Silverlight 1.1 .NET & details
I received more detailed info on Silverlight 1.1, here's a quick synopsis:
Silverlight 1.0 provides the core functionality for Microsoft's new cross-browser, cross-platform web presentation plugin. Version 1.1 (now available in Alpha) adds the .NET framework, allowing powerful coding in familiar territory to .NET developers.
- The Silverlight version of the framework is a trimmed-down, factored subset of the full .NET Framework
- This refactored framework drops unnecessary parts, such as COM Interop, and provides others on a "pay for play" basis. This allows the Silverlight .NET Framework to be ~4MB, versus the full version's ~50MB.
- Uses the same tools, APIs and technology as full version, requiring minimal code changes to support both a rich interactive web application and a full desktop implementation of your project
- Silverlight lives in a sandbox, much like the HTML DOM, which is familiar ground to web developers
- No way exists to break out of this sandbox, and no permission elevators are provided
- Safe, isolated storage exists in an obfuscated location, allowing Silverlight to maintain a local storage location on the client machine. Don't forget, all this is CLIENT SIDE execution! The framework is downloaded to the client machine, and what we've thought of as server-side execution now is executing on the client itself. When you hit a breakpoint when debugging, you are attached to the client browser process itself. Any immediate window edits, etc, actually affect the client instance.
- Client-based file upload controls will allow direct manipulation of files specified by the user on their local disk. The thinking is that if the user specified the file, it is safe for Silverlight to manipulate it.
- Cross-domain support is in progress
- 1.1 adds XAML extensibility, Control classes (user controls) and a subset of sample controls
- Data binding is on the way
- Only a subset of full WPF, so features such as 3D imaging not available.. these features really require the full hardware processing of a desktop machine to render correctly.
So, what do you need to build and run a Silverlight app? Here are the recommendations for most developers: (all available at http://www.silverlight.net)
- Silverlight 1.1 Alpha runtime installation
- Visual Studio Codename "Orcas" Beta 1
- Silverlight Tools Alpha for Visual Studio Codename "Orcas" Beta 1
- Expression Blend 2 May Preview
- ASP.NET Futures