At Microsoft's MIX07 conference, the keynote was mostly about Silverlight. What is Silverlight, and why should we care about it?
Officially, Silverlight "is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web." In other words, it's a browser plug-in that enables a subset of the capabilities of the Windows Presentation Foundation over the Web. It was previously called WPF/E.
From the user's viewpoint, to enable Silverlight, you download and install a 1.4 MB plugin, and then you can view Silverlight content in IE, Firefox or Safari. From a developer's viewpoint, once you have the tools installed, you instantiate Silverlight by including some JavaScript helper files from your HTML, and then you can display and script XAML files in your Web pages.
Microsoft cites four key benefits of Silverlight:
1. Compelling cross-platform user experiences
2. Flexible Programming Model with Collaboration Tools
3. High-quality media, low-cost delivery
4. Connected to data, servers, and services
Two versions of Silverlight were announced Monday: the V1.0 beta, and the V1.1 Alpha. What's the difference? The diagram below summarizes what's in each release:
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Again, why should we care? If you're a cynic, Silverlight just looks like Microsoft's answer to Flash. But if you like the idea of XAML-based display, or the idea of programming in managed code, then Silverlight offers a compelling model for programming the Web client.
Posted by Martin Heller on May 1, 2007 12:38 PM
