Today, we will take the app you created in the .NET MAUI Workshop and focus on improving the XAML.
While the XAML you created as part of that workshop is functional, there are many opportunities to improve the XAML that it uses.
Many people criticize XAML as being verbose and hard to maintain. By completing this workshop, you'll see how that doesn't have to be the case and that it is possible to create XAML that is easy to write, read, understand, and maintain.
While this workshop exclusively focuses on .NET MAUI, the principles can be applied to any use of XAML files, whether that be WPF, UWP, WinUI, Avalonia, Uno Platform, or something else.
This workshop is a direct follow-up to the .NET MAUI Workshop. After you've completed that workshop, you'll be all set to do this one.
You can follow their setup guide if you're coming straight to this workshop.
Note The code used as the starting point for this workshop was taken some months ago and has not yet been updated to reflect the latest changes made there. Any differences should be minor.
This workshop has the following parts:
- Part 0 - Overview
- Part 1 - Fundamentals
- Part 2 - Responsibility
- Part 3 - Magic Values
- Part 4 - Naming
- Part 5 - Custom Types
In each folder for parts 1 to 5, you'll find a README.md file with directions for that part, along with folders containing the code at the Start and End of the part.
But before that, let's get started with Part 0.
There are very few people striving to improve the experience of working with XAML.
If you know of any more, I'd love to add their details here.
For now, you can check out:
- My YouTube channel - Where I create videos about working with XAML.
- My Blog - Where I often write about .NET MAUI and XAML.
If you have any questions, please contact me on Twitter (@MRLacey) or Mastodon (@mrlacey@fosstodon.org).
If you have suggestions for additions or improvements, please open an issue so we can discuss them.
If you find a typo, spelling mistake, or grammar error, please raise a PR to fix it.