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.