Silverlight 2 Released!!!

搞左咁耐,Silverlight 終於都出左RTW(Release to Web)版，發展到而家，Silverlight 由最初受注目的動畫表現，到而家很多人更注重Application層面表現。

其實我始終相信短時間內 Silverlight 不可能取代Flash，即使再過多一兩年亦是，要製作Silverlight動畫,成本比Flash要更多。再者，寫開Flash既人都應該不願意或冇需要轉寫Silverlight。本身已經是Adobe派系亦未必願意花時間去學MS的產品。Microsoft應該都知道呢一點，始終Silverlight的最大群族還是.NET語言的Developer，所以慶幸Silverlight 2已經包含UI。

在MS的開發部門總工程師scottgu的Blog看到介紹如下:

WPF UI Framework: Silverlight 2 includes a rich UI framework that makes building rich Web applications much easier. In includes a powerful graphics and animation engine, as well as rich support for higher-level UI capabilities like controls, layout management, data-binding, styles, and template skinning. The WPF UI Framework in Silverlight is a compatible subset of the WPF UI Framework features in the full .NET Framework, and enables developers to re-use skills, controls, code and content to build both rich cross browser web applications, as well as rich desktop Windows applications.

Rich Controls: Silverlight 2 includes a rich set of built-in controls that developers and designers can use to quickly build applications. The Silverlight 2 release includes core form controls (TextBox, CheckBox, RadioButton, ComboBox, etc), built-in layout management panels (StackPanel, Grid, Panel, etc), common functionality controls (Slider, ScrollViewer, Calendar, DatePicker, etc), and data manipulation controls (DataGrid, ListBox, etc). All Silverlight controls support a rich control templating model, which enables developers and designers to collaborate together to build highly polished solutions.

Rich Networking Support: Silverlight 2 includes rich networking support. It includes out of the box support for calling REST, WS*/SOAP, POX, RSS, and standard HTTP services. It supports cross domain network access (enabling Silverlight clients to directly access resources and data from resources on the web). It also includes built-in sockets networking support.

Rich Base Class Library: Silverlight 2 includes a rich .NET base class library of functionality (collections, IO, generics, threading, globalization, XML, local storage, etc). It includes rich APIs that enable HTML DOM/JavaScript integration with .NET code. It includes LINQ and LINQ to XML library support (enabling easy transformation and querying of data), as well as local data caching and storage support. The .NET APIs in Silverlight are a compatible subset of the full .NET Framework.

Rich Media Support: Silverlight 2 includes built-in video codecs for playing high definition video, as well as for streaming it over the web (including both live and on-demand support). Silverlight includes support for adaptively switching video bitrates on the fly based on network conditions (enabling users to avoid seeing the dreaded "buffering..." message), placing and metering ads within video streams, as well as enabling content protection.

由以上簡介可見，有DataGrid,支持LINQ To XML做Data中介轉換，作為Developer，應該急不及待想試一下。而最後Silverlight 2終於都可以在Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition下工作，不用強制人購買Visual Studio 2008至可以製作!!!

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