The technique is not exactly Microsoft only. Using some sort of SGML to represent graphics seems pretty common.
I suspect that XAML is somewhat related to Adobe's MXML. Both seem pretty similar in concept to Mozilla's XUL, or even GLADE XML. Recent versions of HTML, with behavior defined in something like jQuery seem to be reaching for this kind of thing as well.
They all boil down to a representation of a tree in memory used to sort out what goes where on a screen.
Also, not all Text based UX is a command line. Russ Cox has an interesting if not exactly short demonstration of the ACME editor. http://research.swtch.com/acme Not all Text based UI's are command lines.
I suspect that XAML is somewhat related to Adobe's MXML. Both seem pretty similar in concept to Mozilla's XUL, or even GLADE XML. Recent versions of HTML, with behavior defined in something like jQuery seem to be reaching for this kind of thing as well.
They all boil down to a representation of a tree in memory used to sort out what goes where on a screen.
Also, not all Text based UX is a command line. Russ Cox has an interesting if not exactly short demonstration of the ACME editor. http://research.swtch.com/acme Not all Text based UI's are command lines.