Silverlight For Total Novices [ Update ]
I received the following email today (edited slightly, to reflect the spirit of emails I get almost every day)
Jesse, I would like to use Silverlight but I need an idiots guide... can you suggest how I might get started?
Thanks for writing! The best way to get started is to go to the Silverlight site
From there you can click on Get Started to download the files you need. My advice would be to:
- Skip the Watch the Getting Started Video
- Download the runtime(s)
- Download the Developer tools
- VS 2008
- Silverlight 1.1 Tools For VS 2008
- ASP.NET Futures
- Download the designer tools
- Blend 2
- Encoder
- Design (optional)
- Download the SDK(s)
For now, you really only need Silverlight 1.0 and can safely skip the 1.1 files, except that you will want Silverlight 1.1 Tools For VS 2008 because it includes what you need to write Silverlight 1.0 applications in Visual Studio 2008 as explained here.
After downloading your files and installing them, return to Silverlight.net and click on Learn.
Start with the following videos: #1, #3, #57, #24, #49, #30, #34, #36 in that order. [ Update: Oops - they renumbered!! I'll get you the new numbers as soon as the site numbering settles down, or else I'll get you links. For now, please look for introductory videos and ignore the numbers ]
Then explore other videos, or click on QuickStarts for another perspective on getting going.
You may also want to take a look at one or more of our recommended books, which you can find on the Community page. One book we've not yet posted, but which is also excellent is
Finally, as you explore further, and questions arise, please be sure to join our Forums where, to date, over 11,000 members have contributed to nearly 20,000 topics (don't panic, it is very well organized!)
Best of luck, and please do let me know if I can be of further help,
Jesse Liberty
Silverlight Geek
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