Silverlight 4 Unleashed

Abstract

Silverlight 4, released to the public in April 2010, represents a major forward step in the history of this still-young technology. Although we'll certainly see later versions of the framework with additional features in the future, the current version is very mature and easy to work with. In addition, the tools used to develop Silverlight have also grown and offer the same level of maturity and ease of use. It is interesting to take a good look at the extended Silverlight community today. From a niche topic, Silverlight has become the source of many discussions on Twitter and various blogs. Also, since days of Silverlight 2, we have witnessed the emergence of design patterns and of polished external frameworks. It is now possible to talk to Silverlight experts who have developed many professional applications, and who know what works best. The book you have in your hands (or on your computer/e-reader/tablet/phone screen) tries to describe the current version of Silverlight version 4) as fully as possible. Doing so represents a difficult task, however, because of the multiple facets of this technology and the number of problems it can solve. You will find that this book goes into much more detail than Silverlight 2 Unleashed. That increased level of detail is intentional, and in fact, this book builds on the foundation presented in that earlier publication