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• Podcast Part 2 Posted

  On April 9, I posted a link to my first interview on Sparkling Client . Today I'm happy to post a link to the second and final part of the interview . Also, be sure to catch their terrific interview with Dave Campbell ( Silverlight Cream ). Posted Apr 17 2008, 12:11 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources

• Tip of the Day Microblog Launches Today

  As of today, I will attempt to add a brief Tip of the Day to the Silverlight Microblog every day. If you would like to contribute (and I hope you will) please send your tips following the directions listed here . Thanks!   -jesse Posted Apr 15 2008, 09:22 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Tip of the Day, Shameless Self-promotion, Recommended Resources, Tools

• Sparkling Client Podcasts On Silverlight

  I'm pleased and proud to say that my first Sparkling Client interview is now available for download; and this gives me the opportunity to recommend subscribing to this excellent new podcast. Sparkling Client focuses exclusively on Silverlight and related technologies. The first couple broadcasts show some growing pains, but the later interviews are excellent (check out the interview with Adam Kinney !) Posted Apr 09 2008, 09:29 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources

• New Look - Same Blog

  Don't panic! It's the same blog; I just changed the look to make it easier to use and easier to read. Hope you like it. Stay tuned for lots of videos and tutorials over the next fortnight. -j Posted Apr 05 2008, 08:25 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Recommended Resources, Random Ramblings

• What I'm Thinking About April

  I've been getting a lot of mail on the lines of "When will we have Beta 2?" or "what is the release date for Silverlight" and since I can't answer those questions, and since I know that folks need to plan, I thought I'd tell you what I can know (at least to some degree) and that is what I hope and plan to do in the next six weeks in terms of producing learning material for Silverlight 2 Beta 1. So, very briefly, here are my plans for through the end of April (just in case you are interested). 1. The first week in April I'll be presenting at VS Live San Francisco. Two presentations: Introduction to Silverlight 2 Programming Silverlight 2 Data Binding I'll also try to attend the Birds of a feather lunch on Tuesday. Once these presentations are complete, I will post them here for your use and / or feedback. Presentations According to one of the more useful new sites, Tripit , I'll be flying from SF to Redmond late Wednesday afternoon, and spending the rest of the week talking with the team about Silverlight 2 and trying to uncover what it is I don't know that I don't know. Webcasts The first of the Silverlight 2 Webcasts   - Live From Redmond (not) Silverlight 2 and  Event Handling. How Do I Videos Plans for Videos in April include (among other things) interacting with databases, web services and XML, Streaming, Deep Zoom (with David Isbitski) and more. Tutorials I hope to release two tutorials in April, and as noted previously, I plan to take them out of order, that is to say tackling some advanced topics even before covering all the more introductory topics. Upcoming tutorials might include topics such as Data Templates Linq and Databases Networking Custom Controls Dependency Properties Data Binding and Databases Data Binding and Web Services Transforms and Animation Isolated Storage Advanced Templates and Parts Graphics Animation Interacting with HTML Interacting with ASP.NET / AJAX Note that I've listed 7 months of tutorials off the top of my head, so take this list as brainstorming, not as a plan. This is the opposite of announcing only when you "know" -- and is more like "here's a peek into the chaos of my thinking" Programming C# Table Of Contents My goal is to have a first draft of the Table of Contents for Programming C# (O'Reilly Media) which I will post here in case you find it interesting and to get your feedback if you would like to participate.  There... Posted Mar 24 2008, 07:18 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: tutorials, silverlight 2.0, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Presentations, Random Ramblings, How Do I Videos, Feedback

• Innovation, Renovation and Change

  So, after some minutes of trying this and that, it is time to take stock and see what's working and what isn't.  What's changing... Tip of the Day: RIP The Tip of the Day was a great idea, but I have yet to figure out what is the difference between a Tip of the Day and a blog entry, and I think it is causing more confusion than help, so I hereby kill it, put a stake through its heart, put a fork in it, bury it, liquidate it, drop a house on it. may it rest in peace. But only in name.   I still intend to post at least 5 days a week with substantive tips, follow ups, explorations of issues, and all the material I'd have put into a Tip of the Day; I'll just call them.... er... blog posts; like every body else.   The Micro Blog If I have your permission to stop experiments (like Tip of the Day) then I can experiment with truly wacky ideas. One, which was suggested to me in passing, I want to start right away: the Silverlight Microblog.  This is the idea of a blog that posts very frequently but only a line or two, and posts through Twitter . It is not a "here's what I'm doing" or even a "look here" reference to a bigger post somewhere else. Rather it is a complete blog entry in the 140 characters you are given.  This will take some practice. The Twitter account is SLMicroBlog and here's the first posting What needs clarification.... Tutorials: Not in Order The tutorials have been met with some enthusiasm, though it would be great to get more feedback and I invite you to send me email ( jliberty@microsoft.com ) or to post comments here. We're working on a way for you to post comments to the tutorials themselves. In any case, it is not my intention to write the tutorials in "order" -- I'm very aware that some folks would like to get to more advanced topics; though I do think it makes sense to go through most of the material at this level of depth before doing deep dives in the tutorials.  In addition, Scott Guthrie and I have agreed that the tutorials will be supplemented by the book I'm writing with Tim Heuer for O'Reilly (Programming Silverlight 2) which will provide more depth. Of course the book will be static, so after it publishes I'll continue to write tutorial pieces here as changes and new features emerge. Videos: Focus on:  Data and a mix of Intro and Advanced Topics Much like with the tutorials; it is my intention to move quickly back... Posted Mar 21 2008, 10:06 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Tip of the Day, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Silverlight.net, Recommended Resources, Random Ramblings

