Amazingly, all of the Mix sessions will be available online, absolutely free. What follows is, in my personal opinion, the core presentations on Silverlight 2 that are currently posted. More are on the way but these three will get you started, (along with the videos and tutorials already posted.)
The Core Silverlight 2 Sessions posted so far…
"Why are you showing images of the source – I can't copy and paste!"
I've received a number of emails asking this question and I have a number of answers <smile>
In any case, none of this is et in stone, and I will certainly try at lest one tutorial with code snippets in text, after all, useful is more important than pretty, all things considered.
Some of the images in the Silverlight 2 Tutorials are not what you or I would hope for. There is no excuse, but there is an explanation and a work around, and a fix going forward.
The explanation
It was very important to me to use the latest possible build on every screen shot and all the code to reduce potential confusion. Thus the tutorials were finalized at the last possible moment. We chose (wrongly in retrospect) to circulate the drafts, as Word docs, and then convert both to pdf and to html. Large images did not convert well. That is entirely my fault; I should have anticipated the problem (though they did much better in the pdf files).
The work-around
Let me start by noting that while writing this I looked through the tutorials to find examples and discovered that almost all the images look great! Unfortunately, one that looks terrible is one of the first images in Tutorial 1: Controls: the image of the new project window. Not a great first impression. The only good work around is the pdf file in which that image is a good bit clearer
The solution moving forward
Future tutorials will almost certainly be created in HTML, and in any case, I now have guidelines on size for images that will ensure that they can be set into our service with maximum clarity.
Thanks for your understanding
Updated 18:33 Pacific time (UTC -8). Even as Scott Guthrie announced the availability of Silverlight 2, Beta 1, we also posted and made available the first of the new Silverlight 2 How Do I videos and the first of the Silverlight 2 Tutorial Series. (in html or downloadable PDF)
To get to these, please click on the Learn Tab
Once you are on the Learn page you'll find a new button for the Silverlight 2 videos,
At the bottom of the Learn page you'll find yet another new section, this one with a link to the new tutorials,
The tutorials posted today are:
I sincerely hope you will find these helpful
1200 Hours on 5 broadcast channels.
2200 Hours live on line for 17 days.
Then all of it, video-on-demand – Interactive & Immersive.
Demo shows high quality video connected to data – who are the players, what are their history and expert commentary. Add rewind, find highlights, full screen. Add alerts when items of interest are happening and (I personally think this is cool) you can mark an event for someone and send it to them).
Can't stand missing the game while you're watching the gymnastics: PIP. Live event? 4 streams, and you pick which one to watch. Or, choose the wisdom of the crowd, and pick what other folks are watching.
Background: Last year Mix07 was my first exposure to Silverlight – followed by a personal decision to create a bushiness based on Silverlight, followed by new joining Microsoft. So I am incredibly psyched to be back.
Add to that getting to know and work for ScottGu(who actually is as amazing as you think) and watching him introduce Silverlight 2 (did he do that yet or did I just get fired?) .
Finally, on a very personal note, I see this as an opportunity to recreate my role as the Silverlight Geek improving every aspect of my contribution to creating a community of and for Silverlight developers (better videos, better Tips, more information, more dialog), and… to tell you the truth I see this as my first Silverlight birthday.
So look for me at Mix; I'm the kid with the birthday hat and the big smile.
All of that to say is that this is going to be a very personal blog of Mix, augmented by Twitter blats as announcements are made.
More very soon…
My first posting of the Road Map to the Silverlight 2 Tutorials was linked to an earlier draft, which is why it was taken down (these things happen). Unfortunately, RSS being what it is; before one can sat "Stop the presses!" archives appeared in various places, and so that mistake will live on for a while. This is actually not a terrible thing, because those early versions said the series is by "Jesse Liberty and Scott Guthrie" and you will notice that the series as published does not say that.
Here's why:
The tutorials were originally conceived by Scott, who also mentored me in getting them going, and shepherded and managed the early project. I wanted his name on the series as a recognition of that work and because, well because he's ScottGu.
