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Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek

More Signal Less Noise

Silverlight 1, Silverlight 1.1, Alpha, Beta, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 1, 2, RC, Oh My!!

In coming weeks and months, we will release a number of different, related and interdependent products that affect overlapping sets of developers. Among these are:

  • Visual Studio 2008 (ORCAS)
  • Silverlight (1.0 is promised for this summer and 1.1 is in alpha)
  • .NET 3.5 (which includes WPF which is closely related to Silverlight in important ways)

Keeping it all straight, especially as we go through release cycles will be very difiicult and there is a real risk that developers coming to this site will be confused as to which version of, for example, Visual Studio, they want to use with which version of (for example) Silverlight.

In coming days I will try to put together (and then keep up to date) a white paper on what you need to get started with the latest releases of Silverlight (1.0 and 1.1) but for now, the easiest way to go about working with the videos, starter kits, etc. is this:

 (a) When you are working with Silverlight 1.0, work in Visual Studio 2005

(b) When you are working with Silverlight 1.1, work in Visual Studio 2008 (Orcas)

 This is not required, but it will optimize your experience and give you the best tools to work with.

NB: as noted previously there are brekaing changes in the latest releases of 1.0 and 1.1 that are not yet reflected in everything up on this site. I'm working hard and fast to fix that and I do appreciate your patience.  We should have it all ship shape very soon.

 Thanks again.

 Jesse Liberty
Silverlight Geek

Posted: Jul 23 2007, 09:36 PM by jesseliberty | with 22 comment(s) |

Comments

Silverlight 1, Silverlight 1.1, Alpha, Beta, Visual Studio 2008 Beta 1, 2, RC, Oh My!! - Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek said:

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# July 23, 2007 9:53 PM

swildermuth said:

I am confused, wasn't WPF in .NET 3.0 and already released?  I don't see how 3.5 is related to Silverlight at all?  Are they changing WPF to support Silverlight?  I can't imagine that.  Any word on new final releases of Expression Blend v2 to support Silverlight (I know we can get it as a Preview now, but having a full version that was more compatible with Silverlight 1.0 would be great!)

# July 24, 2007 12:11 AM

Harvey said:

There has been a lot said about Silverlight 1.0 RC, but where is the information on Silverlight 1.1? With the imminent  expiry of the plug-in, the developers using 1.1 are extremely concerned. Can you please give us more information on the status of 1.1? What are we to do once August arrives and 1.1 no longer works?

# July 24, 2007 12:46 AM

liquidboy said:

Thanks for the awesome effort guys... Looking forward to the new release (1.0 RC and 1.1 beta) and a matrix of technolgies and tools would definetely be worth while. Im sure if you guys don't create one i probably will..

Anyway i keep checking this website waiting for the RC to be released...

l8r

# July 24, 2007 2:51 AM

forci said:

For me the only important thing is version 1.1. It means the whole world to me.

# July 24, 2007 3:20 AM

rodrigo.diaz said:

Silverlight tecnology is super cool but I feel Microsoft is pushing more effort on the 1.1 version than the 1.0 (because of the .NET language support).  Yes, it's very cool the CLR on the browser.. but let's get real! it's an alpha version; it will be realease in 1 year from now.  We can't even use it for production apps (did I said EULA?).

I hope MS give more support, demos, examples, documentation and built-in controls for the current 1.0 version cause is the only one that we as developers can use to build production quality applications today.

# July 24, 2007 10:23 AM

jesseliberty said:

Shawn wrote: >>I am confused, wasn't WPF in .NET 3.0 and already released? <<

Yes, I was being a bit sloppy, but with the release of VS2008 many developers will be working with 3.x for the first time, and the distinction between 3.0 and 3.5 will be very subtle.

>> I don't see how 3.5 is related to Silverlight at all? <<

As developers beging to work in VS2008 with WPF they will be working with what amounts to a superset of Silverlight.

>>Any word on new final releases of Expression Blend v2 to support Silverlight (I know we can get it as a Preview now, but having a full version that was more compatible with Silverlight 1.0 would be great!) <<

I don't know of any public announcements, but I'll check.

