http://www.itwriting.com/blog/3131-more-on-microsofts-diffic...
Expanded analysis with explanations for those who don't know what this is about.
Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
11–20 of 27 posts
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#12HTML 5 looks more and more like the Win32 API to me (or x86 assembly). At first everyone will use it directly. But people will quickly see that its a bear to be productive with it. Then you'll quickly see new frameworks built over it. I wouldn't be surprised if Silverlight eventually simply targeted HTML 5. You wrote your code in Silverlight and out comes an HTML 5 page. I'm not really sure what WPFs future is. It's…
> I wouldn't be surprised if Silverlight eventually simply targeted HTML 5.
No, that's not possible, as HTML5 is pretty incompatible with Silverlight's selling points.
Besides, the article is flamebait ... Silverlight will be the native API people are going to use for building native-clients on Windows desktops / Windows mobile phones. Add to that list portability Symbian, MeeGo and probably Android.
Silverlight also has a more efficient VM than Flash or the various mobile-browsers, so if they play this card right, it could actually be efficient when running on mobile phones ... windows mobile 7 is actually using Silverlight for its UI ... and from early reports, the interface is snappy.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#13HTML 5 looks more and more like the Win32 API to me (or x86 assembly). At first everyone will use it directly. But people will quickly see that its a bear to be productive with it. Then you'll quickly see new frameworks built over it. I wouldn't be surprised if Silverlight eventually simply targeted HTML 5. You wrote your code in Silverlight and out comes an HTML 5 page. I'm not really sure what WPFs future is. It's…
> I wouldn't be surprised if Silverlight eventually simply targeted HTML 5. No, that's not possible, as HTML5 is pretty incompatible with Silverlight's selling points. Besides, the article is flamebait ... Silverlight will be the native API people are going to use for building native-clients on Windows desktops / Windows mobile phones. Add to that list portability Symbian, MeeGo and probably Android. Silverlight also…
Why is it not possible to target HTML5 from Silverlight? You may have to tweak Silverlight some, but it seems doable?
You map the styles to CSS. The Xaml to HTML (I'd love to have Silverlight layout in HTML). Although the Xaml also includes stuff that you need to map to Javascript as well. The C# code gets mapped to Javascript.
You'd have to map all of the things like databinding, DeepZoom, and animation specially crafted Javascript. Audio, video, WCF, may have to be scaled back for targeting HTML5. But then you can have two versions "Silverlight HTML5" and "FullPower Silverlight".
I'm sure there is tons I missed. But what do you think in particular can't be mapped from Silverlight to HTML?
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#14Pretty damning, but it's true that both WPF and its cousin Silverlight have failed to gain traction both on the web and on the desktop. WPF is dead, but Silverlight will be with us for at least a while thanks to WP7.
Well, since VS2010's interface is written in WPF, it'll have to stick around as long as that is true. Plus, Microsoft never kills a technology, they just don't improve it.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wouldn't be surprised if Silverlight eventually simply targeted HTML 5. No, that's not possible, as HTML5 is pretty incompatible with Silverlight's selling points. Besides, the article is flamebait ... Silverlight will be the native API people are going to use for building native-clients on Windows desktops / Windows mobile phones. Add to that list portability Symbian, MeeGo and probably Android. Silverlight also…
Why is it not possible to target HTML5 from Silverlight? You may have to tweak Silverlight some, but it seems doable? You map the styles to CSS. The Xaml to HTML (I'd love to have Silverlight layout in HTML). Although the Xaml also includes stuff that you need to map to Javascript as well. The C# code gets mapped to Javascript. You'd have to map all of the things like databinding, DeepZoom, and animation specially cr…
Microsoft Live Labs is kind of doing this with Volta.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#16Silverlight is a neat technology but ultimately they limited it to just a box on a page, and in that realm it becomes just another flash substitute.
Or canvas substitute. SVG/VML is the technology that actually augments HTML documents. Canvas is just super-slow Flash/Silverlight-like pixel renderer, a “box on a page”, as you said.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#17Silverlight is a neat technology but ultimately they limited it to just a box on a page, and in that realm it becomes just another flash substitute.
Or canvas substitute. SVG/VML is the technology that actually augments HTML documents. Canvas is just super-slow Flash/Silverlight-like pixel renderer, a “box on a page”, as you said.
There is a barrier between a Flash/Silverlight app and the remainder of the page, that's not true for the JS code driving a canvas element, it's the same code that drives all of the interactivity on the page. This makes a difference.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or canvas substitute. SVG/VML is the technology that actually augments HTML documents. Canvas is just super-slow Flash/Silverlight-like pixel renderer, a “box on a page”, as you said.
There is a barrier between a Flash/Silverlight app and the remainder of the page, that's not true for the JS code driving a canvas element, it's the same code that drives all of the interactivity on the page. This makes a difference.
Why, you can interact with Flash/Silverlight embedded object as well. (A perfect example is using Flash to fake Websockets) And both support Javascript. There's really not much difference.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a barrier between a Flash/Silverlight app and the remainder of the page, that's not true for the JS code driving a canvas element, it's the same code that drives all of the interactivity on the page. This makes a difference.
Why, you can interact with Flash/Silverlight embedded object as well. (A perfect example is using Flash to fake Websockets) And both support Javascript. There's really not much difference.
Yes, I concede, you are right. That's how everybody uses Flash and Silverlight, by driving it externally using javascript.
Are you being serious or just a troll? There are holes in the wall between Flash/Silverlight and web pages, but there is very much a wall.
Re: Microsoft wrestles with HTML5 vs Silverlight futures
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why, you can interact with Flash/Silverlight embedded object as well. (A perfect example is using Flash to fake Websockets) And both support Javascript. There's really not much difference.
Yes, I concede, you are right. That's how everybody uses Flash and Silverlight, by driving it externally using javascript. Are you being serious or just a troll? There are holes in the wall between Flash/Silverlight and web pages, but there is very much a wall.
Oh come on.
Silverlight let you do things like take a code fragment from HTML page, interpret it and let it execute commands against browser's DOM. (See: http://www.silverlight.net/learn/dynamic-languages/).
DojoX GFX (similar to Rapchaël) emulates even SVG drawing using Silverlight object.
And Flash let's you call any Javascript function from ActionScript and an ActionScript function from Javascript.
You must be dreaming up those walls. Or is it just FUD spreading?