03-07-2012, 02:45 PM
Silverlight
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
Silverlight competes with products such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe Shockwave, Gears (Microsoft silverlight is a programmable web browser plug in that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback that characterize rich internet applications. software), and JavaFX. Version 2.0, now in beta-testing, brings improved interactivity and support for .NET languages and development tools.
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.
RUNNING SILVERLIGHT-BASED APPLICATIONS
Silverlight-based applications run in the browser. Silverlight makes sure that you can run your applications in all modern browsers, without having to create browser-specific code.
To run a Silverlight-based application, users require a small plug-in in their browser. The plug-in is free. If users do not already have the plug-in, they are automatically prompted to install it. The download and installation take seconds and require no interaction from the user except permission to install.
CREATING SILVERLIGHT-BASED APPLICATIONS
You can create Silverlight-based applications using skills that you already have and tools that you are already familiar with. You can create Web pages that use both HTML and WPF elements with Silverlight. Like HTML, XAML enables you to create UI for your Web-based application with declarative syntax, with the difference that XAML provides significantly more powerful elements.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Silverlight applications can be written in any .NET programming language. As such, any development tools which can be used with .NET languages can work with Silverlight, provided they can target the Silverlight CoreCLR for hosting the application, instead of the .NET Framework CLR. Microsoft has positioned Microsoft Expression Blend versions 2.0 and 2.5 for designing the UI of Silverlight 1.0 and 2 applications respectively. Visual Studio 2008 can be used to develop and debug Silverlight applications. To create Silverlight projects and let the compiler target CoreCLR, Visual Studio 2008 requires the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio which is available as a beta release.
CONCLUSIONS
Silverlight has been criticized for keeping Linux out of their official offering. Even though Microsoft is officially collaborating on the Moonlight project, Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe, and maker of direct competitor Flash, has questioned "the commitment of Microsoft to keep the Silverlight platform compatible with other OS than Windows". His concerns are based on "examples from history" where Microsoft has launched products with promises of ongoing cross-platform compatibility that no longer apply, such as Internet Explorer for UNIX, the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, OS/2, and Windows Media Player.
INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW
Silverlight competes with products such as Adobe Flash, Adobe Flex, Adobe Shockwave, Gears (Microsoft silverlight is a programmable web browser plug in that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback that characterize rich internet applications. software), and JavaFX. Version 2.0, now in beta-testing, brings improved interactivity and support for .NET languages and development tools.
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.
RUNNING SILVERLIGHT-BASED APPLICATIONS
Silverlight-based applications run in the browser. Silverlight makes sure that you can run your applications in all modern browsers, without having to create browser-specific code.
To run a Silverlight-based application, users require a small plug-in in their browser. The plug-in is free. If users do not already have the plug-in, they are automatically prompted to install it. The download and installation take seconds and require no interaction from the user except permission to install.
CREATING SILVERLIGHT-BASED APPLICATIONS
You can create Silverlight-based applications using skills that you already have and tools that you are already familiar with. You can create Web pages that use both HTML and WPF elements with Silverlight. Like HTML, XAML enables you to create UI for your Web-based application with declarative syntax, with the difference that XAML provides significantly more powerful elements.
DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
Silverlight applications can be written in any .NET programming language. As such, any development tools which can be used with .NET languages can work with Silverlight, provided they can target the Silverlight CoreCLR for hosting the application, instead of the .NET Framework CLR. Microsoft has positioned Microsoft Expression Blend versions 2.0 and 2.5 for designing the UI of Silverlight 1.0 and 2 applications respectively. Visual Studio 2008 can be used to develop and debug Silverlight applications. To create Silverlight projects and let the compiler target CoreCLR, Visual Studio 2008 requires the Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio which is available as a beta release.
CONCLUSIONS
Silverlight has been criticized for keeping Linux out of their official offering. Even though Microsoft is officially collaborating on the Moonlight project, Bruce Chizen, former CEO of Adobe, and maker of direct competitor Flash, has questioned "the commitment of Microsoft to keep the Silverlight platform compatible with other OS than Windows". His concerns are based on "examples from history" where Microsoft has launched products with promises of ongoing cross-platform compatibility that no longer apply, such as Internet Explorer for UNIX, the Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, OS/2, and Windows Media Player.