EXtensible Application Markup Language (XAML) which is
pronounced as Zamel is Microsoft's new markup language to define dynamic or
static user interfaces for .NET applications. XAML will be used in Windows
Vista to design user interfaces, but can be applied to Windows XP or Windows
2003 as well.
XAML comes to separate the UI code from application logic
code and is very similar to MVC. XAML is tied to Windows Presentation
foundation (codenamed Avalon) to build a whole user interface in .NET 3.0 and
Windows Vista.
XAML is an XML child indeed. Every XAML code must be a well-formed
XML file and XAML inherits all XML definitions and rules. We can consider it
as the last part of a chain that contains HTML, XHTML and other markup
languages for UI.
What makes XAML different from other XML children is what it
represents. Every XAML element represents a .NET CLR class. This lets you to
extend and work on XAML easily.
The model that XAML in conjunction with Windows Presentation
Foundation provides to let developers design a rich user interface is similar
to code behind and code inline model in ASP.NET.
This means you can put your application logic in a separate
file or embed it inline in XAML file itself.
XAML files will be compiled to BAML files. The advantage of
BAML is it is smaller than XAML and is easier to read so it is faster to load.