RIA Journal

In silverlight you can easily add images thru the XAML or the classes (ie: c#)

To add it thru the XAML all you have to write is this:

 
<img Source="Picture.jpg" x:Name="MyImage" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />

Here is the whole code:

 
 <usercontrol x:Class="SilverlightApplication1.Page"></usercontrol>xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/client/2007"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
Width="400" Height="300"&gt;
<grid Background="White" x:Name="LayoutRoot"></grid>
<img Source="Picture.jpg" x:Name="MyImage" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />  
 
<button Content="Hello World!!" Width="200" Height="50" Click="onButtonClick" Background="Aquamarine" x:Name="test"></button>

You can see a demo here: demo

Next I will explore a third party class TWEENER, that works very similar to the TWEENER class build for ActionScript.

Today I decided to test Silverlight 2.0 to see what's is all about. I only created a small "Hello World" application, but in the next few days I plan to do the following tests:

• How to load text from an xml
• How to load images
• How to load movies and sounds
• How to do animations

My initial thoughts are that Silverlight Xaml are very similar to Flex's mxml, they are both xml, and both define components and layouts. In addition, instead of creating the code in AS3, you can write in C#, VB, RUBY or Python.

In order to create this demo I installed the following:

1. Try Visual Studio 2008 (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/products/aa700831.aspx)
2. Silverlight 2 plugin (http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/resources/installationFiles.aspx?v=2.0)
3. Blend 2.5 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=32A3E916-E681-4955-BC9F-CFBA49273C7C&displaylang=en)
4. Microsoft Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E0BAE58E-9C0B-4090-A1DB-F134D9F095FD&displaylang=en)

And here is the small demo I created: http://jtinteractiveonline.com/silverlight_tests/testpage.html

I, like many of you, have been developing RIAs since before they were called that, yet only in the past few years, have I stopped to try to understand computers. I do not have a degree in Compsci, but I have realized recently why it is in my best interestes to pursue one. Everything I know about programming I have taught myself.

As programmers, we often forget-or don't know yet know-about the way computers interpret our commands, instead focusing on the tasks we need to accomplish. Indeed, our day is filled with adding more and more code to fix bugs or create new content in a program already bulging at the seams.

I suggest that as programmers it is really our duty to make the program as efficient as possible; a lean, mean fighting machine! As I being to attend classes, I intend to log and comment on my experiences, and how it is affecting the way I program. My first classes begin this fall-Precalculus and Java I-so expect to see more from me soon!

Let's imagine a world where visual designers used Windows PCs instead of Macs.

Presumably they would do this because there would be a set of high-quality, powerful web design tools that ran better on Windows than on the Mac. If this were the case, it would make the most sense for these hypothetical design tools, regardless of who makes them, to work closely with Microsoft technologies like Silverlight when it comes to RIA development. No other company would be able to develop an RIA framework that beat out Silverlight because Microsoft would have the home field advantage of building their framework on top of their own operating system.

This is a thought experiment, and not reality, only because there is no set of good design tools that run on a Windows PC. Enter Photoshop Express, Splashup, and Picnik. They run in a browser, so by definition they run the same on both a Windows PC and a Mac.

Interesting.