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Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek

More Signal Less Noise

Tip of the Day - Getting Ready for Silverlight 2

We have announced that Silverlight 2 Beta 1, will be released during the first 3 months of this year (that is, any day now) with a go-live license. It is important to keep in mind that this will be a beta product, and that 1.0 will be a release product, but you can bet that there will be a lot of interest in Silverlight 2 because it is... well.. fantastic.  And filled with great stuff. (And is the proximate cause for my ending 12 years as an independent contract programmer and becoming a  Microsoft employee!)

So, as you can guess, like lots of folks in and out of Microsoft, I'm busy ramping up a huge amount of material have ready as soon as Silverlight 2 is released  (though I promise not to neglect Silverlight 1.0). And, like lost of folks, I've found that there is a lot to learn.

I'm asked at least once a day how developers can start learning 2.0 even before they get their hands on the bits. Or the documentation. Well, I can in fact tell you, without getting fired, if I word it very carefully. 

image

Silverlight uses XAML and while we've not announced the complete set of controls that will be implemented in Silverlight 2.0, if you review Scott's blog post again you'll find that we hae said that there will be layout manager support, two way databinding support, control template and skinning support along wth textbox, checkbox, radiobutton, StackPanel, Grid, TabControl., Slider, rich networking support, generics, isolated storage,

image

 

That turns out to be a lot of information about what to look for in Silverlight 2 (though not necessarily in Beta 1), and all of that is a subset of what is already well documented in WPF.  So if you are eager to get going, you can hit the books today with a good book on WPF. Here are three I think are particularly good:

Programming WPF
by Chris Sells, Ian Griffiths

Read more about this title...
Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF) (Unleashed)
by Adam Nathan

Read more about this title...
Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (Microsoft .NET Development Series)
by Chris Anderson

Read more about this title...

For example; let's say that in reviewing Scott's article you decide you'd like to get a head start on understanding how controls are going to work. No one can promise which controls will be in the beta, nor that they'll be precisely as they are in WPF, but I'm willing to go on record saying that spending the time reading chapter 5 in the Sells/Griffiths book would be time well spent, as would be true with the other 2 books.

 

I'm sorry this ran a bit late today and I hop you find it a helpful start.

Posted: Feb 08 2008, 02:33 PM by jesseliberty | with 30 comment(s)
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Comments

Manuel Ruiz said:

Hi Jesse!

I'm starting to build a web app. witch would perfectly fit in Silverlight 2.0, but I have some pressure to finish it as soon as possible this make I can't wait for the bits of Silverlight 2.0 to arrive.

I've thought I could write all code related to data access by the time I get my hands on Silverlight 2.0, but I was wondering what would best fit with it... I mean should I use Web Services, Communication Foundation Services, Ado .Net Data Services? What's your advice?

Thanks in advance.

# February 8, 2008 4:40 PM

wisecarver said:

Awesome! Thanks for sticking your neck out for us Jesse.

# February 8, 2008 5:09 PM

DotNetKicks.com said:

You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.com

# February 8, 2008 5:12 PM

BenHayat said:

Jesse, I'm in the same position as Manual is. Could you please investigate and tell us what is the best way to get data to/from SL2.0 and database? This way we can get started developing the middle tier.

Thanks!

..Ben

# February 8, 2008 5:41 PM

jesseliberty said:

>> Could you please investigate and tell us what is the best way to get data to/from SL2.0 and database<<

You have a number of options and which is "best" is going to depend on a number of project-specific requirements and conditions (e.g., the size of the database, where the database is with respect to yoru other serviers, transaction frequency, etc. etc.)

Beyond that, there are optionns that you'll wnat to consider that we've not yet announced (but will very soon) that will increase your choices in good ways.

So; for now, I would make sure you are comfortable with what we do have out there, and I'd pay some attention to LINQ as it is new, it is powerful and as they say about the military; they almost never build a weapon they don't end up using.

-j

# February 8, 2008 6:20 PM

BenHayat said:

>>but I'm willing to go on record saying that spending the time reading chapter 5 in the Sells/Griffiths book would be time well spent<<

It's funny you said chapter 5. And that was the chapter I started on that book.

Jesse, do you know if the "RichTextBox" will include Spell checking like it does in WPF?

Secondly, will the buttons in SL2 be able to accept ALT+keyboard if we prefix the button text with "_" underscore, like it does in WPF?

Thanks!

..Ben

# February 8, 2008 10:38 PM

jesseliberty said:

>>Jesse, do you know if the "RichTextBox" will include Spell checking like it does in WPF?

Secondly, will the buttons in SL2 be able to accept ALT+keyboard if we prefix the button text with "_" underscore, like it does in WPF? <<

Bend, I'd love to give you all these details, but we have not announced anything like that. (We've not said there will be a RichTextBox in Beta 1 let alone what characteristics it might have).

There are good reasons for any company not to make such an announcement before the product is ready to go, as I'm sure you agree; though it is very frustrating.

We have said SL 2 Beta 1 will be released in Q1; my understanding is that Q1 ends on 4/1, so at worst you have, what, 5 or 6 weeks until all questions are answered?

