Most developers spend a lot of time learning. Who can claim an entire lifetime career invested in a single language, or platform?…VB6 to C# to TSQL to JavaScript to Ruby and so on. Sure there are plenty of professions that don’t necessitate quite the same level of time investment in learning the tools of a ‘craft’, but if you stand still you should expect to go nowhere.
I have worked with lots of different types over the years and developers are no different to
most, there will always be people at work who think they are simply ‘entitled’, owed a sweet ride; some think their employers owe it to them, others think their colleagues do and in society some think their government does. Lately with the whole Windows 8, Silverlight / WPF ‘will they’, ‘wont they’ deliberations in the developer community, there has been some resentful noises emanating from developers who feel left behind by Microsoft who have gone as far to express fear for their careers and encouraged others to follow suit. I find this staggering, lacking self belief, lazy and in some cases cynical attention seeking rabble rousing.
I have invested plenty in WPF but when it comes down to it, if I have to learn something new because there is simply something better?…then I welcome the education. Perhaps had I been ahead of my time I might have incited a riot when VB6 was outmoded by .NET 1.0, instead I chose to see it as an opportunity, at the time I was faced with either moving on to Java, Swing AWT , JSP and J2EE or to .NET, WinForms, ASP.Net and all the wonderment of web services and remoting (tongue firmly plated in cheek).
Personally I don’t believe Microsoft is about to abandon XAML but if they do then I will treat it as an opportunity and expect that history will show me not to be alone.
In a time where mankind had come to think of itself as highly evolved, there was a technology princess known as JezebelScript. She was a Queen in waiting and in her latter years she strode throughout the land upon her faithful horse who went by the name High.
JezebelScript roamed upon High Horse, preaching her gospel to any and all that would listen; “free yourself from the hub of central control and lay seed at the root of communication” she cried. The arbiters of the peoples forums were locked in debate, a dark cloud of quandary hovered, alas so many prophets, so many gospels, even at the seat of power there seemed to be great confusion in how to best identify the “one true way”1.
The Princesses message was simple, her key tenet was “freedom in Ubiquity” and as her powers grew as the message took root. The Oligarchs of the day were 
seduced by her call and they too began to preach her message, concordantly it appeared to be reaching its crescendo, her followers gained strength in numbers, they began flexing muscles of vindication in the hallways of the propaganda machines. And then a metamorphosis took shape…something unexpected in this rich time of spiritual and intellectual evolution, the followers of JezebelScript came to outnumber those who followed the false prophets, an ugly mob mentality which had been festering, manifested itself in an un-mandated charge to suppress the new minority. The airwaves became filled with bile, hatred and self serving pronouncements of worship to JezebelScript, they shouted her name as though it laid claim to legitimacy. Finally it seemed the oppressed were now becoming the oppressor.
Her story is ongoing, her epitaph yet to be written and who knows she just may end up capturing the hearts and minds of those who have until now ignored her dance of seduction.
1 Billy Hollis “Living in peaceful co-existence”
Without discussing the merits of the argument as to whether or not HTML5 and its (potential) level of inclusion in Windows 8 is to the exclusion of Silverlight, I feel compelled to note the level of mean spiritedness of some members of the “community” (if one dare lay claim they are entitled membership to it).
Twitter is (again) abuzz with prognostication dressed in maven style authority; tweeters are delighting in the demise of Silverlight (largely) and to some extent WPF on the back of some Windows 8 announcements. Some of the tweets I have seen even include the suggestion by their authors that they would take delight in using the news to inform XAML Developers that their livelihoods are in imminent jeopardy. I wont even bother to address that assertion other than remark that I find it says a lot about the individuals who have nothing better to do than tweet their joy at the expense of someone else’s potential misfortune.
most, there will always be people at work who think they are simply ‘entitled’, owed a sweet ride; some think their employers owe it to them, others think their colleagues do and in society some think their government does. Lately with the whole Windows 8, Silverlight / WPF ‘will they’, ‘wont they’ deliberations in the developer community, there has been some resentful noises emanating from developers who feel left behind by Microsoft who have gone as far to express fear for their careers and encouraged others to follow suit. I find this staggering, lacking self belief, lazy and in some cases cynical attention seeking rabble rousing. 
