Expression confusion continues... by Microsoft
Ok, the whole Expression thing didn’t bother me until this morning. “Fine”, I told myself. Microsoft states that Expression tools are not for the developer; they were designed to be targeted to a different audience. So I’ll have to wait for Visual Studio .NEXT before I have something that can make my life easier in developing on the WPF / WPF/e platform. No worries, I have plenty of other things to keep me busy in the mean time. Don’t get me wrong, I was a little upset since I spent several hours watching all of the expression videos that were on the Microsoft site to “learn” how to use them. Of course, now that they aren’t included in MSDN, that time was not very well spent – since I’m a “developer”.
But this morning put me over the edge. I got the latest MSDN Flash and in it is this little gem:
Microsoft Expression: Bring Your Designs to Life
Expression Web, Expression Interactive Designer, and Expression Graphic Designer enable you to develop cutting-edge Web sites and richer interfaces for your Windows- or Web-based applications. Tune in to these free live and on-demand web casts today.
If Expression is not for the developer, why is this sort of thing being dangled in front of me in a DEVELOPER email! I don’t mind being told that something isn’t being made available because it wasn’t designed for me… however, I DO MIND being teased. And notice what it states in the description… here, let me highlight it for you:
Expression Web, Expression Interactive Designer, and Expression Graphic Designer enable you to develop cutting-edge Web sites and richer interfaces for your Windows- or Web-based applications. Tune in to these free live and on-demand web casts today.
But the expression tools are not for the developer… sheesh. Can Microsoft marketing get their act straight and stop teasing me with what looks to be like a very cool product line… and until the next release of Visual Studio… the only products that allow you to DEVELOP interactively using designers for WPF today.