I'm really not trying to be coy or play "I know and can't say, nah nah" -- I'm trying to be very respectful of the professionals  like yourself, who very much need to know, and the corporation that very much wants to make sure it handles this correctly.

I can promise that we'll let you know as much as we can as soon as we can.

Take care.

-j

# February 9, 2008 2:15 PM

BenHayat said:

>>I can promise that we'll let you know as much as we can as soon as we can.<<

Fair enough!

>>my understanding is that Q1 ends on 4/1<<

You sure about that...? ;-)

# February 9, 2008 2:25 PM

wisecarver said:

Well done Jesse. Thanks.

@Ben...I saw your comment in Tim's blog.

What is it you'd like to do with images?

# February 9, 2008 6:22 PM

lixin123 said:

I think that will include

1. back-end data, eg. SQL databases

2. WCF services, as middle tiers, to make it SOA

3. Silverlight client-end

I am still wondering how many data transmission types in WCF will be supported in Silverlight, especially when I want to develop something on Silverlight that can work on Internet with port security and Intranet with high performance at the same time.

# February 9, 2008 7:59 PM

BenHayat said:

To WiseCarver:

>>@Ben...I saw your comment in Tim's blog.

What is it you'd like to do with images?<<

If you look at most of the new flash sites, you notice they use many different and elegant ways of displaying the images with animation effects. I'm sure not every flash developer sits down and develops these effects. There are either part of flash system or a third party tool to create them. My question to Tim was, (since SL is going for Flash and RIA market), are we getting some of these effects right out of the box? Hope this time my question is clear!

# February 10, 2008 1:42 AM

» Daily Bits - February 10, 2008 Alvin Ashcraft’s Daily Geek Bits: Daily links, development, gadgets and raising rugrats. said:

Pingback from  &raquo; Daily Bits - February 10, 2008 Alvin Ashcraft&#8217;s Daily Geek Bits: Daily links, development, gadgets and raising rugrats.

# February 10, 2008 9:34 AM

wisecarver said:

Ben I did a lot of cartoon sin Flash, with the full version of Flash and products from Swish.

With Jesse's tip I have been working in Blend now and am very happy with it.

I'll be devoting an entire ASP.NET site soon to Silverlight cartoons and I'll have a tutorials section where I share my findings.

# February 10, 2008 12:39 PM

BenHayat said:

>>I'll be devoting an entire ASP.NET site soon to Silverlight cartoons and I'll have a tutorials section where I share my findings.<<

Good stuff. Looking forward to seeing it. Is there a link to see your work in Flash? Just want to get some ideas if the Cartoon animation can relate to what I need?

Thanks!

# February 10, 2008 2:45 PM

wisecarver said:

Most of what I did was for Hospitals and large companies; similar to NPC (coded Non-Player Class), to illustrate movements.

The rest was for children's ministries.

Silverlight will be a new stage for my cartoons and I'm looking forward to working out methods like tweening images in it for animation. Exciting times.

# February 10, 2008 3:08 PM

BenHayat said:

Wisecarver; Just went to Swish site, and looked at Max2. That's exactly what I'm looking for. Those transitions and effect. I sent them an email to see if they are going to support SL.

# February 10, 2008 3:59 PM

MSDN Blog Postings » Silverlight Secrets? said:

Pingback from  MSDN Blog Postings  &raquo; Silverlight Secrets?

# February 11, 2008 9:44 AM

Noticias externas said:

Last year at the Mix conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft surprising the web world with the announcement

# February 11, 2008 9:48 AM

Wöchentliche Rundablage: ASP.NET, ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET MVC, Geocoding, WPF, WF, CardSpace, IIS7, LINQ, XNA… | Code-Inside Blog said:

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# February 11, 2008 2:40 PM

JrzyShr Dev Guy said:

Last year at the Mix conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft surprised the web world with the announcement

# February 11, 2008 5:53 PM

Community Blogs said:

Jeff Paries is back today with Glowing edges with Animated Clipping Paths, Tim Sneath announced Video

# February 12, 2008 2:20 PM

Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek said:

I&#39;m beginning to receive a lot of email about what is coming in Silverlight 2.0. Today&#39;s was

# February 14, 2008 9:20 AM

Blogs said:

I&#39;m beginning to receive a lot of email about what is coming in Silverlight 2.0. Today&#39;s was

# February 14, 2008 10:11 AM

Mirrored Blogs said:

I&#39;m beginning to receive a lot of email about what is coming in Silverlight 2.0. Today&#39;s was

# February 20, 2008 2:54 AM

Frank La Vigne said:

# February 20, 2008 6:42 PM

Frank La Vigne said:

# February 20, 2008 6:43 PM

Frank La Vigne said:

# February 21, 2008 1:23 PM

http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archive/2008/02/08/tip-of-the-day-getting-ready-for-silverlight-2.aspx said:

Pingback from  silverlight.net/.../tip-of-the-day-getting-ready-for-silverlight-2.aspx

# March 22, 2008 2:56 AM

http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archive/2007/10/26 … | Create a Blog said:

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# March 22, 2008 5:32 AM

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# March 22, 2008 5:32 AM