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Silverlight.net and WindowsClient.net Update: Your Input Requested

Pete Brown - 27 May 2010

We've been making some small but important changes to the Silverlight.net and WindowsClient.net sites lately. One of the more visible is the use of a larger-sized video player, so you can see more on the screen. At the same time, we took a dependency on Silverlight 4 so we could enable full-screen pinning on the players. That means, you can pin the player on one monitor and continue to work on another - a feature new to Silverlight 4.

There are lots more changes coming, but larger video size and full-screen pinning were two important requests from the community.

While we have tons of ideas we're prioritizing over the next week or two, I also want to hear directly from you: are there things you'd like to see on Silverlight.net or WindowsClient? Tell me in the comments.

What's important to you? Do you come to the sites for news, to learn, the downloads, or for the community? How do you like to learn? What are you not finding on the sites? 

     
posted by Pete Brown on Thursday, May 27, 2010
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17 comments for “Silverlight.net and WindowsClient.net Update: Your Input Requested”

  1. Aditya Hsays:
    I wish to see more of building an apps/project tutorial that uses features of Silverlight. I like "The Application Corner with Tim Heuer", but apparently there's only three contents inside. I wish there were more so that I can learn more.
  2. shaggygisays:
    This is more specific to the WPF Toolkit project on CodePlex site, but since there were several links to it on WindowsClient when it was first released... I'll add my thoughts here.

    Dear Santa,

    Please give us updates on the WPF Toolkit similar to the love that the Silverlight Toolkit gets. I understand that focus was put on getting VS2010 and .NET 4 out the door, but now is the time to show what WPF can do. Sync both kits to include the same controls and functionality during releases. Also release tutorials on how to use each control including data binding and custom templating.

    Please update both sites to include similar news in blogs. Example. Today, the news broke that Expression Studio 4 would be RTMed on 6/7. As of this comment, the news was only on Silverlight's site.

    BTW Santa, don't wait until Xmas to send WPF Toolkit goodies:)

    Thanks
  3. Jack Bondsays:
    Silverlight.Net should be 100% Silverlight.

    A good place to start towards that goal is the forums. The fact you can't effectively post to the forums from Chrome is perfect evidence of why HTML has and always will SUCK. This is one of the reasons why we love Silverlight. As part of that, if you guys need to develop a RichTextBox extension for setting things like bold, italics, etc, etc, then ultimately we all benefit.
  4. Dennysays:
    I have posted on channel9 and the same thing here:

    a SIlverlight "Video Browser" that can run out of browser.
    so that I can open the app and page / scroll and search for a video and watch it.

    it could work somewhat like the apple iTunes player with a "coverflow" browse and a data list view.

    that would IMHO be both a great example of SIlverlight and a great way to watch the videos!!
  5. Chris M.says:
    AMEN to what Jack Bond said about Silverlight.net. It SHOULD be 100% Silverlight and I find it rather ironic that a site dedicated to Silverlight development is not. I browse with Chrome most of the time and posting code there is next to impossible.
  6. Brian Hendersonsays:

    Is http://Silverlight.net not 100% Silverlight content focused already? I disagree with Jack Bond & SilverlightChina on using 100% Silverlight in terms of rendering technology used.

    The portal is a one-stop discovery site for many getting started to learn and other diving deeper into the Silverlight platform. To reach such a diverse and varied audience, HTML is the content delivery format that reaches users of any web browser. As you explore the site you will discover many pages that contain a high percentage of Silverlight to HTML renderings.

    Happy silverlighting,
    --Brian
  7. shaggygisays:
    In addition to comments I posted earlier... I would like to see an area on both sites dedicated specifically to MVVM. Since this is the most talked about pattern for WPF and Silverlight, it seems like a good idea to have "the best" documentation, walkthroughs, best practice, videos, etc. showing how to get started.

    I'm starting to understand the pattern. However, I still find it easier to just do the same old code behind files like in WinForms to get the job done.

    And please, please release good knowledge on how to use the new MVVM templates in Blend 4.



  8. Petesays:
    I appreciate the suggestion, but running Silverlight.net in Silverlight is a non-starter. It's a content-oriented site, and as such, is a perfect match for HTML. HTML + JavaScript/jQuery is the right combination for the site.

    I am, however, looking at places where Silverlight can be effectively used to provide additional value to the site and enhance usability/ux, so I appreciate the suggestion. @Denny's request is a great example of this.

    MVVM: Thanks. I've been tossing around something higher-level than that (MVVM is one of many useful patterns for Silverlight/WPF development) so I'm glad to know that's of interest.

    WPF Toolkit: Please vote up the suggestion on http://wpf.mswish.net Leave a comment there with your specific toolkit desires (I refuse so say "asks" ;) ) and we can incorporate that into planning.

    @Jack/@Sergey: Chrome support for forum posting is definitely something we need to address. Thanks for reminding me.

    Pete
  9. Jonxsays:
    To make it usefull and avoid me to download crap, make it clear for each thing to download wether its free/commercial/trial and source included or not. The samples for example... I don't dowload things from those sites because at first I get excited then to see it's only a demo of what I'm looking for... Also search and categories would be usefull...
  10. Maciej Misztalsays:
    Hiya, I've been a member of silverlight.net for a long time (not very active though).

    - I absolutely love video tutorials
    - I like the app corner with Tim Heuer although I didn't have the time to visit it lately
    - I'd love to see more about MEF & Prism, notable differences between the two.
    - Instead of having videos about "features", it would also be cool to have videos about making "cool stuff". For instance, I recall one of Blend 1's samples being some kind of futuristic bike with cameras and what not, that was really cool.
  11. Chris Rsays:
    Just make it easier to find the various downloads - and make it clear what's the difference between a SDK, Tools, Developer and what else you might have that seem to be pretty much the same thing ;-) I spent a long time today looking for the right file to download to start developing a Silverlight application...
  12. Tony Wallsays:
    Please add a separate, clear list of downloads accessible directly from the start page menu or a "resources" submenu (think of XNA Creators Club web site). Also include previous redistributable versions so we can easly get the builds required to setup backwards compatibility tests or release on anything but the current version (some environments do not allow automatic updates, specifically large enterprises and CITRIX managed).

    Whilst you are doing that it would be good to get all the Silverlight builds clearly searchable in the central Microsoft download catalog. I tried to find the builds there but had too many unclear search results.

    Luckily I found this site where somebody already did it. Something like that on your offical site would be great:

    http://blogs.ppedv.de/hannesp/archive/Silverlight-Download-Links

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