Microsoft turns the spotlight on Silverlight 3

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 19 March 2009 04:33

IT Industry - Development

A new version of Microsoft's Silverlight software promises more flexibility and performance for users and better developer productivity.

Microsoft has used its MIX09 event to showcase a beta release of Silverlight 3.

Silverlight is the company's product for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs) - broadly speaking, it is Microsoft's response to the Adobe Flash Platform.

The difference between the two approaches is largely a reflection of the two companies' heritages. Microsoft's proposition is essentially "keep using your familiar software development technologies and get your designers to adapt to our tools," while Adobe's is "stay with familiar design tools such as Photoshop, but learn the way we do things on the programming side."

The new version of Silverlight features "true high-definition video in full-screen mode, with stutter-free live and on-demand video", according to Microsoft officials. This feature takes advantage of GPU hardware acceleration, which is also used to deliver various effects.

A wider range of audio and video codecs are now supported, including H.264 and AAC.

Another significant change is that Silverlight 3 allows deep linking into an application. This is very welcome given the way some organisations are choosing to turn significant portions of their web sites into RIAs.

What else is new in Silverlight 3? Please read on.