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Basically silverlight is Microsoft’s answer to Flash, but it’s so much more.
For years Macromedia (spit!) have dominated the vector graphics seen in browsers.
Now I know Microsoft have dominated a lot more but that’s ok with me because it’s stuff us developers can take seriously, whereas Flash is a pain once you get into it.
Flash has so many limitations I found it frustrating spending so much time trying to learn it only to find pout it was not possible to do many intricate vital things.
The programming model is inaccessible, their command structure is very limited and the company that owned it, Macromedia have some highly distasteful nasty ways of going about things. This is a personal gripe but a 100% try and accurate one; but more about that later.
Silverlight holds so much more promise because it is open source, a point I’d like to point out about “new” Microsoft to all those ignorant critics that has been the case since .NET arrived nearly 10 years ago now! On this point for a minute, C# is open source code folks, exactly in the same way that Java is. It was submitted to the ECMA and like JavaScript or Java is completely accessible in all detail. I think many people get confused think that Sun’s or anyone else’s Java is an open source language.
Sure it is, but the point most miss is that the compiler isn’t, it’s a proprietary product, and just like Microsoft’s compiler for C #is proprietary, you can’t get at the compilers for either language. Of course you can always write your own compiler if you like.
Back to Silverlight, when was Microsoft good at naming products. There’s been a lot of new stuff in the last year, 2007 saw Ajax and Silverlight launched, both are essentially compound efforts to provide developers with a large funky set of JavaScript, packaged as developer controls available from within the toolbox of Visual Studio, Express and these new developer tools like blend etc.
There are five new tools at this time of writing so check the links below. Microsoft’s approach to JavaScript has been totally piece meal with bits for this that and the other scattered everywhere, now they seem to have got their act together and things are looking good.
There are loads of places to read about XMAL, the extension of XML is continues well since 2000. My parting shot here is at Macromedia as they decline and crumble to dust. There was a really good product I thought was great, it was the best RAD Web tool around and was called Drumbeat 2000 (1999).
Most of you will not have heard of it because it was a baby strangled at death by, guess who, yes Macromedia. I used Drumbeat and to this day the UI and ability to apply multiple JavaScript functions to any element of a Web page was exceptionally good!
So Macromedia purchased it and took it off the market and in doing so protected the other nightmare Web product they had at the time, Dreamweaver I believe it was called. Anyway good riddens to bad rubbish, bye bye Macromedia. Sail on Silverlight, well done Nikko, Scott el at Microsoft and for those wondering no I am not on the Microsoft payroll, never have been, never will be, just a proper serious independent who tells it like I see it.