When WPF first appeared on the programming landscape, (and once SL moved to version 2.0 and became something we could be proud of), it was clear that typing gobs of XML was in our future. 

Now, if you are anything like me, you may have thought that you could muddle through and simply leverage Visual Studio has you XAML editor of choice.  While you COULD do so, you would soon get massive hand cramps, as earlier versions of VS had very limited support for XAML editing, beyond simple code completion. 

Now that Visual Studio 2010 is here, many folks assume that this version of the IDE has ALL the features you could possibly need, it is simply not the case. VS2010 does have a number of improvements to be sure.  You can now extract resources, define complex brushes, establish (some) data bindings and so on, all from the comfort of your Properties window.  Furthermore, the WPF and SL designers have true drag-and-drop control placement.

But...

If you want to define animations, 3D graphics or generate UserControls on the fly, Visual Studio is not enough. And that is where Expression Blend comes in.

When Blend was first released, it was marketed as a tool for graphical artists. Now, I am not so sure. It seems that the line between programmer and graphical artist is blurring. While nobody should expect a programmer to generate top-notch graphics (anymore than a graphical artist should not be expected to generate C# code), it is clear that the modern day WPF/SL programmer *should* know the basics of the Blend IDE.

As suggested, Blend is a very elaborate XAML editor. Unlike VS 2010, Blend *does* allow you to work with complex animations, extraction of UserControls from graphical data, edit default styles, define visual states for custom controls, generate 3D effects, apply animation easings and dozens of other feature that VS 2010 simply does not support. 

So. the short answer is, unless you *really* like typing XML, you will need to flip between VS 2010 and Blend when you are building a WPF / SL program.  

Given this, the next several blog posts will address the key features of Blend from a programmer's point of view.  If you don't have your own personal copy of Blend, be sure to download an evaluation copy here.

My next blog post will start at the very beginning of working with Blend.  Look for it in a few days!