• Tip of the Day - What to Expect in Silverlight Help

  I've received a lot of very positive feedback from the tutorials and videos and a lot of inquiries about what help will be forthcoming and how to get help right away. I thought I'd take a few minutes to provide some guidelines that are intended to optimize your experience, not to restrict your access... First, lots of folks are producing material, both on a regular and on an ad-hoc basis. If you are creating Silverlight 2 applications, I recommend subscribing to   Silverlight Community Blogs   Silverlight Geek Blog  (yah, that's me)   Tutorials As noted previously, the tutorials will be released at least twice monthly, beginning the end of this month, and my plan is to go through all of Silverlight 2 at an intermediate level.   Videos The videos will not be released in "order" -- that is to say the goal of the videos is for them to stand independently, allowing developers to dip into topics of interest. The first few will cover the basics, but after that I will be moving freely among elementary topics, intermediate and advanced topics.  Tips of the Day The tips of the day will range in size from one liners to full explorations of coding issues (with code examples attached) - often diving deeper into issues covered in the videos or the tutorials Blog Entries My blog entries will attempt to fill in the gaps, add a bit of a look behind the scenes and maintain some continuity in the story Web Casts The web casts will be a combination of deep dives and real-time HDI (How Do I) videos. The tentative schedule (soon to be finalized) looks like this: Date Topic 4/16 Controls and event handling 5/21 Data Binding/Routed Events 6/18 Styles, Templates and more 7/16 Deep Zoom   Looking for Help The best place to get the fastest answers is on the forum -- though I admit some questions slip through the cracks.  But the forums is where everyone looks first and if your question is unanswered for a while, post a follow up. The tricks to getting a fast answer include: a. Use a good subject that summarizes the problem so the folks who might know the answer stop and read the question. Good subject: "Urgent: Crashes when two buttons in same stack panel" - Bad subject "Help!!!!" b. Give as much information in as few words as possible - tell more, not less, but shorter paragraphs are easier to read, and put the important information up front; write like you're a journalist, not a novelist. c. Be very... Posted Mar 19 2008, 10:47 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Tip of the Day, Shameless Self-promotion, Recommended Resources, Random Ramblings

• How do I Write that In JavaScript?

  A comment was left in response to Master Detail in Silverlight 2 asking " Any hint how to create such a sample with Java Script instead C# ?" I thought the answer was important enough to post to the blog in general... Two points about your question. The first is whether you are asking if one can write this same program in JavaScript in Silverlight 2 (answer: yes) or you are asking if one can write the same program in Silverlight 1.0 (which only uses Javascript) (answer: depends). Second point is that there are a number of languages that SL2 supports: IronRuby, JavaScript, VB, C#, etc., and (frankly) it won't be possible for me to illustrate all of them (or even most of them) in these examples, but it shouldn't be terribly hard to translate the logic from one language to another because the code is pretty simple and the Silverlight documentation shows the syntax for each event, method and property in the various languages. While it is true that Silverlight 2 supports JavaScript, it is also true that C# supports language features that simply are not available in Javascript such as generics (ListOf<Books>) and true classes and objects. Translating my examples from C# to (e.g.,) VB is trivial, but translating to JavaScript is more of a challenge. Which brings me to my final point, which is that I honestly can't imagine why you'd want to do this in Javascript; the code will be slower, harder to maintain and harder to create. If you'll pardon what may sound rude and even arrogant, I think you'll be a lot happier if you take the opportunity to "step up" to managed code (see, for example, Programming C# 3.0, 5th Edition by my favorite author) which will not only enhance your Silverlight experience, but will bring you nicely into the entire spectrum of .NET programming from ASP.NET, ASP.NET/AJAX through WPF, WCF, Workflow, etc. Programming C# 3.0 (Programming) by Jesse Liberty, Donald Xie Read more about this title... You'll love it. I tried it in 2000 and never looked back. Posted Mar 17 2008, 08:05 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Tip of the Day, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources, C#