He asked that his name be taken off because he hadn't written them, and he doesn't put his name on material he didn't write. So, I took it off, but I do get to thank him and say that I've never met anyone with quite his combination of abilities to make things happen, stay deeply in touch with the technology, inspire others and squeeze 40 hours into 24.
Now that he's a VP anything else I say (and probably all that) will sound like sucking up to the boss, but I'm too old for that, and he doesn't need it; with Steve Ballmer singing your praises, you can hardly care what I say.
Finally, last mention of it, Scott has a great post on Silverlight 2 programming and a second great post on Silverlight 2 Programming with Expression Blend. (Those tutorials are his, and are not part of my Silverlight 2 Tutorial Series)
So, I'm off to Mix to see Scott and (I'm so pleased) Guy Kawasaki and Ray Ozzie 
give keynotes; some of the most creative people in the field. Should be great times.
Note that the keynotes will be available along with the other sessions at MIX08 sessions within 24 hours.
NB: The Mix07 keynote on Silverlight literally changed my life (as noted in previous posts) – so be careful when watching; you may end up on a jet to Redmond!
First, thank you for your incredible patience!!
This is the first of the new Silverlight 2 Tip of the Day series, as promised, and as an opening salvo, I'm trilled to provide a link to the Road Map to my Silverlight Tutorials.
As part of the impending release of Silverlight 2, I promised in a recent blog post to provide what I hope you will find to be an extremely useful set of integrated tutorials, How Do I Videos, Webcasts, Tips of the Day and Blog Posts.
This first preview provides an overview of the tutorial series, and, I hope, will whet your appetite for more. When Silverlight is released, I will also release the first three Tutorials in the series
along with the first Silverlight 2 How Do I videos.
I will try to post a Tip of the Day every day from Mix, and then I'm afraid I'm going on vacation (poorly timed). I will have some Tips of the Day stacked up, but my response time to comments will be slow for a short while, I hope you'll bear with me.
Thank you so very much for your patience and I hope you find Silverlight 2 as exciting and amazing as I do.
-Jesse
Sometimes when I'm writing a reply to a comment, I realize it deserves a new blog post. Here you go….
>> I think that you're being optimistic in thinking that Silverlight is an automatic choice, even with SL 2.0. <<
Sorry, I was unclear. I meant it was an automatic choice for me. That is, for my values, for my work, with my history and needs, it is a no-brainer: and would be if I didn't work for Microsoft. In fact, it was, before I worked for Microsoft. After I saw Silverlight at Mix 07, I went home and within a week registered Silverlight Consulting LLC.
That was my plan until I was offered the only better job in the world, the one I have now.
The point is that Silverlight fits in with my existing skills, builds on the technology I know, uses the tools I like, comes from a company I trust to get it right. So for me it was a no-brainer.
What I was trying to say is that I'm not good at (as you can see) selling it to anyone else. I see my job as coming mostly post-sales; helping those who want to learn or use Silverlight to get the most out of the experience, and helping to make sure that Silverlight.net is the place they turn to for whatever they need.
I did not mean to suggest that the decision to use Silverlight is a given for everyone else. As always, there are some for whom it actually is a given, and there are some for whom the rule may well be "anyone but Microsoft" — for most an evaluation will be made based on their needs and the technology, though I reject the idea that lots of people come to a technology like this as babes in the woods, open to any technology solely based on its merits, as if they have no previous investments in learning, acquired skills, legacy technology, etc.
How big each group is, is outside my area of expertise. Put a gun to my head and make me guess? My gut says the world will look something like the following by end of 2009:
Silverlight adopted with no alternative seriously considered: 20%.
Not Silverlight, no matter what we do: 10%
Explore Silverlight but decide on a competitor: 5%
Explore Silverlight and its competition and choose Silverlight: 40%
Decide to stay out of this space for now: 20%.
