Silverlight 1,2,3... Tracing the journey


Silverlight has come a long way. The first RTW (Release to Web) version was introduced by Microsoft in the year 2007 (on Sept 4 to be precise).

Although Silverlight 1.1 was to be released in 2007, Microsoft renamed it to Silverlight 2.0. In Sept 2008, Microsoft shipped the version 2 of Silverlight which came loaded with a lot of new features and enhancements. With each new version, it seemed that this product was getting better and better.

And now in July 2009, Microsoft has shipped version 3 of Silverlight.

Some of the features that were present right from the first version, Silverlight 1.0, are:

Cross-Platform, JavaScript Support, 2D Vector Animation/Graphics, AJAX Support, Cross-Browser (Firefox, IE, and Safari), HTML DOM Integration, HTTP Networking, Canvas Layout Support, Media — Audio/Video Support, Media — Image Support (JPEG, PNG), Silverlight ASP.NET Controls such as asp:media and asp:xaml, and XAML Parser.

The table below lists the feature-wise comparison of the three versions.

Silverlight 1, 2, and 3 Feature Comparison

Features Silverlight 1.0 Silverlight 2 Silverlight 3
.NET Framework Languages (Visual Basic, Visual C#, IronRuby, and so forth) Not Supported Supported Supported
Isolated Storage Not Supported Supported Supported
Cross Domain Network Access Not Supported Supported Supported
LINQ to Objects Not Supported Supported Supported
StackPanel, Grid, and Panel Layout Support Not Supported Supported Supported
Managed Control Framework Not Supported Supported Supported
Full set of controls (TextBox, RadioButton, Slider, Calendar, DatePicker, DataGrid, ListBox, and others) Not Supported Supported Supported
Deep Zoom Technology Not Supported Supported Supported
Security Enforcement Not Supported Supported Supported
Type Safety Verification Not Supported Supported Supported
XMLReader/Writer Not Supported Supported Supported
3-D Effects (Perspective Transforms) Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Bitmap Effects and Pixel Shaders Not Supported Not Supported Supported
WriteableBitmap Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Bitmap Caching Not Supported Not Supported Supported
New Media Supported (Raw Video/Audio and H.264) Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Changing Styles at Run Time Not Supported Not Supported Supported
BasedOn Styles Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Out-of-Browser Support Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Communication Between Local Silverlight-Based Applications (Local Messaging) Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Application Library Caching Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Application Extension Services Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Data Binding Improvements Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Browser Zoom Support Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Navigation Not Supported Not Supported Supported
Networking Not Supported Not Supported Supported
System.Web.Silverlight.dll Supported Supported Not Supported (Removed)

Some of the breaking changes since Silverlight 2 are listed below:
  • ComboBox and ContentControl now display strings rather than numbers when their ItemsSource is set to enum with a typeconverter
  • ContentPresenter.Content = "string" no longer changes the ContentTemplate property
  • ComboBox without any selected item takes an extra keystroke to select second item
  • Using Tab key inside a ListBox now moves focus to next control rather than next ListBox Item
  • DataBinding now requires property setter to be public
  • HorizontalScrollBarVisibility and VerticalScrollBarVisibility can now be set within a style for ComboBox and ListBox
Conclusion: This article compared the three version of Silverlight and highlighted the new features in Silverlight 3.

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