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'C#/XAML for HTML5' Goes Stable, Investigates Blazor Integration
C#/XAML for HTML5 (CSHTML5), which could be described as a reincarnation of the sorely missed Silverlight Web dev tech, has graduated from a release candidate to a stable 1.1 release, with the team noting it's investigating integration with Blazor/WebAssembly.
Blazor has generated a lot of developer interest as an experimental project underway at Microsoft to provide Web app development with .NET tools and languages such as C#, leveraging WebAssembly, which converts higher-level language code to assembly-like code for native-speed performance in Web apps.
CSHTML5 is a Visual Studio extension that lets developers create HTML5 apps with C# and XAML from within the IDE. It hit release candidate status in February and has now moved on.
It's developed by Userware, which said v1.1 marks the beginning of CSHTML5 as a final product, with regular updates planned going forward. The first-ever version to be marked "stable," it includes many bug fixes and some new improvements.
The most intriguing feature may be the possibility of tying in to Blazor and WebAssembly.
"We have also been working on different proof-of-concepts lately, experimenting with the possible integration of Blazor/WebAssembly and Bridge.NET technologies into CSHTML5," Userware said in a blog post earlier this month (May 22).
Those two proofs-of-concept -- Blazor/WebAssembly and Bridge.NET (an open source C#-to-JavaScript compiler and associated frameworks for running C# apps on the Web), can be accessed in an online showcase.
Note, however, that unlike Blazor and Bridge.NET, CSHTML5 is not a free, open source project, though it comes in a free edition in addition to the for-pay professional edition.
Speaking of the Blazor/WebAssembly and Bridge.NET experimentation, Userware said: "While these two PoC suggest a great future for CSHTML5 and opportunities to improve our technology, it's still a long way to figure out which would be more appropriate for our users. Please provide as much feedback as possible, and stay tuned for updates."
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.