XAML2CPP, the missing tool for Silverlight for Windows Embedded developers

We have been rolling out a new version of Windows Embedded CE 6 recently, called R3. one of the features provided in this release is Silverlight for Windows Embedded, a XAML rendering engine supporting a subset of Silverlight 2 XAML and that you program using native code. If you want to read more about Windows Embedded CE 6 R3, read this previous post.

With the actual version of Silverlight for Windows Embedded, you create the XAML code using Expression Blend or Visual Studio, then you have to write the C++ code from scratch (samples are provided in the tools to make this work easier).

Valter has been writing his own tool to generate the C++ code and was kind enough to share it. Check his blog post.

So you might be wondering: how is that possible that this new technology (Silverlight for Windows Embedded) comes out with a tool that does not seem to be complete (having the C++ code auto generated within Blend/Visual Studio seems pretty obvious, especially when you look at the fully integrated experience with Expression Blend and Visual Studio for Silverlight and WPF apps development, where you can go back and forth from XAML to C# code seamlessly with automatic updates and generation of the code). Well here is the answer: there has been some decisions made to make this technology available as is because our customers were in urgent need of this technology. This means that you can definitively expect to have a greater experience, much more integrated,  with the next release :-). Stay tuned.