Silverlight Learning Guide

Silverlight garnered much attention at the MIX07 conference, and the buzz has yet to die down. This Learning Guide links to a variety of articles, tutorials and samples that will help Web developers see what Silverlight will be able to do for them.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you have any resources that you'd like to add to this learning guide, send us a note.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Silverlight Quick Start    Silverlight: Get the software you need    Silverlight articles and blogs    Silverlight 1.0 Release Candidate Tutorials    Silverlight 1.1 Alpha Tutorials    Silverlight and JavaScript Tutorials    More References and Documentation    Silverlight Samples and Case Studies    Silverlight Forums and Community    VISIT OUR OTHER LEARNING GUIDES

Silverlight Quick Start

This section defines Silverlight, answers some frequently asked questions, offers some basic reference material and gives you the change to hear some experts explain the ins and outs of Silverlight. After perusing this section, move onto the next section of the Silverlight Learning Guide and see what software you will need to start developing today.

WhatIs definition: Silverlight
"Silverlight is a programming model for developing and distributing rich Internet applications....and a plug-in from Microsoft for delivering media created with Silverlight."

WhatIs definition: XAML
"XAML, Extensible Application Markup Language, is Microsoft's XML-based language for creating a rich graphical user interface."

WhatIs definition: CLR
"As part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, the Common Language Runtime (CLR) is programming that manages the execution of programs written in any of several supported languages, allowing them to share common object-oriented classes written in any of the languages."

Podcast: Silverlight in the Web development spotlight (SearchVB.com)
Along with bringing the .NET Framework onto the Web, Silverlight lets developers to code in native .NET to develop rich internet applications. In this podcast Brian Goldfarb of Microsoft offers a brief introduction to Silverlight and explains what developers are able to do with it.

Podcast: What is Silverlight? (WhatIs.com)
Silverlight is Microsoft's new programming model for developing and distributing rich Internet applications (RIA) that use graphics, animations or video within the .NET framework. It's also the plug-in from Microsoft for delivering media created with Silverlight. To learn more about Silverlight, WhatIs.com's Alex Howard sat down with SearchVB.com editor Brian Eastwood.

Podcast: Scott Guthrie and Jason Zander on Silverlight (Scott Hanselman)
As the title indicates, here Scott Hanselman interviews Scott Guthrie and Jason Zander, both of Microsoft, about some of the technical aspects of Silverlight.

Conference: The Ajax Experiance
The Ajax Experience will be offering developers some insight into building Rich Internet Applications with Silverlight and Ajax. Click on the above link for more information and to register for the conference.

Reference: Silverlight 1.1 Developer Reference Poster (Microsoft)
This document provides, literally, a big-picture view of the Silverlight framework and the development scenarios it supports.

Reference: What's New in Silverlight 1.0 Beta and 1.1 Alpha? (Microsoft)
Here David Pugmire lists what has been added to Silverlight since the February 2007 CTP of then-known Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere.

Reference: Silverlight 101 (Scott Guthrie)
Here the head of the Microsoft development team responsible for Silverlight introduces Silverlight 1.0 Beta, Silverlight 1.1 Alpha and the Dynamic Language Runtime. Guthrie also links to several resource sites, including www.silverlight.net.