Tip of the Day: Getting Started With Silverlight 2
A number of folks have asked me for a step by step set guide to getting started programming with Silverlight 2. Here it is.
Useful tips
- Memorize this URL: http://silverlight.net - from there you can always find everything you need, including all the tools, tutorials, quick starts, videos, discussions, forums, demo programs, and much more
- Ignore and do not use anything marked Silverlight 1.1 - there are only two versions you care about as of now: Silverlight 1.0 (our release version) and Silverlight 2.0 (currently in Beta).
How to Get Started
1. Navigate to Silverlight.net (did you memorize that URL?) and click on Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Now Available!
If that link has scrolled off the news you can start by clicking on Get Started on the standard menu,
If you click on Get Started follow that by clicking on View Other Versions,
That will bring you to a link to the Silverlight 2 Beta 1 Runtimes. Click on that link.
These three steps from the standard menu will bring you to the same page as the one step from news,
Install the Silverlight runtime and when installed look in the upper right hand corner where you will want to click on Tools,
That will bring you to a page full of tools. I've isolated the essential tools that you'll want to download or follow the links to in the next image,
Note that this is not how the page appears; I've removed the inessential links and I'm showing only the ones you'll want to get started developing with Silverlight 2.
Getting Started Learning To Code Silverlight Applications
There is a lot of information available for learning to code in Silverlight. Of course, I'll start by recommending that you read through the available Silverlight 2 Tutorials (I'll be adding a new tutorial twice each month) and watching the Silverlight 2 videos
and then finally, I'd return to the Learn page and work through any material related to Silverlight 2.
Don't forget about our Forums which are a great place to ask (and answer!) questions from other Silverlight programmers and Microsoft developers.
Be sure to check (or better, subscribe to!) the blogs (under Community)
That will make for a good start, and remember that lots of folks are adding new material every day; I personally will be adding two tutorials, half a dozen videos, a web cast and a couple dozen blog entries every month. So you'll want to stop by pretty often to keep up to date.