Outside of the .Net community it is hard to find someone that has anything positive to say about Silverlight. Whether it is becuase they are misinformed, hate MS, or they have formed this opinion after objective research of the technology, the fact remains Silverlight isn’t getting much respect and it has a huge mountain to climb in terms of an install base.
On the other side of the coin Flash has the upper hand. They have a staggering install base and have already been accepted by developers as an industry standard for developing animations.
As we all know this doesn’t ensure Adobe will rule this market forever and they are making some moves in order to preserve their market share and try and steal Silverlights thunder.
Part of Silverlights perceived, depending on who you talk to, advantage is the blending of client side and server side in the application as well as reusable controls, a concept us .Net coders already enjoy in our everyday lives.
The move that Adobe is making is to include the ability in include C, C++, Java, Python, and Ruby code into Flash that will get compiled into ActionScript. This is a smart move by Adobe which will strengthen Flash and remove the major reason a developer might decide to switch to Silverlight.
I have heard many scoff at Silverlight but when a major player like Adobe stands up and takes a step like this it is clear that they are not naive to the potential of Silverlight.
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February 27th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Could you possibly clarify something about SilverLight? My understanding is taht the Congressional Library in the states is going to use SilverLight and some critics allegde that this will block those not using Internet Explorer from using that particular site. While I’m not a fan of Microsoft, this particular claim seems more then a little extreme.
February 27th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
As far as I know Silverlight will be supported in all major browsers. IE, Firefox, Opera, and Safari on Windows, Safari on Mac, and Firefox on Linux via Moonlight.
If I am mistaken or missing one, anyone, feel free to correct me.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
You are right Justin. (I am another Justin :P)
Silverlight 2 includes a cross-platform, cross-browser version of the .NET Framework. So essentially, it will run on almost all oses.
February 28th, 2008 at 1:14 am
As justin said silverlight is supported from all those browsers…. Silverlight has a learning curve like all new technologies but the power that you have with silverlight is truly unbelivable….
Justin may I ask you something? How is Adobe going to support all those languages in Flash? you need a something to execute them no?
I cannot see how they can translate C++ into action script! Imagine if you use threading in C++ and then transform it into action script… BUQ…
February 28th, 2008 at 1:30 am
If everyone can write Flex/AIR applications using Java/C++ Syntax the Silverlight will die BUT dont forget that Silverlight 2.0 will have access to allmost the full .net API and ActionScript dont have api like this the .net have LINQ have ADO.net Sockets etc. not only web services.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:34 am
Yes, from an objective point of view I would say Silverlight is a big plus with so much of the .Net API available to it.
I have never really liked developing in Flash and love the idea of just carrying over my .Net skills to Silverlight with a mcuh smaller learning curve.
User controls are a huge selling point for me, in .Net and Silverlight. I am a .Net Developer by day and by night I do freelance PHP work. I really miss user controls and other great stuff from .Net when I am coding in PHP.
February 28th, 2008 at 2:46 am
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February 28th, 2008 at 6:16 am
Even the current version of Silverlight 1.0 is a cross-browser and cross-platform technology. Silverlight 2.0 Beta 1 is soon to be released that is going to be m uch more powerful (it will have the built in controls) and much more faster owing to built-in .NET Framework that actually doesn’t require the installed .NET Framework, i.e. your Silverlight 2.0 application can run on Linux if you have a Silverlight plug-in installed in your browser.
As for Adobe, I believe they want to make a plug-in to some IDE that will allow to *compile* your C++/Java/Python code to ActionScript one that is a similiar approach that is used by Script# and Google WebToolkit that *compiles* your C# and Java code respectively to JavaScript.
February 28th, 2008 at 7:04 am
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February 28th, 2008 at 9:09 am
@Mike thanks for clearing that up.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Btw currently with Java Update N, The Java Applets starts for 1 max 2 secounds and they are not started in Event Thread so they dont freez the web browser when Update N become stable maybe Java will join on the battle too. Its More crossplatform than Silverlight and Flex you can use the WHOLE JAVA API and third party libs and you can write on different languages too not Java only for example Jython JRuby and Groovy which are compiled to bytecode.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:35 am
That will be interesting to watch. The fact that the applet can’t freeze the browser is very appealing to me.
There are a lot of online games written in Java Applets.
