Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 1. 0

From Barnes & Noble

Silverlight is Microsoft's widely anticipated technology for delivering rich media experiences and richly interactive applications across the Web. Silverlight bridges the gap between web design and development, potentially eliminating much of the aggravation (and cost) of conventional site and application delivery. Silverlight's easy to misunderstand: some people think it's merely Microsoft's attempt at a "Flash killer." But if you really want to understand it, you need only read Introducing Microsoft Silverlight 1.0.

Authored by Laurence Moroney, Microsoft's Silverlight technology evangelist, this very friendly book covers all you need to know: why Silverlight exists, how it works, what it's good for, how it fits into your environment (and Microsoft's web strategies), and how to use it. This is Silverlight at the highest levels, and -- with plenty of example code -- at ground level, where developers actually work.

Moroney begins by touring the capabilities of Silverlight 1.0 -- there's a preview of 1.1 later in the book -- and walking through the construction of some simple applications. Next, he turns to XAML, the XML-based language at Silverlight's heart. (Designers use tools that express their designs as XAML; developers pick up that XAML, "activate" it with code, and deploy it on the Web, where it's viewable through a cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in.)

He introduces Silverlight's MediaElement control, which supports simple audio and video playback of WMV, WMA, and MP3 files. Next, he drills down into Silverlight programming with JavaScript. There's a full chapter on Silverlight's support for pen and touch input (think cellphones, PDAs, and kiosks); and a practical introduction to Silverlight server programming (for delivering dynamic XAML to users in response to application logic or state). It's impressive stuff and, thankfully, thoroughly demystified. Bill Camarda, from the December 2007 Read Only