Thanks.

# July 24, 2007 11:42 AM

jesseliberty said:

Harvey,

We haven't said anything about dates on 1.1 but I'll find out about what happens when the plug in expires and get word out in the blog asap.

Thanks.

-j

# July 24, 2007 11:44 AM

jesseliberty said:

forci said >For me the only important thing is version 1.1. It means the whole world to me.<

Can you say a bit more about why? While I too am looking forward to 1.1, there is an awful lot you can do in 1.0 and with code little you can't do in 1.0 that you will do in 1.1.

# July 24, 2007 11:46 AM

jesseliberty said:

Rodrigo, what are we missing in support for 1.0? I know we have lots of cool "How do I" videos, sample apps, white papers. I'm happy to start putting together other helpful material; what would be on your priority list?

# July 24, 2007 11:47 AM

rodrigo.diaz said:

Silverlight 1.0 basic Controls like the TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButtons, ListBox.

I know we can build those controls from scratch using the current controls available but..., that will help !!!

Also, more demos/examples on AJAX integration with SL 1.0.

Thanks for answering! :)

# July 24, 2007 12:15 PM

Justin-Josef Angel [MVP] said:

Hello Jesse,

I know that voice was familier! I've watched the AppDev course you did couple of years back. Let my just say that was an excellent class.

I have to disagree with your comment on not using Orcas for Silverlight 1.0 development. As Orcas gives javascript intellisense and one could easily use it to get intellisense & runtime debugging for silverlight 1.0 I think it's a great addition for developing Silverlight 1.0.

I've also posted a demo for SL 1.0 Intellisnse in Javascript in the Silverlight Javascript forums. If you'd like I can send you a link.

# July 24, 2007 5:09 PM

Claytonious said:

You asked why some of us are waiting exclusively for 1.1 and don't care about 1.0. Here's one answer...

1.1 gives us the CLR. We already have Flash, which is lightyears ahead of Silverlight in maturity, features, and richness of tools (we don't even get a simple textbox in silverlight!) Silverlight 1.0 doesn't give us a single thing that Flash doesn't already do better, and on more platforms, than Silverlight.

With 1.1, however, we have the CLR. For that, I am willing to sacrifice ALL of the rest of it. Until then, what is the point of just another weakly-typed javascript rich media player that has a small fraction of the features of Flash?

# July 24, 2007 7:38 PM

adefwebserver said:

...why some of us are waiting exclusively for 1.1

I can write my code in C# not JavaScript.

I can use LINQ

# July 24, 2007 8:45 PM

forci said:

jesseliberty: Just like Claytonious and  

adefwebserver said, we can write code in c# and that is huge advantage.

# July 25, 2007 3:43 AM

jesseliberty said:

Please don't misunderstand me, I can't wait to get my hands on 1.1 (and 1.x and 2.0 and....)

I recognize the advantages of writing in C# (sheepishly plugging his book) I was only suggesting that there is still great value in 1.0 and that learning 1.0 puts you in a great position to launch into 1.1 when it is more mature (though lots of folks are writing in 1.1 today).

But don't let me inhibit you; the message is clear; for many folks 1.0 is a nice preview but 1.1 is the real show.

-j

# July 25, 2007 8:00 AM

forci said:

And when we will see next release for real show?

# July 25, 2007 9:51 AM

jesseliberty said:

forci: 1.0 is promised for "this summer." We have not announced any dates for 1.1.

I know that is frustrating, but much less frustrating than promising dates that are not 100% solid.

thanks.

-j

# July 25, 2007 12:10 PM

jesseliberty said:

Hey! I did it, I said "we."

Takes some getting used to :-)

# July 25, 2007 12:11 PM

WynApse said:

Silverlight Cream for July 25, 2007

# July 25, 2007 8:25 PM

Wilfred Mworia’s Blog A step forward! « said:

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# July 26, 2007 1:44 AM

cortig said:

Any news on the Mac version?? The previous betas still had serious issues (including the fact that they wouldn't install on MacOS X 10.4.10)… (and finding the right place to report bugs is anything but easy :-\ )

# July 27, 2007 2:09 PM