Silverlight™ 2 Bible

Introduction

Who Should Read This Book

Silverlight 2 is intended for two groups of people, designers and Web developers. In Web development there is an inherent need to separate content from presentation. Microsoft has really kept that in mind in designing the Silverlight platform. I've also kept that in mind while writing this book, and it is intended for both designers and developers. The design and development sections are separated.

The design sections of this book are written with the assumption that you are at least somewhat familiar with HTML Web page design. If you are designing Web pages, then this book will help you understand the advantages of incorporating Silverlight applications to provide a rich UI.

If you are writing any kind of Web application or service, you should really consider the Silverlight platform for the Web client. Silverlight applications can easily plug into existing environments that deliver Web services over most technologies.

The development sections of this book are written for developers that have some experience with .NET programming. The book will take you through the process of creating Silverlight applications using the .NET languages from that perspective.

How This Book Is Organized

I've tried to organize the book to flow from one topic to the next. Part I gives you the background and helps you get your environment set up. Part II covers building the UI for Silverlight applications. Part III discusses developing the functionality for the UI. Part ...