We're all just developer Nazis - 5 Reasons you should think about Silverlight.

by thebeebs 3/17/2008 12:57:08 PM

Macs are better than PC’s, Flex is better than Silverlight, Ajax is better than Flex, Steve Jobs has a better turtle neck than Bill Gates… Do you ever get fed up with all the Jingoistic mud flinging that goes on between developers? Have we really not grown up past the playground days of “My dads stronger than yours?”

I’m guilty… I know… If you read my, why silverlight is nailing Flex post, you'll realise that on occasion I hold a bias towards Microsoft products. Perhaps bias is an understatement; if Microsoft released a Zune phone I'd be more excited than Amy Winehouse would be to see a syringe.

Supporting or promoting your favorite technology is always a bit counter productive. I guess by spouting about how bad another companies product is, all I’m doing is pissing off the exact people I’m hoping will join in on the fun.

Therefore, I’m not going to tell you why I don't like Flex but give you 5 reasons I like Silverlight. I’d appreciate it if you could provide 5 reasons why you prefer the RIA environment you use, try not to repeat other posters comments.

  1. Developer support is Awesome. For Example Microsoft have paid Vertigo to build this open source YouTube style Video Hosting application to get developers up and running: http://codeplex.com/videoshow. (P.S. This application lets you host and stream 4gb of video for FREE using Windows Live Silverlight Streaming.
  2. Design is completely separate from Code. Developers can pass over the engine and designers can create the body by either opening up notepad and crunching XAML or by using Microsoft Expression. Designers can collaborate  and without treading on each others toes.
  3. Ajax, JavaScript and Silverlight work together as one. The XAML on the page can be accessed directly from JavaScript in precisely the same way you would access any other Dom elements. This means you can have the best of both worlds. A really cool Ajax site that integrates seamlessly with Silverlight rich elements (My currently preferred use of silverlight)
  4. Adaptive streaming on video content, means that depending on the network speed the stream quality automatically adjusts. Meaning you don’t have to ask a user what bandwidth speed they have, the application is checking in real-time as the video is playing back. So if the network activity peaks Silverlight will reduce the feed quality to ensure playback is smooth and uninterrupted.
  5. You can use the same XAML code in both silverlight and WPF. Meaning experiences that you’ve created for vista applications can be cut and pasted into Silverlight.

Currently rated 2.6 by 5 people

  • Currently 2.6/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Tags: , ,

asp.net

Related posts

Comments

3/17/2008 4:27:58 PM

Adam Ness

Can you recommend any good resources for someone who just wants to check out Silverlight development? I browsed around MSDN for a few hours one day, and the most I could find was a few tutorials on how to use JavaScript to dynamically draw circles and squares on a canvas (yawn). I don't want low level "logo turtle" tutorials. I want something that tells me how to build a Silverlight app that interacts with the web (RSS reader type exercise).

Also, can you recommend a good MVC Framework for Silverlight development? I'm coming from the J2EE, ColdFusion and Flex world, where Design Patterns are a big thing, but I'm having trouble finding anything comparable to Cairngorm for Silverlight development.

Adam Ness us

3/17/2008 6:09:53 PM

Martin Beeby

An Complete walk through building a Digg Client:
weblogs.asp.net/.../...-look-at-silverlight-2.aspx

Various Tuts:
http://silverlight.net/learn/

Martin Beeby gb

3/18/2008 1:36:48 PM

iongion

With news posts like "Why Silverlight is nailing Flex" how is it that you still want to be perceived with the attention you need regarding this post of yours.
If you want no flames, don't start the fire yourself.

iongion ro

3/18/2008 1:53:22 PM

Martin Beeby

iongion

No i don't care about flames. All I asked for was good reasons for Flex... But instead you've decided to ignore that and be a little Nazi.

Martin Beeby gb

4/21/2008 6:22:32 AM

totooooo