I’ve been following Silverlight since it was called WPF/E, before this blog started.
My main point is that unless you are happy to shell out for Expression Blend and learn a whole new tool, or you love experimenting with raw XML (albeit with some intellisense), you may become frustrated with the currently available Visual Studio offering for designing Silverlight 2 application.
The Silverlight website page on getting started currently points to a download for Microsoft Silverlight Tools for Visual Studio 2008 SP1 (RC1) – yes, that’s a Release Candidate. Update: The Tools are now RTW, but the design surface is read-only.
What you get is a split XAML/Design view. You can edit the XAML or drag toolbox items onto the XAML, but you cannot manipulate the Design area, it is a preview area only and you have to frequently refresh it manually – i.e. it’s not a Design surface. This is in contrast to the WPF application experience which is.
What is needed for a proper design surface, if you are willing to invest in learning a separate tool, is Microsoft Blend 2 plus SP1 which is US$499 (and included with an MSDN Premium subscription). Many people from Microsoft (including the SVP for the developer division) have pointed out that you can download a 60-day trial for free.
Note also that Expression Studio 2 (which includes Blend) is now included in the software benefits for Certified and Gold Partners – see Brian Saab’s comment on Soma’s (MS DevDiv SVP) blog – which is great news/value for partners.
I’m quite happy playing with XML and learning Blend, and many other eager adopters may not have an issue either, but I believe these tool limitations could serve as quite a deterrent to some developers.
Perhaps the RTM version of the tools with have a proper design surface…?
Even if that is the case, Microsoft has spent a LOT of time talking about the fact that they now support Designers and Developers with a common project format and dedicated tools, however there isn’t a very solid and low-cost story for the huge number of small or single-man shops where most developers are also the designers. I may write more about this situation in the future including the significant cost to get the whole experience…
Perhaps PDC will reveal something.
Update: at PDC 2008 they announced that Visual Studio 2010 will have the full design surface experience. A long time to wait unless you are happy using the CTPs/Betas. A toolkit of CTP/Beta-quality controls for Silverlight 2 was also released.
[...] also mentioned, that the next release will have the fuller design surface in Visual Studio – a key weakness that I mentioned and potential source of revenue for Microsoft from developers (needing to acquire Expression Blend) [...]
Pingback by Silverlight 3 goes 3D « Colinizer - tech geek inside your mind — Wednesday November 19 2008 @ 0:42
[...] Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight — colinizer @ 3:41 I previously mentioned how limited the tools are in Visual Studio for Silverlight 2 – particularly the read-only design preview, compared to the full WPF editor, forcing coziness [...]
Pingback by Another Tools Fiasco With Silverlight 3 « Colinizer – tech geek inside your mind — Saturday July 11 2009 @ 3:41