Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek

Silverlight 1.0 RC and 1.1 alpha refresh

This blog post is shamelessly based on an excellent post by Tim Sneath. But the information is so important (and we're all so gassed by it!), that I want to give it the widest possible distribution, and then follow up here on the Silverlight site as we move forward.

Silverlight 1.0 Release Candidate 1 is now available along with a refresh of Silverlight 1.1 Alpha.

The 1.0 RC fixes over 2K bugs and freezes the JavaScript API.

You should be able to install the RC right over the Beta with no problems.

Here are direct links:

• Silverlight 1.0 RC1 / Windows 
• Silverlight 1.0 RC1 / Mac 
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh / Windows
• Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Refresh / Mac

Tools for building Silverlight applications:

• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
• Visual Studio Extensions for Silverlight
• Silverlight 1.0 SDK / Silverlight 1.1 SDK
• ASP.NET Futures CTP
• Expression Blend August Preview
• Expression Media Encoder Template Updater

We are actively updating and refreshing the code for the videos to work with these latest versions, but for most simple Silverlight applications the two steps are to replace Silverlight.js and to change references in your own .js files from Sys.Silverlight to Silverlight.

Please be sure take a look at this blog entry about breaking changes in the RC1 version.

 Thanks!

 More soon...

Cider vs. Blend

I think there are a lot of developers who work alone or in very small teams who do not have access to professional designers and who might, at least for a while, be a bit intimidated by Blend.

 We can tackle the question of how we can overcome Blend-o-phobia in a future posting, but for now I'll say that Cider, the design surface in Orcas, provides a very powerful WYSIWYG design surface for Silverlight (and WPF). This is great news, especially as Silverlight matures.

 It will be very interesting as Orcas heads towards delivery to see whether Silverlight developers find themselves using ORCAS or VS2005 and if ORCAS whether we find ourselves venturing into 1.1 or using 1.0 (yes, I know, I said Orcas for 1.1, 2005 for 1.0, but I also said it wasn't an ironclad rule!)

 One huge advantage of Orcas, as pointed out by an early adopter is that ORCAS has far better Intellisense, which can be great for Javascript as well.

-jesse

PS: Please remember that while part of  my job is to learn as much as anyone on the planet about Silverlight in the next six months, that doesn't mean I've done so already. So feel free to educate me when I get it wrong.  But be gentle, I break easily :-)

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

Watch out for breaking changes

Watch out for breaking changes!!

As we move forward with new versions of Silverlight 1.0 and Visual Studio, you'll want to keep an eagle-eye on the white papers that describe breaking changes in Silverlight.  (Remember we are early in the development of this technology).

 I will be reviewing all the posted videos as quickly as possible and (a) fixing the code to match the latest iteration and (b) where necessary either re-shooting the video or adding notes about what must be changed. Please keep an eye on this blog; I'll update it frequently to keep you informed.

 Thanks for your patience and understanding. For the moment it may all seem like a bit of a moving target, but the truth is that the changes are small and most of what you are learning will not change; we're just fixing things up so that we have a very solid foundation to build upon. (I still can't quite get used to saying "we" <smile> )

 Thanks.

-jesse
Silverlight Geek

Welcome

This weB LOG (blog) will be a regular feature on Silverlight .NET, starting immediately. I hope you will come to count on it as a guide to what is new here, and how to find your way around through the amazing amount of information available about this rapidly evolving technology. 

Over time, my postings will branch out to give you as much information as I can about what is happening with Silverlight, where we are going, how folks are using it, and what new cool features, add ons, training bits, and so forth we have available. As the web site grows, my hope is that the blog will serve as an evolving and dynamic guide. I look forward to your comments, suggestions, feedback and criticism so that we can be as responsive to your needs as possible.