<commit_before>---
layout: post
title: "Perspex Alpha 2"
excerpt: "Alpha 2 of Perspex is now out."
category: Perspex
tags: [perspex, c#, .net]
comments: true
---

We're pleased to announce that alpha 2 of
[Perspex](https://github.com/grokys/Perspex/) is now available.

Perspex is a cross platform .NET UI framework inspired by WPF, with XAML, data
binding, lookless controls and much more. Take a look at the video to see our
current progress:

[![Perspex Alpha 2](http://i.imgur.com/gYqwl0o.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_AB_XSILp0 "Perspex Alpha 2")

Here are some of the highlights of this release - we've come a long way in the
3 weeks since alpha 1!

## Visual Studio Designer

[<NAME>](https://github.com/kekekeks) has done the impossible and
got a basic designer for Visual Studio working. It's still early days and not
everything is supported yet, but it's a massive step towards a user-friendly
designer experience with Perspex. Take a look at the video above to see it in
action or download the [VS Plugin](https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/87db356c-cec9-4a07-b7db-a4ed8a921ac9)

## Styles in XAML

We've added support for expressing styles in XAML.

{% highlight xml %}
<StackPanel>
  <StackPanel.Styles>
    <Style Selector="Button:pointerover">
      <Setter Property="Button.Foreground" Value="Red"/>
    </Style>
  </StackPanel.Styles>
  <Button>I will have red text when hovered.</Button>
</StackPanel>
{% endhighlight %}

To see more examples of what you can do with Perspex styles, [check out the documentation](https://github.com/Perspex/Perspex/blob/master/docs/styles.md)

Of course, our XAML support is only available thanks to [OmniXAML](https://github.com/superjmn/omnixaml)!

## \*Nix support

Perspex now runs on \*nix platforms using mono - this includes Linux and Mac
OSX. For information on building Perspex on \*nix take a look at the [build
instructions](https://github.com/Perspex/Perspex/blob/master/docs/build.md).

## HTML View

As well as doing the impossible once with the designer, [<NAME>](https://github.com/kekekeks) has also ported the [HTML Renderer](https://htmlrenderer.codeplex.com/) component to Perspex, giving us a
100% managed HTML 4.01 and CSS 2 renderer directly in Perspex.<commit_msg>Updated link to VS plugin.<commit_after>---
layout: post
title: "Perspex Alpha 2"
excerpt: "Alpha 2 of Perspex is now out."
category: Perspex
tags: [perspex, c#, .net]
comments: true
---

We're pleased to announce that alpha 2 of
[Perspex](https://github.com/grokys/Perspex/) is now available.

Perspex is a cross platform .NET UI framework inspired by WPF, with XAML, data
binding, lookless controls and much more. Take a look at the video to see our
current progress:

[![Perspex Alpha 2](http://i.imgur.com/gYqwl0o.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_AB_XSILp0 "Perspex Alpha 2")

Here are some of the highlights of this release - we've come a long way in the
3 weeks since alpha 1!

## Visual Studio Designer

[<NAME>](https://github.com/kekekeks) has done the impossible and
got a basic designer for Visual Studio working. It's still early days and not
everything is supported yet, but it's a massive step towards a user-friendly
designer experience with Perspex. Take a look at the video above to see it in
action or download the [VS Plugin](https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/a4542e8a-b56c-4295-8df1-7e220178b873)

## Styles in XAML

We've added support for expressing styles in XAML.

{% highlight xml %}
<StackPanel>
  <StackPanel.Styles>
    <Style Selector="Button:pointerover">
      <Setter Property="Button.Foreground" Value="Red"/>
    </Style>
  </StackPanel.Styles>
  <Button>I will have red text when hovered.</Button>
</StackPanel>
{% endhighlight %}

To see more examples of what you can do with Perspex styles, [check out the documentation](https://github.com/Perspex/Perspex/blob/master/docs/styles.md)

Of course, our XAML support is only available thanks to [OmniXAML](https://github.com/superjmn/omnixaml)!

## \*Nix support

Perspex now runs on \*nix platforms using mono - this includes Linux and Mac
OSX. For information on building Perspex on \*nix take a look at the [build
instructions](https://github.com/Perspex/Perspex/blob/master/docs/build.md).

## HTML View

As well as doing the impossible once with the designer, [<NAME>](https://github.com/kekekeks) has also ported the [HTML Renderer](https://htmlrenderer.codeplex.com/) component to Perspex, giving us a
100% managed HTML 4.01 and CSS 2 renderer directly in Perspex.
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