Code quality: consolidate xmlns

[Jay-o-Way]

Just looking at the namespaces, see using:WinUIGallery.ControlPages for example. Well, I think this screenshot says it all...

For reference: see PR microsoft/PowerToys#30728

[Jay-o-Way]

Questions and bits

• Ambiguity between WinUIGallery.Controls and CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Controls
• What's the difference between WinUIGallery.xxx and WinUIGallery.DesktopWap.xxx ? --> done in Cleanup & folder structure improvements #1732
• Is muxc Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Controls in XAML files needed or not? See ControlExample and MapControlPage. --> it's not
• For what is IsApiContractPresent needed? --> it's not

List

Let's decide on the proper namespaces here - (under construction) 🚧

xmlns:	using:	comment
?	WinUIGallery
common	WinUIGallery.Common	done in #1732 ✔️
data	WinUIGallery.Data	done in #1732 ✔️
local	WinUIGallery.Controls	done in #1732 ✔️
❌	WinUIGallery.DesktopWap.Controls	removed/renamed in #1732 ✔️
?	WinUIGallery.ControlPages
?	WinUIGallery.SamplePages
toolkit	CommunityToolkit.WinUI
animations	CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Animations	only in ControlExample - done in #1732 ✔️
?	CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Controls
converters	CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Converters	no WinUIGallery converters ✔️
animatedvisuals	Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Controls.AnimatedVisuals	only used on 2 pages
❌	IsApiContractPresent	removed in #1732 ✔️

LAST UPDATE: 29-1

[marcelwgn]

Thank you for creating this issue and starting the discussion! I think consolidating the xmlns namespaces sounds good though I wouldnt say "local" is a fixed name. From my experience, local usually often just refers to the namespace of the control. For other namespaces, I would generally follow the theme of taking the first letter of the individual parts so Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Media would be muxm.

Re API Contract: I think this was just missed when moving to WinUI 3 and cleaning up the UWP remnants.

[Jay-o-Way]

Thanks. The combination local + WinUIGallery is actually very common in the repo, that's why I took the liberty to fill it in, as the first example. But if you want it to be something else, let me know. You can edit the above comment if you want.

I think it's a matter of preference to use abbreviations or words for the namespaces. Short words might be easier to decipher.

So, that means the API contract thing can be removed, am I right?

[marcelwgn]

Thanks. The combination local + WinUIGallery is actually very common in the repo, that's why I took the liberty to fill it in, as the first example. But if you want it to be something else, let me know. You can edit the above comment if you want.

I think it's a matter of preference to use abbreviations or words for the namespaces. Short words might be easier to decipher.

Absolutely, I think I would hold off on making any changes until a few more folks chimed in on this matter. Generally speaking, I would say that the rules to determine the namespace should be as simple as possible and shouldnt require looking them up in a table or something.

So, that means the API contract thing can be removed, am I right?

Yes, we should be able to remove that now.

[Jay-o-Way]

Idea: we could rename WinUIGallery.Controls to xmlns:internal="WinUIGallery.InternalControls"? Given the many other things that use the word "controls" - it's what this app is all about 😆
Or use"XamlControls" for the other one.

[Jay-o-Way]

@niels9001 you did a great job on this, thanks!

• The namespace WinUIGallery.ControlPages, that happens to be the example in this issue, is not adressed
• Five slightly ambiguous cases of xmlns:converters are left: WinUIGallery.Converters versus CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Converters == Replace custom converters with CommunityToolkit.WinUI.Converters #1735
• xmlns:samplepages="using:WinUIGallery.SamplePages" is the only exception for that namespace
• CommunityToolkit.WinUI (with no more suffixes) is only used in HomePageHeaderImage. What if we remove it?

[Jay-o-Way]

@marcelwgn advice for the remaining items?

[marcelwgn]

Thanks for the ping @Jay-o-Way ! I think we should do the following:

• If the page is in the same namespace, use local for that namespace e.g. a Control in the folder WinUIGallery.Controls uses local for that namespace
• Use toolkit for CommunityToolkit
• Otherwise use the last part of the namespace path, e.g. controls for WinUIGallery.Controls

I dont think anyone has a reference to the root namespace WinUIGallery so we are fine with that. There probably are some edge cases somewhere but we can discuss them when they occur :)