3 ms·

The Future of Silverlight

6 points by gspyrou 16y ago

robin_reala 16y ago
In contrast, since we develop all implementations of Silverlight, we can ensure that it renders the same everywhere. Poor little Moonlight.
- city41 16y ago
  and I can attest moonlight doesn't render the same as silverlight. All it takes is one ChildWindow in your app to show that.
lbolognini 16y ago
Does Silverlight have something like Firebug? I remember that was my main gripe when i was working withe the then new Silverlight 2. Regarding the "Timing" i say that nowadays you browsers implementors should have pretty strong communication between one another so the conflicting implementations shouldn't be an issue if you really WANT to be working together. I dear my sloppy text-based technology that is HTML/CSS/Javascript, i don't think any technology or any widget can replace good software engineering and well thought out workflows. Extra widgets are not going to make me any more productive than i am today. I'd buy into Silverlight only if i was developing a media platform. BTW comments on their blog don't work... will they ever learn?!
Setsuna 16y ago
Broadly-implemented standards are like paved roads. They help the industry move forward together. But before you can pave a road, someone needs to blaze a trail.
city41 16y ago
I've dove deep into Silverlight as the company I work for has me writing an extensive Silverlight app. I do question the choice of Silverlight and Silverlight's future on the web everyday because I have yet to come across something we are doing in SL that couldn't be done in HTML and Javascript. I have changed my tune a bit though as I've come to appreciate Silverlight is extremely well designed and extremely powerful. Does Silverlight really have a compelling, deep future on websites? Eh, I don't know. Should Silverlight have some kind of compelling worthwhile future, be it on phones, tablets, media centers and desktop apps? IMO, absolutely, it's a superb platform. For example, if Windows Phone 7 can gain some marketshare, I'll be tickled. As I'd take Silverlight over CocoaTouch any day.
- arethuza 16y ago
  YMMV For a pet project I wrote exactly the same component in Silverlight and Flex - I much preferred Flex even though I rather like C# as a language. Now that the fortunes of SVG seem to be reviving I see that as a better long term bet for what I want to do. Personally, I think Silverlight is an irrelevance: hardly anyone uses it on the public Web and on internal applications there isn't quite the need to make things quite as pretty as Silverlight allows.
dongle 16y ago
TL;DR Microsoft needs to stop assuming that people care enough to read paragraphs of marketing-speak. It's ludicrous that it took them 1500 words to say that they're a faster version of Flash and that they're not stepping on HTML5's toes.

6 points by gspyrou 16y ago

In contrast, since we develop all implementations of Silverlight, we can ensure that it renders the same everywhere. Poor little Moonlight.

city41 16y ago
and I can attest moonlight doesn't render the same as silverlight. All it takes is one ChildWindow in your app to show that.

lbolognini 16y ago

Does Silverlight have something like Firebug? I remember that was my main gripe when i was working withe the then new Silverlight 2. Regarding the "Timing" i say that nowadays you browsers implementors should have pretty strong communication between one another so the conflicting implementations shouldn't be an issue if you really WANT to be working together. I dear my sloppy text-based technology that is HTML/CSS/Javascript, i don't think any technology or any widget can replace good software engineering and well thought out workflows. Extra widgets are not going to make me any more productive than i am today. I'd buy into Silverlight only if i was developing a media platform. BTW comments on their blog don't work... will they ever learn?!

Setsuna 16y ago

Broadly-implemented standards are like paved roads. They help the industry move forward together. But before you can pave a road, someone needs to blaze a trail.

city41 16y ago

I've dove deep into Silverlight as the company I work for has me writing an extensive Silverlight app. I do question the choice of Silverlight and Silverlight's future on the web everyday because I have yet to come across something we are doing in SL that couldn't be done in HTML and Javascript. I have changed my tune a bit though as I've come to appreciate Silverlight is extremely well designed and extremely powerful. Does Silverlight really have a compelling, deep future on websites? Eh, I don't know. Should Silverlight have some kind of compelling worthwhile future, be it on phones, tablets, media centers and desktop apps? IMO, absolutely, it's a superb platform. For example, if Windows Phone 7 can gain some marketshare, I'll be tickled. As I'd take Silverlight over CocoaTouch any day.

arethuza 16y ago
YMMV For a pet project I wrote exactly the same component in Silverlight and Flex - I much preferred Flex even though I rather like C# as a language. Now that the fortunes of SVG seem to be reviving I see that as a better long term bet for what I want to do. Personally, I think Silverlight is an irrelevance: hardly anyone uses it on the public Web and on internal applications there isn't quite the need to make things quite as pretty as Silverlight allows.

dongle 16y ago

TL;DR Microsoft needs to stop assuming that people care enough to read paragraphs of marketing-speak. It's ludicrous that it took them 1500 words to say that they're a faster version of Flash and that they're not stepping on HTML5's toes.