Use silverlight1.1 as a prototype version for ajax

Use silverlight1.1 as a prototype version for ajax

I cannot wait for using silverlight, a way to use silverlight1.1 now is to use it as a prototype tool for ajax, because silverlight can be faster to development, because all validation is in C#.

It is true that silverlight controls are still primitive; however, prototype does not need to be that fancy.

In fact, the core of silverlight is very mature (it is .Net 3.0!); so, it is NOT like other alpha stuff. As a result, if it acceptable (big if, of course), we can borrow the “internet tradition”, use alpha in production! At least, when it is beta, we definitely can use it in production.

I bet this will be a strategic technique for all “progressive” or “cutting edge” shops or development teams.

----On the one hand, I bet this will be a strategic technique for all “progressive” or “cutting edge” shops or development teams.

----On the other hand, I believe not that many teams can use this technique. For two reasons: (a) most winform based teams are not “progressive”, they are basically still in VB6 world; (b) most web teams are still busy with Ajax, they already accepted that fact that they have to duplicate validation-entity logic in javascript -- I always hear that life is not perfect, just deal with it. To come up with this simple technique, you must do both winform and web, and refuse to compartmentalize them and refuse to accept the “fact’ – the everlasting truth of AOP is more powerful than the ugly, temporary “fact”.


A note: as I indicated in my previous blog, silverlight is in the sandbox, so, we must use javascript and very-thin-activeX-communication-ports to glue things together. Right, life is not perfect, after all.

You may say, why not WPF? Downloads – it is not just downloads; it means all those bureaucratic processes. Note that it is not just 3.0; 3.5 is coming; and who knows what is after that! I want to be always on the cutting-edge, automatically – the key word is “automatically”: I just begin to use the new technology, no paperwork is needed, no manager talk is needed -- even I love our managers!

I want to emphasize it again, it is crucial that it is a “automatic” process. Even it is “just” a little bit “manual”, then, the spirit of internet “continuous beta forever” (i.e., “continuous innovation forever”!) is gone forever. You cannot blame managers – in a sense, sometimes it is part of managers’ job to cool things down …