February 29th, 2008 at 4:57 am
Justin : btw you can download and install JRE Update N i think there is beta build that is quite stable so you can try it.
There are many other changes in the JRE .. .like fast installing downlaod only necessary jars first time and download the whole jre in background mode.
February 29th, 2008 at 11:58 am
@JOke: Flex/Flash fully supports more than just webservices. They support full sockets, AMF (RemoteObject), and direct-database connectivity (mySQL right now, others coming soon). Why you would want to directly connect your front-end app to your back-end database, I don’t know, but it supports it.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Good article. As a long time Java Swing developer I am thinking about learning Flex which is used alongside Swing at my workplace. I would rather not discuss the reasons I won’t even get close to “Silverlight”. I guess, for the majority of Java developers, Flex would be their first choice.
March 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 am
I know I am going to get shot at for this but honestly if you want “Flex”ability use Flex and ColdFusion 8. Just a couple of reasons why.
I can compile Flex code on my CF 8 server if I wish.
Of course CF 8 has Integrated LCDS and the above mentioned AMF3.
There is a large amount of Open Source code available, many different frameworks and a very good Open Source IDE for CF called CFEclipse that works well with Flex Builder as it is also based in Eclipse.
CF has a small army of built in features that are easy to use with Flex or just on it’s own such as; Mail server integration (Including Exchange server), MS Office intigration, PFD, Flash Paper, Flash Forms, flash and flash remoting (obviously), Server Monitoring, Directory service integration, FTP, HTTP(s), XML, OOXML, WDSL, RSS, AMF0/3, LDAP, Multi Threading, Built in Zip, Image Processing, Built in Ajax support, Verity Search, Event Scheduling, Presentation System, Report Builder…On and on and on.
It’s Object Oriented, but only if I need it to be, it does not demand this of me.
Duck typing if I wish. (for you Ruby people)
Automatic Object Type conversion between CF and Flex.
CF is also easy to extend, I can plug in just about any Java code I would want too or write something specific to my needs. The hard part is finding something that it does not do already that you would need to extend.
I have found that the only thing that CF does not do really well is RIA’s, The built in flash forms based on flex 1.5 were never all that good. However add Flex, AIR or LCDS and Poof! Perfect combo.
I admit CF Server and Flex Builder licenses can be pricey when spinning up a new team, but in the end the time you save more then makes up for the price.
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 am
If some of the “ActiveX2.0 vendors” are to win this battle, history shows us it must be Microsoft. When that is said, even Microsoft is destined to loose. Even Microsoft cannot battle 4 decades of standardization efforts put into XHTML, CSS, HTTP and so on…!
Web2.0 IS here and it has a name; Ajax…
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Not to start a flame war here. But to provide a differing opinion. The Web is about to Evolve into something far beyond what was envisioned.
Traditional HTML, XHTML, JavaScript and now AJAX will still have there place but a majority of the Web 2.0 applications that you find now (and the trend is growing) are based in Flex not Ajax.
Ajax is quickly being replaced by larger corporations for frameworks that are cross browser and function in any OS without need to rewrite code. The savings in development time, cost and benefit of a larger audience are very appealing. Smaller companies Exec’s are starting to understand this. Very soon there will begin a rush to switch technologies.
Regardless if you think it smart does not matter. It’s simple business. No Exec can afford to let their company get behind their competition. Once one company comes out with that cool new Flex application that works everywhere seamlessly (even on cell phones) they freak. The reaction is immediate and hard. The Primary Web Project Manager gets a 2AM call from a screaming Exec asking why their company did not do it first. The pressure mounts and when a Flex Developer can accomplish in 3 months what might take a year in AJAX if at all… You get the idea.
Currently Flex is the top of the stack with a large fan base and ever growing development community which includes a solid development base in the now Open Source Flex language. MS says Silverlight will be able to do the same. That has yet to be seen. If it can, due the vast developer pool of MS centric programmers, this only will hurt the AJAX movement.
@Thomas Hansen: You are absolutely correct, Web 2.0 is here to stay. AJAX is likely to be sitting on the bench more often then not. My suggestion, Learn Flex, Possibly Learn Silverlight. Add them to your AJAX skill set and thrive. Stick only to AJAX and you will be regretting it in a short while.