Hi,
I have xaml pages that the designer say there is an error and yet the app compiles and runs.
WPF team does not have time for holidays that they heaps todo.
Maybe they should think about getting this one working first before the next version.
Malcolm
EDIT: This is really born from frustration with bugs MS software tools. And I mean what I say that they should fix up this version.
I never use the VS2008 WPF design surface, it's either Blend, Visual Studio in "Text" mode (my usual approach) or KaXaml from time to time. The main problem with Blend is it's not all that difficult to "break" the rendering in Blend, which makes the designers cry (bless them! :)) I generally use Blend for creating "wordy" stuff like animations, then cut+paste the XAML it generates into my XAML code.
There is an "IntelliSense" addon to Blend which makes Blend's text view actually worth using and makes Blend less irritating for devs :)
I'm sure the Visual Studio design surface will be better in 2010, but I'm managing ok without it at the moment (albeit with an external app from time to time).
The intelisense is still very buggy and not really wpf related as I have C++ projects where I can't get intelisense working. It became so much easier when I switched to visual assistx: http://www.wholetomato.com/. If your question is what is the best way to get intelisense working this is it. That compile error you said is probably very closely related to the intelisense.
SP1 for vs.net 2008 fixed a lot of the random crashes but not all. I'm working on a winforms app which will uses some WPF parts. Designing these WPF elements is a big pain, as VS.NET 2008 sp1 suddenly implodes and vanishes without an exception/error sometimes.
But at least it beats expression * tools which don't even have intellisense in the xaml.