Create rich interfaces with Microsoft Silverlight
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:: Talkr
Well, if you thought I am going to be advocate the use of Silverlight by this post then you are wrong. This post is with reference to this article which I read in ZDNet India today morning.
Tony Patton, the author of this article starts it this way - "Web developers often frown on the use of technologies like Macromedia Flash or Adobe Shockwave to spice up Web interfaces. Since these technologies are not Web standards, they may not properly work in all browsers. Even so, some developers continue to use these technologies." - I don't know where he got these statistics from and all over the article he just advocates the use of Silverlight by comparing it with Flash and Shockwave - well, there was not a single point which I could buy.
And for his impressions, he goes - "I have never been a big advocate of Flash or Shockwave when building Web interfaces. One problem with a technology like Flash is learning a whole new development environment, as well as a language with ActionScript. One positive aspect of Silverlight is its usage of existing Microsoft technologies and a tool like Visual Studio 2005 -- technologies and tools that I use every day." - I assume one has to learn MS technologies afresh when getting started new, too. Just because one uses VS everyday doesn't make it easier for a non programmer to create great rich interfaces with it nor does it make a new kid in the block (Silverlight) better than the all time Rockstars of the web (ofcourse Flash and Shockwave).
"For example, a Flash application may need to communicate with a back end Web service to get data, but Silverlight can include the code to handle server communications and data loading." - Comments??
"Silverlight requires a browser plug-in just like competing technologies, so the paradigm hasn't shifted that much." - Yes except for the few browser crashes and stupid error messages.
All in all the whole article's focus seems to be more on portraying Flash and Shockwave as negative more than speaking about the strengths of Silverlight. Is this what they call as negative marketing?
Questions & Comments
I find it incredibly frustrating when the MS fanboys say how Silverlight does something like connect to a sever. Even someone who has never developed in Flash or Flex would have to assume that it is possible. And hearing people say that Flash isn't a web standard. Because of its 90+% penetration it has all the benefits of a web standard without all the problems of one such as HTML, CSS, etc.
Posted by: Rob McKeown | October 19, 2007 04:19 PM