Silverlight 1.0 vs. Flash 9
Posted on March 5, 2008
Filed Under technology |
End of last year I got invited to visit the Microsoft Germany headquarters in Munich in order to receive an introductory workshop for Silverlight 1.0.While Microsoft does not officially attempt to present Silverlight as its competitor to Adobe Flash it was the first thing that popped to mind when having seen Silverlight.
overview:
Just like Flash Silverlight is a plug-in that runs within the web browser. The player basically acts as a platform to experience the delivery of cross-platform, cross-browser RIAs. In contrast to Flash a Silverlight application is based on an XAML aka XML file. XAML stands for eXtensible Application Markup Language and is in charge of defining the applications UI. When the browser instantiates the plug-in Silverlight automatically starts to load/parse the XAML file. User interaction such as the clicking of a button is being captured by the browser and can than be processed via javascript.
In version 1.0 the only way to define the applications logic is through javascript. If the application is a bit more complex the file size of the XAML increases leading to a possible bottleneck since the complete parsing of the file needs to be finished before anything can happen or be displayed to the user. While this is of course quite a turnoff XML files are definitely way better for search engine visibility. Lets face it SWFs are a nightmare if SEO is of any importance.
Using an XML to describe the applications UI might sound familiar to some Flash developers, especially the ones having worked with Adobe Flex. Using Flex one as well takes advantage of using an XML (MXML) in order to describe the UI.
what i liked:
What I find interesting with XAML though is the fact that I could use it within the development of Windows based applications. After all XAML did get introduced as the markup language within WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). I am by no means an expert within that area I must admit, but from what I understood XAML was suppose to help improve the workflow between designers and developers. Microsoft introduced a suite of designer tools, the so-called Expression Suite. Using Expression Design and Expression Blend a designer is able to work with a design oriented application for the creation of graphical elements as well as animations. The end result of that creative process is being stored… You guessed it correctly.. within an XAML file. The generated XAML can than easily being used by the developer, either the application developer (for the windows only platform as a standalone application) or the Silverlight developer targeting cross platform audience through the plug-in. The developer can than continue adding functionality/logic using a professional development tool such as Visual Studios. The only time I use the internal Flash editor is when I have to give classes otherwise I’ll do my best of not having to work too much with the Flash ide. Working with 3rd party tools such as FlashDevelop etc. have become daily business.
The separation of design and code is nicely done when one has to develop Silverlight applications. While currently there is still one major shortcoming, no code completion! Maybe that has changed since december 07’ I am not sure about that.
what i disliked:
• No UI controls
• Javascript
• No code completion / intelliSense
• No filters
• Basically no plugin penetration yet
• One can not take advantage of progressive downloading
• Including simple interaction such as button events is quite difficult to be implemented for a designer wheras a developer should have no problems since concepts such as event handling etc are nothing new.
• No unique/special feature which Flash doesn’t yet have
subjective conclusion:
From a features perspective Silverlight 1.0 can not compete with the current Flash version at all.
Nevertheless, it is quite impressive to see what Microsoft was able to put together in such a short time. No matter what I still do think that we should not underestimate Silverlight. Based on what one was able to hear from MS the upcoming version has UI controls included and is suppose to be due this year. The upcoming version should definitely be worth your attention! Even though my initial response to version 1.0 is rather unexciting I can definitely see the potential and know for myself that I will keep on following the Silverlight development. After all I am only interested in working with tools that help improve my work. I do not care if it’s Microsoft or Adobe or whoever else.
Silverlight is moving into the mobile application development market as well (http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9884398-7.html). Microsofts move to give out software for free will definitely increase the developer base and consequently push their acceptance (http://channel8.msdn.com/Posts/2047/).
links of interest:
• Silverlight
• Expression Suite
• WPF and Silverlight ressources
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