Silverlight is Microsoft’s cross-browser, cross-platform browser plug-in that allows the creation of interactive web applications that employ high quality streaming media, vector graphics, images, and animation. Deployed as a plug-in for the major browsers on the Windows, Mac and Linux (supported by Novell) operating systems, web developers can craft interactive applications that have an identical user experience on the vast majority of web browsers deployed today. Silverlight addresses a disconnect that exists today in web development workflow where the design intent of graphics designers and interaction designers cannot be faithfully communicated to and crafted by the web developers. In Silverlight, this intent is created in design tools like Expression Design and Expression Blend and passed off to web developers in XML-based XAML data files. The fidelity of the designers’ ideas is kept as there is a clear separation between the design in XAML and the code in JavaScript.
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Test-driven development is something that every developer can appreciate once they?ve tried it, and something that I?ve worked hard to enable for Silverlight with the release of the controls source. Scott Guthrie previously posted about the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 release, with a First Look at Silverlight 2 post followed by the First Look at Using Expression Blend with Silverlight 2. If we could take the same application from the Blend post & create a set of unit tests for the components in the app, it would pay dividends once we start adding new features or working with other developers on the project.
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As the desire to deliver rich web content and functionality has increased over the last decade, Rich Internet Application (RIA) technologies have become increasingly powerful. Unfortunately, many of these technologies have been out of reach for many client application developers because of the non-trivial learning curve involved. In addition, with the number of RIA technologies available, where do you even begin? In many cases, there was not a “one size fits all” solution, so RIA development would involve a mix of HTML, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, and perhaps a little AJAX thrown in (just to name a few possibilities).
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Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2008 introduces a whole new set of .NET technologies that will revolutionize, once again, the way you develop smart client and web-based applications; the most notable being LINQ, WPF and, of course, Silverlight. For most of us working in and around web application development in the business world, Silverlight is a big step forward; especially if you consider that it provides clean coding practices with extensible languages (e.g. XAML and C#). It also provides some of Visual Studio’s rich programming model that we have become accustomed to and can no longer live without; such as class libraries, debugging capabilities and IntelliSense among many others.
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Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)
WPF provides a unified framework for building applications with rich user interfaces and interactivity. It is built on top of the .Net Framework and makes use of the managed and unmanaged code. WPF programming model allows the developers to write code once and deploy it as a standalone installed application or in a browser.
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Microsoft gives a name to its Flash-killer technology. The technology formerly known as WPF/E is now known as Silverlight. Microsoft has given a go-to-market name for its cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in for delivering the next generation of user experiences and rich Internet applications for the Web. The technology formerly known as WPF/E is now known as Silverlight.
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What Is Silverlight?
Silverlight is a new Web presentation technology that is created to run on a variety of platforms. It enables the creation of rich, visually stunning and interactive experiences that can run everywhere: within browsers and on multiple devices and desktop operating systems (such as the Apple Macintosh). In consistency with WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), the presentation technology in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 (the Windows programming infrastructure), XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) is the foundation of the Silverlight presentation capability.
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If you’ve been watching the technical news or attended MIX ‘07, then you’ve probably been hearing about Silverlight (f.k.a. WPF/E). The idea behind Silverlight is simple — provide a cross-browser, cross-platform technology for 2D vector graphics, animations and DRM high-definition media. Currently, Microsoft is targeting the Mac using either Firefox or Safari and Windows using IE6/IE7 or Firefox.
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