Colinizer – tech geek inside your mind

Saturday July 11 2009

Another Tools Set-Back With Silverlight 3

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 with XAML or learning of another tool (i.e. Blend).

Silverlight 3 was released today, and I wasn’t expecting a non-read-only editor (not until VS 2010), but I certainly didn’t expect what I found in the Silverlight 3 release notes (which of course I read after installing):

Design Preview Disabled in Silverlight 3 Tools

Due to performance and rendering issues, the preview window has been disabled in the Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. The functionality of the XAML editor remains intact, including IntelliSense, error messages, and the ability to drag controls from the Toolbox into the editor. WYSIWYG XAML design can be done by using Expression Blend or Visual Studio 2010.

One step forward and another one back.

So it seems that to get visual editing I need to install the RC of Expression 3 or a Beta of Visual Studio 2010.

Working with pre-release or sub-par tools appears to be the norm these days.

There is also a noticeable lack of readily discoverable web-hosted live demos for Silverlight 3’s new features.  It would be helpful if the silverlight.net showcase allowed filtering by version feature use.

I’m wondering why SL 3 was released now instead of waiting for the tools to be ‘fixed’ (or at least for the 30 days to pass within which that they say Expression Studio 3 will be final)?  Are we going to find that SL 3 is pre-installed in Windows 7 next week?

There’s also this in the release notes which was also the case for beta versions of the tools, though not an unheard of arrangement with technology versions in VS (or worse – think BI tools):

Silverlight 3 Tools and Silverlight 2 Compatibility
Silverlight 2 projects cannot be created with the Silverlight 3 Tools for Visual Studio 2008. To create Silveright 2 projects, uninstall the Silverlight 3 runtime and the Silverlight 3 Tools from Add or Remove Programs and re-install the Silverlight 2 Tools for Visual Studio 2008.

It’s a good thing VPC/Hyper-V exists.

Thursday May 28 2009

Silverlight 3 and Expression 3 Launch Date

Filed under: Expression, Microsoft, RIA, Silverlight, Tools, Web Application — colinizer @ 20:46

July 10th – great, so probably included with Windows 7.

Now – let video capture and 3D model rendering into Silverlight 4 – hurry!

Wednesday March 18 2009

Mix 09 Microsoft Announcement Highlights

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight, Web Application, mix09 — colinizer @ 18:28

See the ondemand version of the keynote for the details

Expression Web 3 – Coming soon
Includes SuperPreview for seeing preview of web content in different browsers even if not installed (using cloud services)
Standalone SuperPreview for comparing IE 6,7,8 available today in Beta

ASP.NET MVC 1.0 – Available today (for .NET 3.5 and VS 2008)

MVC update within the ASP.NET 4 & VS 2010 timeframe

Web Gallery for ISV web server applications

Web Platform Installer V2 – free from microsoft.com/web today
Installer for web servers making latest (from feed) Microsoft platform components and 3rd party gallery applications available in integrated setup UI

Commerce Server 2009 available now

Azure Sevices Platform – on track for commercial release this year

  • SQL Data Services becoming full relational database API
  • Fast CGI support also in Azure this week
  • .NET Full Trust support coming

Silverlight 1 & 2

  • 350 Silverlight installs
  • 200+ Microsoft Products & Websites using it
  • 10,000s of apps globally (inc. Ebay, NBC, Careerbuilder, Aol, Intuit, BSkyB, Yahoo Japan)

Silverlight 3 – Beta available today with VS tools at silverlight.net!

  • GPU hardware acceleration (Windows & Mac) – 3D transforms and pixel shaders on controls, images and video – not clear if 3D model rendering supported
  • New codec support (H.264, AAC, MPEG-4)
  • Raw bitstream audio/videop API
  • Improved logging for media analytics (ads and monetisation)
  • Deep linking, navigation and SEO
  • Improved text quality
  • Multi-touch support
  • 100+ controls available
  • Live library caching
  • Merge resource dictionaries
  • Style inheritance
  • Running outside of the browser with connectivity awareness events!

4.4MB download – actually 40k smaller than Silverlight 2!

