In this month's MSDN Magazine Charles Petzold authors their regular End Bracket section: Let My People Code.

It's a short read so head on over there and check it out, but in summary, he cites the oft repeated point that Xaml was never intended for humans and that parts of Xaml were actually removed for this reason.

The fact that bits were removed is a little disappointing. I don't know the details of exactly what was removed but that's beside the point, because right now, the tools just aren't good enough. I have to admit that I may be a little premature in saying this because some of the Expression tools haven't even been released yet. Furthermore I've not really invested much time in Cider - the Visual Studio designer for WPF - though that's because I actually find it easier to write Xaml :).

Does this mean that we should forget about WPF until the tools improve? Hell no. Instead I'm going to spend some time on planet Xaml and I don't think this is such a bad thing. Whilst I'm waiting for the tools to improve I'll be getting familiar with the guts of the beast. Which I know will set me in good stead when my tool generated Xaml isn't playing ball.

Go on, put your tools down.

So what don't I like about the tools? I just don't understand Cider yet and I can't get the results I want. As for Expression - I'm utterly baffled by the choice of flavours (Web, Blend, Design or Media?). I'm not worried though, the tools will come because WPF is the mutt's nuts.