Even though Silverlight 2.0 has yet to see the "official" light of day,we k
Now that the beta introduced at MIX08 represents a "feature complete" version for this release cycle.
between beta 1
and the RTM expected to
WARDs the end of summer,Microsoft will not add any major new features to the Silverlight platfor
m. Instead,they'll focus on perfo
RMANce improvements,platform stability,and a
number of other "polish" issues like ClientBin s
ecurity.
Imagine my surprise,then,when I completed a short survey sent to attendees of MIX08 asking for input on how we'd like Microsoft to improve Silverlight. Clearly,we're talking about a version of Silverlight beyond 2.0,but nonet
Heless I found it interes
Ting to see the questions on Microsoft's mind when it comes to talking about the future of
their infant platfor
m. There were plenty of questions you'd expect- Are you using Flash? Have you heard of Air?
what do features do think are important in Silverlight 2?- but most interes
Ting to me was a list of features Microsoft asked survey takers to rank.
A list of 20 possible "new features" in Silverlight was presented and we were asked to rank each as a "Must [have]","Nice [to have]",or "Not [needed]" (I've extended the cryptic
ranking descriptions for clarity). Here is the complete list of features presented:
Richer text control
Support for spell
checking
Support for inline tables
Support for PDF
HTML rendering
Prin
Ting
Offline storage
Local database storage
Database synchronization
Can install Silverlight application on desktop
Access to local hard drive limited to MyDocuments
Access to all of hard drive
Can drag & drop from desktop to Silverlight
Ability to create new Silverlight windows
Support for device access such as USB
Hardware accelerated graphical effects
Blend modes
Frame based animation
Inverse kinematics / bo
nes
3D
what makes this list very interes
Ting is that
it is from Microsoft,which means
these are the features on the minds of the Silverlight development tea
m. Some of the ideas seem inevitable,like offline storage,a richer text control,and prin
Ting support,while others really surprised me,like access to all of a hard drive and hardware accelerated graphical effect
s. This survey wasn't sent on April 1st (it's been sit
Ting in my In
Box for a whil
E),so none of
these are April Fools,including access to all of a hard drive!
In fact,almost half of the features deal with adding mor
E interaction with and access to the local computer. I k
Now many people would love more local sy
stem access in Silverlight,but that has generally been regarded as an impossibility if Silverlight has any hopes of remaining a secure and trustable plug-in. That makes me wonder if this list represents features Microsoft really thinks it can implement or simply a collection of the most often
requested feature
s. My hope is for the prior,though I have no idea (and I'm sure MS doesn't either) how some of
these features
Could be implemented securely.
Also interes
Ting are the features absent on the list. Where's th
E interest in full .NET support? Where's the
requests for easier data binding? Or how about just improved text rendering? (Or am I the only one that thinks Silverlight renders text a little blurry v
s. the browser?)
So
what do you think of this list? Are the features
you want in the next version of Silverlight represented? If not,
Now's the time to start sounding-off and let
Ting your
requests be heard. Before you k
Now it,Silverlight 2 will be official
and the feature set for Silverlight 3 will already be well underway.