Expression Blend 3 Preview available today

  • SketchFlow (for idea sketching of states and transitions)
  • Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator Import
  • Behaviours and live data (not needing code or VS to get thing running)
  • Source code control
  • Intellisense added

IIS Media Services (free download via Web Platform Installer)

  • Lowest TCO for making adaptive smooth media streaming available through a web server
  • Support for live streaming
  • Support for edge caching – akamai has smooth streaming products available
  • Using shipping Expression Media Encoder 2 to encode/publish video
  • Includes PVR like functionality through Silverlight 3 player for live pause, rewind, archive.

Wednesday November 19 2008

Silverlight 3 goes 3D

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight — colinizer @ 0:37

Scott Guthrie has now mentioned on his blog that Silverlight 3.0 will include 3D support with GPU hardware acceleration.  Flash 10 was recently recently with hardware acceleration, Silverlight is at least 6 months behind, albeit with the superior programming system and potential ecosystem.

He 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) in the meantime.

H.264 video will also be in there along with other mysterious improvements yet to be announced.  I wonder if the long overdue video capture will be in there?

Saturday October 25 2008

Silverlight 2 Visual Studio Tools Somewhat Limited

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight, Web Application — colinizer @ 16:28

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.

Tuesday October 14 2008

Silverlight 2.0 RTW Released!

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight, WPF, Web Application — colinizer @ 15:59

Finally…

Go and get it.

Note however, that the link to the Took for VS 2008 SP1 still says RC1 on the download page!  It was updated yesterday though, so perhaps just the tools are RC1.

Saturday October 11 2008

Silverlight 2.0 Announcement Rumour

Filed under: Microsoft, Sheep, Silverlight — colinizer @ 13:43

It’s rumoured that Microsoft will announce completion (but an actual release) on Monday October 13 2008 at 12:00 ET.  Keep an eye on Scott Guthrie’s blog or Silverlight.net.

Sunday September 28 2008

Microsoft Silverlight 2.0 RC0

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight, Web Application — colinizer @ 21:28

So it’s getting there.

Today Scott Guthrie announced the RC0 release, along with some commentary on what’s new in that.  The bet has to be that the final release (RTW) will be on or before PDC 2008 at the end of October.  You can get the goodies on the silverlight.net site.  Note that it’s only a release for developers (using VS2008) and includes the runtime, but it’s not intended for public deployment – it’s a pre-RTW testing opportunity for developers.  There’s also a Blend 2.0 SP1 preview to target RC0.

Anyone with the 2.0 Beta 2 or 2.0 RC0 runtimes should get an auto update to 2.0 RTW when it’s available.

Wednesday August 6 2008

SQL 2008 RTM

Filed under: Microsoft, SQL Server, Silverlight — colinizer @ 19:35

As I speculated, um just yesterday, SQL 2008 is now available through some channels, according to announcements apparently made at a TechEd conference in South Africa.

I was expecting this after Silverlight 2.0 so could 8/8/8 (August 8 2008) be not only a lucky day for the Chinese (and the opening ceremony of the Olympics in China), but also be Silverlight 2.0’s official release?

I haven’t checked to see if the VS 2008 tools for SQL 2008 are also being released.

Tuesday August 5 2008

Silverlight 2.0 RTW?

Filed under: Microsoft, Silverlight — colinizer @ 15:44

No it hasn’t happened, but I’m expecting it any day now.

Why?  Because if memory serves me well, Microsoft talked about the end of the summer for release but they also said at Mix this year that they’d be using Silverlight 2.0 for the MSNBC Olympic games.  There is Silverlight video content on the site right now, but it seems unlikely that they’d settle for a Beta 2 version.

The Olympic opening ceremony is this Friday and some notable Microsoft bloggers have been extremely quiet for the last few weeks, which I believe translates into either all out deadline slog or lots of holidays.

Alongside a Silverlight 2.0 RTW, roughly at the same time, there should at least also be Blend 2.5, .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and final VS Tools.  A SQL Server 2008 RTM (currently at RC0) is also probably imminent…

A quick Google shows similar thoughts by others.

It’s about time, and given that this release is quite a while after Mix, I’d expect 2.0 to get lots of coverage at this year’s PDC.

Note that Microsoft is currently looking at starting a limited closed preview of Silverlight 2.0 for mobile.  Perhaps we’ll see 1.0 for mobile released shortly too.

Update on August 11 2008:

So no Silverlight 2.0 RTW yet, but with .NET 3.5 SP1 and VS 2008 SP1 just released today, it can’t be long now.

Update on September 28 2008:

It’s now gone to RC0, hopefully RTW by PDC at the end of October…

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