When we started creating How Do I videos, the idea was to have stand alone videos that do not depend on one another. That is still the ideal, though from time to time we do have two or three part videos because the material is just too complex to cover in the 15-20 minutes we like to set as the maximum for a video.
I’ve been noodling on the idea of Application Sets, the rather odd concept of having your stand-alone video and building on it too.
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An Application Set in its ideal form, can be decomposed into two or more stand alone Modules. You can view either module without the other, but together they add value to each other. Each Module in turn consists of two or more Units (where a unit can be a blog entry, a tutorial or a video). Again, each unit can stand alone, but together they add value to one another. |
The idea is to build the Modules organically – that is, they arise as the units are created, without a plan, in response to the natural development of ideas.
Here are two closely related modules that have evolved into a single Application Set:
Module I – Styles and Templates
- Blog: Styles and Templates
- Blog: Template Browser
- Tutorial: Styling and Templates
- Video: Creating Styles
- Video: Templates Without the Visual State Manager
- Video: Templates and the Visual State Manager
Module II – Skinnable Custom Controls
- Blog: Intro to Custom Controls Part 1
- Blog: Intro to Custom Controls Part 2
- Blog: Creating Custom Controls
- Blog: Generic.xaml
- Blog: Dependency Properties Part 1
- Blog: Dependency Properties Part 2
- Blog: Dependency Property Precedence
- Video: Building a Skinnable Custom Control 1
- Video: Building a Skinnable Custom Control 2
- Video: Building a Skinnable Custom Control 3
- Video: Building a Skinnable Custom Control 4
This is not to suggest that the set is complete, but rather that there is now enough to lend some coherence among the parts; that in addition to each of these modules and units having some value on its own (I hope), the module as a whole should have a value and in turn the set of the two modules has value as well.
Eventually, if this idea makes sense, we’ll find a way to package the entire set together for easy distribution, complete with up to date code, as a unit.
Enjoy.