• The difference between a geek and a snob

  In my recent post I tried to distinguish between my (mis?)understanding of the role of an Evangelist (helping folks figure out if they want to commit to Silverlight) vs my role  as I see it (helping developers lean and use Silverlight).  It is hard enough defining ones own role, let alone the role of others. My Evangelist friends define their role differently, more inclusively as people who are passionate about the technology they work with.  In that sense, my post reeked with condescension ("you guys are just in sales, I'm a developer).  It is the Dilbert attitude towards marketing (at times  deserved, but certainly not applicable in this case). So, live and learn. The interesting thing is, none of them complained; they are too busy getting their work done. Some other ideas: Evangelist   Evangelist   Evangelist All of which is to say, there are a lot of folks here at Microsoft who are spinning in circles getting ready to talk with you about Silverlight 2; eager to show off what we have, and hoping that you will be as enthusiastic as we are. Much more to come soon.. Posted Feb 25 2008, 10:12 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Programmer insanity, Random Ramblings

• The Difference Between An Evangelist and A Geek

  Today's NY Times declares (ever so quietly) the beginning of the Netware wars (did I just coin that term?). They get a lot wrong in the article, but if you know more than they appear to, you can conclude that Silverlight and Air/Flex will be competing for the hearts and minds of the same developers. For some developers, that is certainly true. Moreover, many will be facing a strategic choice in coming months (we've seen this movie: DOS vs. CP/M, Windows Vs. Unix vs. OS2, and on and on). This is a choice that the Evangelists at Microsoft are well equipped to help you make (as, I suspect, are the evangelists at Adobe and at IWannaPlayToo, Inc.) But even though I was shocked and dismayed to see that Microsoft's computerized career planner has me on their Evangelism track I am not an Evangelist . Never was, don't think I will be. I spent the last 15 years of my life doing three things: developing applications, writing books and teaching. I was hired into the Development Division and I don't Evangelize (at least not on purpose). I'm actually pretty useless at telling you why Silverlight is a better choice because I take it as given and self-evident. Worse (much much worse) I don't really care which you choose (gasp!) except in terms of keeping myself employed, selling books and for other entirely selfish reasons. Some of the people I respect and like most built one of the flagship AIR programs, and seemed to have a good time doing it, so I figure Flex can't be the Devil's work. But I have no desire to be a Flex programmer (and I secretly believe, though they have not said so, that if Silverlight 2 were available when they started, they would have used that; of course they would, at least some of them were already .NET programmers. But I speak for myself, not them. I certainly would have, that's for sure). The bottom line is that I suspect that there is merit to both technologies, though I can't quite imagine why anyone would choose to develop in Flex now that Silverlight 2 is (almost) available, when Silverlight is part of a product line that runs from ASP.NET, through Ajax, to WPF and one that includes SQL Server and Visual Studio, all with one 800 number to call; as a developer I always preferred to have a single vendor so that they could never say 'oh the problem is that other guy's stuff isn't working' -- but truly I digress because that is just my preference. That is not a compelling argument. It's... Posted Feb 25 2008, 05:47 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Programmer insanity, Random Ramblings

• A note on reading, technology and mental illness

  I posted yesterday about Amazon's Media Library -- which I believe could be a great back end to a very cool Silverlight project and that led to a comment on the volume of my reading. I started to write a response but once you get me started talking about reading... well I thought I'd indulge in one more blog post during the gentle moments before Mix. There have been a few amazing changes in technology that have significantly affected my reading (though I admit I was always a serious reader -- see note below on reading and mental illness.) It started with Books. Remember books? I bought 'em by the truck load, back when Barnes and Noble was a single store on 18th Street and if you wanted a book you got on the train and went and bought it. Then came Books On Tape which was great: rentals I could listen to in the car (though I still felt compelled to buy printed versions to look at later). I started listening to in the early 1990s . They went out of the retails business just as I seriously got into The Teaching Company Lectures, which has gotten better and better over the years (Click here and then on Lectures, for my recommendations). But the big break through was Audible (the Platinum deal is great; I buy 4 a year) In the past 2 years I've bought a few hundred books from Audible. I love Audible. Wish they gave green stamps. Digital is so very much better than tapes. Especially digital that remembers where you are in the book. Or books. Gotta' be able to read more than one at a time. You really want more than one book with you at a time. And who can remember where all the tapes are? Audible is one thing, but what gave it enormous power was the iPod , er, ah the Zune, yeah, the Zune. Here's a picture of my Zune. (See, it says Zune right on it) Love my Zune. Got the 80 Gig. Ran out of room on my 8. Sometimes you gotta' read. Then there's print. Now, I still like reading, but books are heavy (and I fractured my shoulder in December, which quintupled the weight of every page. And remember, I have ADD, which means I like to be reading a few different books so I can switch off every ten minutes. Long flights require at least 3 books, usually more. And a couple magazines. Heavy. Also, I hate waiting for books to arrive from Amazon. Who can wait two days? That's crazy. Thank God for the Kindle Here's my ungrateful review . (Some people are never happy). Right now I have 7 books on the Kindle (including Bleak House, which is big... Posted Feb 23 2008, 10:25 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Shameless Self-promotion, Programmer insanity, Random Ramblings, Technology