Fell out of the statistical map, and never heard from again: 5%
**** THIS IS NOT A MICROSOFT PREDICTION OPINION OR EVEN SPECULATION *** This is straight from my own 2 decades of being wrong every time I predict anything to you. And note that, carefully, I have worked hard to develop a fairly reliable record of being dead wrong. ("what is this Mac toy? "I prefer 1-2-3" "Personally, I like the dot prompt")
This is why my retirement is in indexed funds.
-j
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..
– Captian Silverlight
Silverlight 2 is big. Very big. It's great, but it is very big, with many cool features.
So we're preparing. And all that preparation means that there will be a lot of information, and many paths through that information. My goal is to ensure that Silverlight.net always has more than enough information to be the one-stop home for the community of Silverlight developers.
As a step in that direction, I'd like to tell you a little about my own plans for providing an integrated set of materials to make learning Silverlight 2 easier.
The Plan
My plan, subject to management intervention ("stop that and get back to sharpening pencils"), your feedback ("you call that a tutorial?"), or unexpected acts of the Gods ("oh look, locusts") is this:
The day we release Silverlight 2, I will post a number of on-line tutorials here on Silverlight.net with links through my blog. These tutorials will be targeted at .NET developers, but I will not assume the reader has experience in Silverlight or WPF .
Each tutorial will be filled with illustrations and working examples (that you can download separately), and each will run about 4,000 – 5,000 words (the equivalent of about 20 pages), or more as needed.
The goal is for the Silverlight 2 tutorials to compliment rather than replace or repeat the Silverlight 2 documentation. The tutorials are targeted at working developers who prefer more explanation rather than less, but my assumption is a high level of professional expertise; these are not for hobbyists; and they are not fluff.
Along with these tutorials I will also post the first of my new How Do I video series on programming Silverlight 2. This new series will be a compliment to the tutorials; not repeating the material; but demonstrating concepts through developing examples in screen-capture videos, and adding a new level of post-production enhancement to increase their value.
After we release, I'll personally commit to at least the following every month…
Also, Tim Heuer and I have committed to writing Programming Silverlight, to be published by O'Reilly Media this year.
I certainly will not be the only person producing material on Silverlight 2 (far from it) but I hope to create a useful set of multi-media material, and to do so in a very predictable pattern that you will be able to rely on.
In addition, I'll be taking the opportunity to go to events to present on Silverlight development; which will give me a chance to talk with and listen to the developer community directly.
In the meantime, Scott Guthrie, our new Vice President (congratulations Scott!) , has released a sneak peek of Silverlight 2 that you don't want to miss, complete with his own 8-part tutorial !
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 not an argument at all; it is a personal preference.
The point is that my work starts after you choose Silverlight. I'm happy to tell you why Silverlight floats my boat, and why I gave up 12 years as an independent contractor to come to work for the evil empire (oops) specifically to be the Silverlight Geek (the order of operations here, the cause and effect, is important; I came to Microsoft for Silverlight, rather than I like Silverlight because I work for Microsoft).
My job (and my fun) is to help build a place that has whatever it takes for developers to learn and use Silverlight (please see my next posting on what I'll be doing once Silverlight 2 is here), and to write cool Silverlight stuff, and to ensure that Silverlight.net is the single best resource for Silverlight developers on the Internet so that the people who hired me think "whoa! this guy offers something valuable to developers, let's pay him more," so that I can pay my kids' tuition (do you have any idea how much tuition is, and they promise, when you take early admission to make sure you can afford it, by which they mean, they'll look at your W2 and say "Yup, you can afford it.")
So, its okay with me that people call me an Evangelist, as long as they don't expect me to do much evangelizing. Here's what I know: about 10 years ago I received two emails in response to something I wrote about pointers (remember pointers?) in C++ (remember C++?). The first said something like "I've never understood this until you explained it. You made it so clear, I'm so grateful…" The second said "I don't know what it is you actually do for a living but it isn't writing and it isn't programming because you obviously don't know how to do either." I hung them both up. Not much has changed.
Now I write about and program in Silverlight. I'm still not sure how to do either, but I'll be doing 'em right here.
