Silverlight Toolkit on CodePlex Adds Live Samples in Visual Basic

Today Justin updated the Silverlight Toolkit on CodePlex with samples in Silverlight 3 that you can run live directly on the site. Check out all the live tutorials:

• Part 1 – Controls
• Part 2 – Charting
• Part 3 – Theming
• Part 4 - Navigation Controls
• Part 5 - Data Controls

And best of all, the samples show a Visual Basic code view:

Support for Visual Basic in the toolkit itself was available in March, but now the live samples are also updated. Clicking the VB.Net button changes the code sample to Visual Basic and saves this preference so all code samples will default to the selected language:

I’m just starting to play with Silverlight (and .NET RIA Services) myself so I’m glad to see these interactive samples in VB come online. Another really fun addition to the samples is an interactive DLR console for IronPython and IronRuby. If you're just getting your feet wet with these dynamic languages you should check this out, it even has some basic intellisense to help you.

Enjoy!

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2009
  Can you explain briefly about Silverlight? Is it animation package? How can we write program for that?

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2009
  Hi Sharf, Silverlight is a rich internet client that you can use as an alternative to web interfaces. It has a very small framework that works cross-platform so if you need rich controls like that of a desktop UI but the ease of deployment like a web UI then you should check it out. It also has very rich multi-media & HD video capabilities. The best place to learn about Silverlight is www.silverlight.net. Have Fun, -B

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2009
  Thank you. Last week my friend asked me about "User friendly controls in web interface" here it is... Thanks again!

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2009
  Hey Beth, thanks for the great link. I hate to bother you about it, but where is the DLR console?  Is it not online? Also, where can I find out more about the DLR? Thanks. -Toby

• Anonymous
  August 06, 2009
  Hi Toby, If you go to one of the samples like http://silverlight.codeplex.com/Wiki/View.aspx?title=Silverlight%20Toolkit%20Overview%20Part%201 There will be a DLR Console tab. You can learn more about the DLR here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd233052(VS.100).aspx http://www.codeplex.com/dlr http://silverlight.net/learn/dynamiclanguages.aspx/ Have Fun, -B

• Anonymous
  August 10, 2009
  Does Silverlight have any value for someone who still spends 99.99% of their time doing WinForms work?  Or is this simply an internet plaything?

• Anonymous
  August 11, 2009
  Hi Andrew, I also come from the Windows forms world. If you're building n-tier business applications using Windows Forms as the smart client then I see two main benefits of Silverlight over n-tier Windows Forms. 1) The Silverlight framework is under 5M as opposed to the Full .NET Framework (or even the Client Profile wich is about 30M). 2) Silverlight is cross-browser & cross-platform (Mac & Windows). But you should think of Silverlight as a rich web application and not a replacement for Windows forms (or WPF). Winforms/WPF have a much richer framework, can interoperate with other applications on the desktop like Office, are not sandboxed like Silverlight, and are easy to develop. If you are developing web-based applications then I would look at Silverlight and .NET RIA Services. If you need the full power of the Windows desktop then I would look at WPF. HTH, -B