• Tip of the Day - Suspends Until Mid March - Then Focus On Silverlight 2

  Rather than trying to provide a Tip of the Day as we head towards one of the larger and more important  shows of the year (you are going to Mix , right?) Therefore, I'm going to suspend the Tip of the Day from now until mid-March. After Mix, I'll be going on a family vacation we can't change (life is tough). But... ... As soon as I get back,  I'll be launching a set of coordinated  efforts , including a reliable Tip of the Day focused on Silverlight 2*. The new Tip of the Day will publish no later than  1pm Eastern, at least 5 days a week and will be part of a much larger effort that will include frequent Silverlight 2 blog posts , How Do I videos , monthly Webcasts and more .  Stay tuned; many details to come.       *Note: we've announced that we will be releasing Silverlight 2 during the first Quarter, which means by March 31. This note in no way implies any change to that plan. Posted Feb 19 2008, 08:41 PM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Tip of the Day, Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Silverlight.net

• Kind Words, the fuel of cooperative communities...

  A very kind reader sent this, and I am incredibly happy to share it with you. Stay tuned for another Tip of the Day later today. In getting ready for Silverlight 2 I've been playing with some early bits. Today I began to see how much easier some things are going to be and your eagerness to know is now far exceeded by my eagerness to tell . Soon, soon. [Interesting. I've been having some qc issues with images. Must keep an eye on that.] Posted Feb 13 2008, 09:07 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Shameless Self-promotion, Programmer insanity

• One more gadget (the ego never quits)

  I woke up at 5 this morning, so I decided to take apart the Silverlight Tip of the Day gadget that Kelly White had so kindly created and, as an exercise in egomania, modify it to display all my blog entries, rather than just those that are tagged as Tip of the Day. It turned out to be an interesting adventure in playing with Sidebar gadgets, in the frustration of making sure you find all the references to all the images, and not much more than that (oh yes, it was a good time sink). In any case, here it is, if you want a copy: Silverlight Blog.gadget.zip . Just unzip it into the usual gadget folder and it will run side by side with the Tip of the Day gadget, or you can choose one or the other or neither. Now, to make this at all relevant, the next step is to put a Silverlight control together that does the same thing. That would be worth blogging about! Posted Feb 10 2008, 05:05 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: Silverlight Geek, Shameless Self-promotion, Silverlight.net, Recommended Resources, Programmer insanity

• Tip of the Day - Time to move to Generic Collections for Silverlight.

  In Silverlight 1.1 the non-generic collections were marked obsolete. We have announced that the non-generic collections will not be in Silverlight 2.0 at all, so if you're still using non-generic collections like ArrayList it is time to step up to the generic equivalents like List<T> This is actually good news, because the generic collections are  simpler, more performant create type-safe libraries and create code that is easier to maintain. Besides, they're easier to use than it looks like at first. You can learn about programming with generic collections in many places. Here are three to consider, depending on where you are on the managed code learning curve.... If you're going to be tackling learning Managed Code for the first time, then I personally would recommend learning C# from my favorite author:  Programming C# 3.0 (Programming) by Jesse Liberty, Donald Xie Read more about this title... We cover all of C# 3 with a focus on building .NET applications. Of course there really are a lot of good books on C#, so you'll want to look around. If you prefer an on-line course that goes into depth about generics, you may want to take a look at Microsoft's Implementing Collections and Generics in the Microsoft .NET Framework ($18 month subscription $39.99)   I also have a couple free articles on Generics up on the O'Reilly site.  What Are Generics , is written in VB and C# Generics is written in... you're way ahead of me. They were written when Generic collections were introduced (2004/2005) but they should be fully up to date.   Best of luck. Posted Feb 07 2008, 11:01 AM by Jesse Liberty - Silverlight Geek Filed under: silverlight 2.0, Tip of the Day, Shameless Self-promotion, Learning Silverlight, Recommended Resources