Silverlight is essentially nothing more than Microsoft's vision of a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in designed to be the source of rich online user experiences and to dislodge Flash from its current dominant position on the market. And when the Redmond company said cross-platform they indeed meant it.
Here are some key features of "Microsoft Silverlight":
· Compelling cross-platform user experiences
· Flexible programming model with collaborative tools
· Efficient, lower cost of delivery, and more capable media solution
· Connected to Web, servers, and services
Compelling cross-platform user experiences
· Deliver media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web that incorporate video, animation, interactivity, and stunning user interfaces.
· Seamless, fast installation for users, thanks to a small, on-demand, easy-to-install plug-in that is under 2 megabyte (MB) in size and works with all leading browsers.
· Consistent experiences between Windows-based and Macintosh computers without any additional installation requirements.
· Create richer, more compelling Web experiences that take greater advantage of the client for increased performance.
· Stunning vector-based graphics, media, text, animation, and overlays that enable seamless integration of graphics and effects into any existing Web application.
· Enhance existing standards/AJAX based applications with richer graphics and media, and improve their performance and capabilities by using Silverlight.
The Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha SDK contains documentation, samples, quickstarts and tools for developing Silverlight applications. Usage of the SDK is subject to the SDK License (included in the package).
Requirements:
· Supported browsers: Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, Windows Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.8, and Firefox 2.0.x.
· Minimum recommended hardware: Intel Pentium III 450-megahertz (MHz) or faster, equivalent processor
· 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM
Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008 is an add-on to the RTM release of Visual Studio 2008 to provide tooling for Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha. It provides a Silverlight project system for developing Silverlight applications using C# or Visual Basic.
The project system includes:
· Visual Basic and C# Project templates
· Intellisense and code generators for XAML
· Debugging of Silverlight applications
· Web reference support
· Integration with Expression Blend
Requirements for Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Tools Alpha for Visual Studio 2008:
· Microsoft Silverlight 1.1 Alpha for Windows
· Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard or above
· Microsoft ASP.NET Futures (Mix 07) [Optional]
· Microsoft Expression Blend [Optional]
