Silverlight 2 is out now with new features like rich set of controls, improved Text Rendering capabilities, rich networking support including calling secured(SSL) services etc…
Moreover Microsoft is partnered with Soyatec to sponsor tools for developing Silverlight applications using cross platform Eclipse development platform. eclipse2SL is first of that kind.
eclipse2SL is an open source tools integrated with the Eclipse development platform that enable Java developers to use the Eclipse platform to create applications that run on the Microsoft Silverlight runtime platform. Specifically, the project will be an Eclipse plug-in that works with the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) to provide both a Silverlight development environment and greater interoperability between Silverlight and Java, to facilitate the integration of Silverlight-based applications into Java-based web sites and services.
As an addition to the control set Microsoft is releasing Silverlight Toolkit by end of this month with more UI controls.
Silverlight 2 resources
To get the basic understanding go to Get started, here are some good articles written by Scott Guthrie
- Introduction
- Creating “Hello World” with Silverlight 2 and VS 2008
- Using Layout Management
- Using Networking to Retrieve Data and Populate a DataGrid
- Using Style Elements to Better Encapsulate Look and Feel
- Using the ListBox and DataBinding to Display List Data
- Using User Controls to Implement Master/Details Scenarios
- Using Templates to Customize Control Look and Feel
- Creating a Digg Desktop Version of our Application using WPF