Microsoft about Sparkle the 'Flash Killer'

According to eweek Microsoft Corp. is expected to give more details on its developer-oriented graphics tool, code-named Sparkle at its upcoming Professional Developers Conference next month.

Sparkle will be part of the Expression Studio suite of design and developer tools for the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), formerly known as Avalon. Expression Studio also is expected to be unveiled at the PDC.

Expression Studio also will feature a design tool code-named Acrylic, which will support the Microsoft Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML). Other components of Expression Studio will be delivered over time.

The existence of Sparkle first leaked in 2003. Since then, the Sparkle team has grown to about 24 employees. As of last week, the company still would not comment on Sparkle, or even acknowledge the code name exists.

Sparkle will be targeted at developers and at markets that are power users of Macromedia's Flash. Sparkle also will be able to run on a variety of devices, as it will rely on a compact version of the WPF that is similar in packaging and positioning to the current .Net Compact Framework technology.

Elements of Sparkle—also known in some circles as a "Flash killer"—ultimately could become a set of system application programming interfaces (APIs) in the Windows operating system. Specifically, these APIs could become part of the WPF graphics engine, which will be part of the upcoming Windows Vista and available for Windows XP as a service pack.

In addition, Sparkle APIs in the operating system will be accessible from any .Net-supported language, sources said. As Sparkle and Acrylic are designed to work with Microsoft Office products, "creating nice animated graphics on a Web site becomes more and more of a Microsoft playground," a source said.