Silverlight, an off-browser web application

This plugin from Microsoft for implementing and presenting rich web applications causes a great resentment of developers towards the company. It does allow for completely dazzling interfaces, but everything we've learned to do it will become useless.

Supported platforms are Windows starting with XP and SP 2, Windows Phone, MacOS and Linux partly with Mono.

Initially, the idea of ​ ​ the project was to provide an alternative to Flash. But gradually, HTML 5 established itself as the standard for replacing HTML 4 and offers all the necessary features for web applications, including Canvas and multimedia beacons, which forced Microsoft to rethink its strategy.

The project manager explained the Microsoft blog by seeing Silverlight as a platform for mobile devices running Windows Phone 7.

"Silverlight is our Windows Phone development platform. Our strategy has gotten off the ground. HTML is the only true portable platform for everything, including iOS."

Then the strategy shifted again.

The future of Windows development fits into XAML. And the acquired know-how with Silverlight will remain in place with XAML + JavaScript applications.
See the article "What Is Silverlight's Future?"

In a post on the Windows blog, Microsoft announced in 2015 that Silverlight was not supported by Edge, a new browser. Microsoft has since encouraged developers to replace Silverlight HTML 5.

In 2021, an independent version of Silverlight with Microsoft support appears under the name OpenSilver. Most Silverlight code can continue to be used with this runtime written in WebAssembly.

Silverlight Magic

Silverlight vs Flash

Silverlight is faster than Flash. But the latter is supported by a large number of systems, virtually all systems, while Silverlight works great on Windows and Windows Mobile and partly on Mac, Linux, and not on systems for mobile devices other than Microsoft.
Video capabilities are superior on Silverlight.
It allows you to program in different languages, not just ActionScript. However, designers who are not used to programming tools consider Flash more affordable.

Silverlight vs HTML 5

Microsoft declined to position Silverlight as an alternative to HTML 5, which is becoming the standard platform for immersive tablet or desktop applications. But this is a relative standard to the extent that it is complemented by system-specific APIs (see Tizen, Enyo from WebOS, etc.).

An important component of Silverlight, XAML remains an alternative to HTML 5, in fact much richer due to its number of GUI tags and is preserved in Metro. The plugin itself will remain in operation for a long time (support is planned until 2021), but interest in it is becoming limited.

Silverlight Software

To create an application using Silverlight, Microsoft offered a special tool, Expression, which allowed you to completely build a project and visually determine the interface, while XAML code was generated automatically. It is no longer distributed.
A Silverlight project can also be implemented in Visual Studio or in a web developer (in full or Express).

Eclipse creates an extension to build Silverlight, Eclipse ESL applications. It includes an XAML editor with a preview of a specific interface. This tool has gone into the archive, it has not been developed .

Visual Studio 10 takes into account new features in its graphical interface.

Silverlight 4

What's new in Silverlight version 4? The main improvement is performance. Microsoft claims the Silverlight 4 app is three times faster than the previous version.

Print function for Silverlight applications.

PrintDocument doc = new PrintDocument();  
doc.PrintPage += new EventHandler<PrintPageEventArgs>(doc_PrintPage);  
doc.Print();

Webcams and microphones are included in the list of devices controlled by the Silverlight application.
It is possible to record or generate videos or soundtracks locally. As an application, Microsoft cites video conferences that allow stations to communicate without using a server.
The mouse wheel is now better accounted for and can interact with documents or application lists.
The value is assigned to the Delta attribute. 

protected override void OnMouseWheel(MouseWheelEventArgs e)
{
    x = e.Delta;
   // utiliser la valeur selon l'application
}

Now supported multi-touch allows you to create an interface for the touch screen.

The framework now has 60 graphical components that can be customized. RichTextBox is an editor that can support links, include images and controls.
Drag and drop works within the application between components, as well as between the application and the local desktop.
You can transfer data to or from the application.

MyDocument, MyPictures, and other pre-installed Windows folders are available for storing documents.
Microsoft claims to work on other systems with different folder names.

With the right mouse button, you can open the context menu that is defined in the program .

Silverlight code can also run in a desktop application after compilation.
The Managed Extended Framework allows you to combine object codes written in different languages.

Silverlight 5

Posted online on December 9, 2011, it makes improvements when video and graphics with access to system features via the XNA game development platform. It is worth recalling that Microsoft has shown itself against WebGL, as it allows such access to hardware .

See also...