Day 2 of Microsoft’s Professional Developers Conference was arguably all about Silverlight 4. Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of the .NET Developer Platform, highlighted the enhancements coming in Silverlight 4 including:
- Webcam and microphone input support
- Printing support
- Rich Text and HTML Support
- Clipboard access
- Native right-click and mousewheel support
There were also numerous developer-centric features announced as well as significant improvements in the Silverlight Out-of-Browser experience. Silverlight 4 Beta is available today with the RTM version due out in the first half of 2010 (most likely at MIX 2010). The keynote included demos of SnapFlow (a 100% Silverlight, web-based workflow automation tool built on Windows Azure) as well as a Facebook reference application that demonstrated almost every new feature available in Silverlight 4.
Microsoft also touched on ways in which developers can create applications that take advantage of the power of Windows 7. Also announced was the public beta of Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. However, the Silverlight 4 features were the most well-received and the most well covered as nearly every time slot on Wednesday had a session related to Silverlight.
Microsoft Silverlight Program Manager, Tim Heuer, posted an excellent guide to the features in Silverlight 4.
So far, it’s looking like the emphasis of this year’s PDC is all about Windows Azure and Silverlight.
November 18th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Great Report! With webcam support, Silverlight 4 can’t get here quick enough.