Microsoft has published the specifications for the XAML programming language. This includes XAML, XAML 2009, and the extensions that are specific to Silverlight and WPF. For reasons that are not quite clear, the specifications for the Visual Basic for Applications language is also included.
The XAML 2006 and XAML 2009 specifications cover three aspects of the XAML language:
- The Xaml Schema Information Set – a model for defining a particular Xaml vocabulary.
- The Xaml Information Set – a model for describing the information in a Xaml instance.
- The process for converting an XML [XML] document into the corresponding Xaml Information Set, as directed by one or more Xaml Schema Information Sets.
This specification release includes three Xaml Schema Information Sets for WPF (2006, 2010, 2012) and two for Silverlight (2008, 2010). The Xaml vocabulary for Windows Workflow was not included.
The 300 page Visual Basic for Applications specification is the most thorough coverage of the language to date. It includes the language itself as well as the standard library thru VBA 7. VBA is no longer being offered for use in third party applications but is still essential for Microsoft Office macros.