Silverlight 2.0 - where to start?
As much as I am familiar with Flash technology, I wanted to learn how to use it. I wanted to be able to draw cartoons, interactive sites, games that run directly in the browser.
I put Macromedia Flash, shook the lessons, walked through them step by step, but threw it before reaching half. The lack of design skills made itself felt. In general, I have already come to terms with the thought that it was not given to me to become a prominent flasher. And invisible - too.
About a year ago, Microsoft has shown its solution to the problem of creating “beauty” on the Web called Silverlight about a year ago. His first version was downloaded by me, inspected and rejected for my own use. In fact, it was not much different from the usual Flash, “only in profile”.
')
But the fresh wind of marketing brought fresh news to us from across the seas - it turns out that the future will be behind the so-called Rich Internet Applications, that is, (roughly speaking) programs that will work equally both online and full of this lack of online. And the most interesting thing is that already popular and familiar AJAX is quite inconvenient for creating a RIA, and we need something completely different. Options for the "other" was a lot. Many companies rushed to build "other" on the basis of what they already had. This is how JavaFX , Adobe AIR , Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and others appeared ...
From all of the above, it was Silverlight 2.0 that I liked. It is very different from the first version and provides much more features. At the same time, even such an inveterate programmer like me can easily use it without knowledge of design.
In a series of blog posts, I will try to tell about my process of studying this technology, and thus, perhaps, to facilitate someone else to study it (unless of course this topic will be of interest to anyone other than myself).
For a start, let's see what the new Silver Light differs from the old one so much that it was renamed 2.0 from version 1.1?
The first Silverlight was actually an extension of WPF's Microsoft technology, taking into account Internet orientation. The first versions were called WPF / E (E = everywhere). That is, on pure XAML, the desired design was described, the necessary JScript functionality was scripted, and displayed in browsers. In general, it was not very easy and not so super-cool (RIA, etc., you remember ...).
Therefore, it was decided: we also have a wonderful .NET Framework, in which there is a lot of useful stuff, so let's use it!
It became immediately clear to everyone that writing a plugin to the browser to support a certain equivalent of Java applets, only based on .NET, is easy. But since the framework itself, which will be necessary at the same time, is distinguished by a noticeably rather big weight (and not everybody has it installed), it is most likely that this technology will be comprehended by the same fate that at one time suffered the same Java applets.
Therefore, Microsoft programmers did it easier - the applet responsible in the browser for Silverlight 2.0 applications does not need a complete framework at all, because it contains a very impressive part of it, while keeping within less than 5 MB.
In general, on this introduction I would like to finish, and go more to the practice. In more detail about differences 1 and 2 versions it is written on this page .
For starters, what is needed for Silverlight development?
I put Macromedia Flash, shook the lessons, walked through them step by step, but threw it before reaching half. The lack of design skills made itself felt. In general, I have already come to terms with the thought that it was not given to me to become a prominent flasher. And invisible - too.
About a year ago, Microsoft has shown its solution to the problem of creating “beauty” on the Web called Silverlight about a year ago. His first version was downloaded by me, inspected and rejected for my own use. In fact, it was not much different from the usual Flash, “only in profile”.
')
But the fresh wind of marketing brought fresh news to us from across the seas - it turns out that the future will be behind the so-called Rich Internet Applications, that is, (roughly speaking) programs that will work equally both online and full of this lack of online. And the most interesting thing is that already popular and familiar AJAX is quite inconvenient for creating a RIA, and we need something completely different. Options for the "other" was a lot. Many companies rushed to build "other" on the basis of what they already had. This is how JavaFX , Adobe AIR , Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 and others appeared ...
From all of the above, it was Silverlight 2.0 that I liked. It is very different from the first version and provides much more features. At the same time, even such an inveterate programmer like me can easily use it without knowledge of design.
In a series of blog posts, I will try to tell about my process of studying this technology, and thus, perhaps, to facilitate someone else to study it (unless of course this topic will be of interest to anyone other than myself).
For a start, let's see what the new Silver Light differs from the old one so much that it was renamed 2.0 from version 1.1?
The first Silverlight was actually an extension of WPF's Microsoft technology, taking into account Internet orientation. The first versions were called WPF / E (E = everywhere). That is, on pure XAML, the desired design was described, the necessary JScript functionality was scripted, and displayed in browsers. In general, it was not very easy and not so super-cool (RIA, etc., you remember ...).
Therefore, it was decided: we also have a wonderful .NET Framework, in which there is a lot of useful stuff, so let's use it!
It became immediately clear to everyone that writing a plugin to the browser to support a certain equivalent of Java applets, only based on .NET, is easy. But since the framework itself, which will be necessary at the same time, is distinguished by a noticeably rather big weight (and not everybody has it installed), it is most likely that this technology will be comprehended by the same fate that at one time suffered the same Java applets.
Therefore, Microsoft programmers did it easier - the applet responsible in the browser for Silverlight 2.0 applications does not need a complete framework at all, because it contains a very impressive part of it, while keeping within less than 5 MB.
In general, on this introduction I would like to finish, and go more to the practice. In more detail about differences 1 and 2 versions it is written on this page .
For starters, what is needed for Silverlight development?
- Directly plugin for the browser. Beta version can be downloaded here . There are versions for Windows (checked in IE and Opera of the latest builds) and for MacOS (did not check, but I think it works).
- The Silverlight SDK, containing sample tools and documentation, is available here . Honestly, I have not downloaded it yet, so the utility level is unknown.
- Silverlight Tools For Visual Studio - allows you to develop SL-projects directly in the Visual Studio IDE. At the moment, the Express version is not supported, but support is promised with the release of the final version.
- Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview . Something in between a development environment and a graphical editor for developing WPF applications. Since this version supports Silverlight 2.0.
Next time I will tell and show with pictures how to create our first Silverlight application.
Thank you for your attention, I will be glad to any constructive reviews. Especially about the feasibility of continuing.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/22535/
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