When I try to open an .xaml file using VS2008 SP1 on XP SP3, VS displays the designer pane, then displays it again and again.... I have to kill VS to get out of the loop.

The .xaml file in-question is the WatchList.xaml file in the MVVM.Demo.Client project in Jason Dolinger's (excellent) MVVM demo:  http://www.lab49.com/files/MVVM.Demo.sln.zip

Anyone else had this kind of problem?  Is there perhaps something I need to do to allow WPF dev under XP?

DT

The WatchList.xaml file which causes the endless loop in the designer is in the MVVM.Demo.Client project. 

Based on my experiments, the problem seems to be related to the following xmlns declaration in the WatchList.xaml file: 

xmlns:model="clr-namespace:MVVM.Demo.StockProvider;assembly=MVVM.Demo.StockProvider"

Curiously, if I have MVVM.Demo.Client set as the startup project and then try to open the WatchList.xaml file, the XAML pane of the designer shows the squiggly error:  "Assembly MVVM.Demo.StockProvider not found ..." for the above statement. And the designer pane shows the "Problem loading" error. 

OK, so I have a reference problem.  Except that I can hit F5 and run the app without problems!

But (and this is where it gets really strange) if I have the MVVM.Demo.StockProvider as the startup project and try to open the WatchList.xaml file (in the .Client project), the XAML pane displays OK and the Designer pane displays OK (briefly), but then begins an endless loop, displaying the pane again and again. Then I have to kill VS2008.

If I remove the xmlns declaration (and the XML statements that refer to model) the xaml file will open OK in the XAML and Designer panes.

BTW: I spent 1/2 day completely un-installing/re-installing VS2008 + SP1, and it didn't help. 

Any ideas?

Thanks,

DT

The presence of the # character in the path for a WPF or Silverlight projects causes issues in the WPF and Silverlight designers for Visual Studio 2008 and Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. The issue has been fixed in later releases of Visual Studio 2010, and will be visible in the next public beta of that product.

Sorry for the inconvenience this has caused you,

Mark