Embracing AI and Beyond at VS Live! 360

Greetings from sunny Florida! We’re thrilled to be attending the much-anticipated VS Live! 360 conference, perfectly timed to coincide with the launch of .NET 9. This annual event brings together developers, engineers, and tech enthusiasts from around the world to explore the latest advancements in the .NET ecosystem and beyond. This year, the conference has seamlessly integrated multiple tracks into a single, immersive experience, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking center stage.

AI Takes the Spotlight

AI’s prominence at the conference is no surprise. Large language models (LLMs) and machine learning have revolutionized the tech landscape over the past few years, opening up new possibilities in natural language processing, predictive analytics, and intelligent automation. The excitement surrounding their potential shows no signs of slowing down. Sessions on AI are going to be packed, covering everything from integrating AI into .NET applications to ethical considerations and best practices in AI development.

At Xceed, we’re exploring ways to integrate AI-driven features into our controls and components, aiming to provide developers with tools that make their applications smarter and more intuitive.

Our Commitment to WPF

Despite AI’s allure, we’re also here to reaffirm our commitment to Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), one of the most robust and widely used desktop frameworks in the .NET ecosystem. It’s a bit disappointing (but not entirely surprising) that WPF doesn’t have any dedicated sessions year after year. However, we recognize that WPF remains a critical technology for many industries, including finance, healthcare, and notably, AAA gaming. Game developers continue to rely heavily on WPF for creating sophisticated game editors and tools that require high-performance rendering and a rich user interface.

At Xceed, we’ve been providing top-tier WPF controls and libraries for years, and we remain dedicated to supporting and enhancing this platform. Our Xceed Toolkit for WPF continues to receive updates and new features, ensuring that developers have the tools they need to build powerful desktop applications.

Exploring .NET MAUI

That said, we’re also embracing the future with .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI), a cross-platform framework for creating native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML. We’re particularly interested in sessions about .NET MAUI, a technology we’re actively supporting through our Xceed Toolkit for .NET MAUI. This open-source project reflects our commitment to providing high-quality tools for modern app development across multiple platforms.

We’re excited about the improvements .NET 9 is bringing to MAUI, including performance enhancements, new controls, and better tooling support. These advancements will make it even easier for developers to build responsive and visually appealing applications that run seamlessly on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

One area of concern for us with MAUI has been performance, particularly on certain platforms. We’re hopeful that future updates will continue to address these issues. We want to give a wholehearted shout-out to the MAUI team for their exceptional responsiveness in addressing issues we’ve encountered during development. Their dedication and openness to feedback make it clear that MAUI is a platform with a bright future.

We’re actively collaborating with Microsoft and the MAUI community to contribute improvements and share our experiences. Our goal is to help shape MAUI into a platform that meets the high standards developers expect for building professional applications.

We’re also exploring how Blazor Hybrid can be integrated with our existing controls and how it can provide new avenues for developers to create rich, interactive applications without having to rewrite code for different platforms.

Beyond UI frameworks, we’re also taking the opportunity to delve into sessions on cloud-native applications, microservices architecture, and DevOps practices. These areas are increasingly important for delivering scalable, resilient, and maintainable applications. We’re keen to integrate these insights into our products and services at Xceed, ensuring that our tools support modern development workflows and deployment strategies.

For instance, understanding how our components can be optimized for cloud-based applications or how they can facilitate CI/CD pipelines is crucial for staying ahead in the industry.

At Xceed, our mission is to empower developers with the tools they need to create exceptional applications. We’re excited to integrate what we’ve learned into our products, ensuring they remain cutting-edge and meet the evolving needs of the developer community.

Stay tuned for more updates from the conference and how we’re integrating these insights into our offerings!