Can you use Silverlight with Visual Web Developer 2008 Express?

I think I read somewhere that at present the answer is no, but later on it is a yes.

Kind regards

Ross

That's pretty accurate, I've heard that VWD Express will be supported by the time Silverlight 2 goes to release.

Thanks Bill

Any ideas when that is likely to be?

Regards

Ross

The closest I've seen to an "official" date for Silverlight 2 release is sometime in the second half of this year, maybe someone has seen something more specific?

So am i wasting my time to learn Silverlight without the funds to purchase a VS2008 subscription?
It would appear that MS is going the route of Adobe Acrobat: give the reader away, but make the
development cost dearly. I understand that MS has to make a buck, but I am trying to decide between
the MS world and the Java Open Source (Netbeans, Eclipse), and it would appear that MS is going
to make Silverlake tied to VS2008 (full subscription)?

Please add any comments or difference of opinions here since I would love to use Silverlight, but at
the present state of my work, buying either a full VS2008 or MSDN premium subscription is way
out of my state of funds.

Nanouk

PS: thanks in advance

I don't understand how you could come to that conclusion from this thread, and I'm not sure what netbeans and eclipse have to do with RIA. 

nanouk:

it would appear that MS is going to make Silverlake tied to VS2008 (full subscription)?

Since MS release .NET, VS is not a must... If you are good in memorizing syntax/keyword and using commandline, you can even use notepad for that.

nanouk:

at the present state of my work, buying either a full VS2008 or MSDN premium subscription is way
out of my state of funds.

Buying VS 2008 full subscription is not something that you need to worry about. You just need to find the right company that can buy those subscriptions. If you are a student, you can get VS 2008 with very cheap prize in your university. MS even contribute a lot of free VS for students. If you are not a student and also not working then it's not good. However, you can buy VS 2008 standard edition which is pretty cheap..

I heard that SL Tool for VS express will be available soon.

(If this has answered your question, please click on "Mark as Answer" on this post. Thank you!)

Best Regards,
Michael Sync

Blog : http://michaelsync.net
Feed : http://michaelsync.net/feed

mchlSync:

If you are a student, you can get VS 2008 with very cheap prize in your university. MS even contribute a lot of free VS for students.

That's true. My university is connected to the "MSDN Academic Alliance" so I get a lot of software for free. Visual Studio, Expression Studio, Windows Server, SQL Server, XP, Vista, SharePoint Server...you name it! All in several different versions. That's great!

If you are a student, but your university isn't connected to MSDNAA, check out DreamSpark. Not as good as MSDNAA, but still some free software for all students!