Introduction to Silverlight

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Introduction to Silverlight

• By Alan Cobb
• 2008-Jan-10
• Sacramento, CA
• www.alancobb.com

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About Alan Cobb

• Independent consultant since mid-80s on Microsoft
  platforms
• C, WinForms, WPF, .NET
• One of directors of the SacDotNet U.G.
• http//www.alancobb.com

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Presentation Overview

• What is Silverlight?
• How does it relate to other client-side
  technologies?
• How important is it?

• Silverlight app development walk-through

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What is Silverlight?

• One word definition Flash
• Browser plug-in cross-browser, cross-platform
• Use case today Animated ads, Video
• Use case tomorrow Applications (Flex)
• Benefits Adds functionality
  write-once-run-everywhere
• Why Silverlight not Flash?
• More words Flash .NET
• More words WPF-subset .NET-subset

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This is a big deal

• Once-every-20-years event
• Existing client-side web technology has reached
  the peak of its life-cycle
• Fresh start of a new client GUI technology
• Web is where the action is
• The network is the computer

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Comparing client platforms
Desktop
Web
Win16 Win32WinForms
HTML / CSS / JavaScript / AJAX
WPF
Silverlight
Flash / Flex
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Competing technologies

• Desktop based smart clients
• WPF on high end
• 3D, Hardware acceleration
• WinForms (Mature, proven)
• Web-based
• ASP.NET - HTML CSS
• ASP.NET - HTML CSS AJAX
• Adobe Flash / Flex
• Desktop-web hybrid (?)
• Adobe AIR

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Demo Yahoo Finance Charts
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Demo Picnik.com Photo Editor
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Feature Details
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WPF / Silverlight Positives

• Vector based vs. pixel based
• Scalable Looks good at multiple resolutions
• XAML Similar to HTML
• Declarative
• Designers and programmers work in parallel
• Rich customization is possible in a well-designed
  way

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WPF - Negatives

• Windows only
• Requires 50 / 200 MB .NET 3.x runtime
• Steep learning curve

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Versions of Silverlight

• 1.0
• RTM in Sept. 2007
• Code behind JavaScript only
• 1.1 / 2.0
• Alpha introduced in Spring 2007.
• Beta at MIX08 in March 2008.
• RTM maybe Q3-2008.
• Code behind - .NET languages C, etc.
• Partial .NET class library

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Silverlight - Positives

• Lightweight at 4-6 MB, quick download
• .NET based
• Write in C or VB.NET
• Use familiar class libraries
• Rich state-of-the-art GUI
• Vector based
• All types of content handled uniformly
• Secure - sandboxed

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Silverlight - Negatives

• Not quite here yet
• Pig in a poke
• Sandboxing limits functionality
• Conflicting products within Microsoft?

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Demo Silverlight Airlines
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Demo MS Download Center
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Demo 3rd Party Control Vendor
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Silverlight 2.0 Features

• Wont know details until March 2008

• Controls
• Data
• Communications

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Silverlight 2.0 Features

• Controls
• Extensible control base classes
• Common controls
• Textbox, Checkbox, Radiobutton, etc
• TabControl, Slider, ScrollViewer, ProgressBar,
  etc
• Layout controls
• Grid, StackPanel
• Data controls
• DataGrid, etc

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Silverlight 2.0 Features

• Data
• 2-way data binding
• More LINQ support LINQ to XML

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Silverlight 2.0 Features

• Communications
• REST, POX, RSS, and WS- communication
• Cross domain network access
• Sockets

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Feature Unknowns (?)

• Local client integration?
• Read and write local files?
• Read local mic and webcam?
• WCF?
• Depth of class libraries?
• Pay-for-play

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SilverlightDevelopmentWalk-through
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Silverlight Tools

• Expression Blend
• GUI builder
• Graphic designers
• Visual Studio 2008
• Includes a more limited GUI builder
• Programmers