, Key said. "We want anyone to build support for XAML and WPF/E, including Java or Symbian-based mobile phones, and Linux," he said.

Still the big dogs?
The full range of user interface tools Microsoft is amassing underscores the company's growing commitment to the Web application designer market, said Peter O'Kelly, an analyst at Burton Group. He noted that the company has had mixed success in appealing to designers in the past.

"We're seeing a more enlightened Microsoft. Back in 1998, they would've tried to tell people to use their stuff more exclusively," O'Kelly said. "Microsoft is saying to application developers: don't default to Flash."

That strategy doesn't worry Adobe, just yet anyway. "We are the big dogs in the designer market, and we're going to continue to grow that market," said Todd Hay, director of platform marketing and developer relations at Adobe.

"Our strategy is that you have a very consistent and predictable experience," Hay said. "As a developer, you don't have to think whether there's a full set on one operating system and a subset on alternatives."

Hay said Adobe has also successfully driven upgrades to its latest version of Flash. More than 50 per cent of customers have upgraded in the past six months, he said.

And, as Microsoft seeks to make incursions into Adobe's customer base, Adobe is returning the favour. Adobe has invested in more robust Flash authoring tools called Flex and has aligned itself with Eclipse, an open-source equivalent to Microsoft's flagship development tool Visual Studio, which is popular with Java programmers.

Adobe has the advantage of being the incumbent and designers are often loyal to the Mac, company executives note. Microsoft's Expression tools, which are aimed at designers and due in the first quarter next, are expected to run on Windows.

Miguel de Icaza, Novell vice president of development in charge of the Mono project, which brings Microsoft development software to Linux and Unix, said he sees advantages to WPF/E.

But he said Microsoft's user interface strategy could be a "slippery slope" that could tempt developers to write Windows or Internet Explorer-only applications.

"It won't be an issue for the public Web, but developers inside corporations or those shipping to specific clients will likely continue the trend of 'You need IE to view this page' when they depend on the 'extras'," de Icaza wrote via email. "It will now be 'You need the full WPF, so you need Vista for running that.'"

The advantage of using WPF is that applications can fully exploit graphics hardware as well as the communications and workflow "plumbing" built into Windows Vista, noted O'Kelly.

"The implicit bet on Microsoft's part is that developers will find that what they can do with the full features set of Vista will be significantly compelling relative to what they can't do on Vista," he said.