Based on the descriptions of Buzzword in the links, maybe your contact was concerned about how Silverlight would respond to this Buzzword feature: "[Buzzword] also will run on Adobe AIR, offering users a hybrid online/offline experience and the ability to
work with both hosted and local documents."
So as I understand it, the two big selling points of Adobe AIR versus Silverlight are that it: 1) Allows disconnected use of Flex/Flash applications, across all the platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile devices eventually) supported by Flex/Flash.
2) It offers better integration with the client's local system (read and write local files, drag and drop files to/from native applications, clipboard functionality, native menus...).
The standard use-case today for Silverlight requires a connection to the web, as does simple Flash. You browse to a website and you see the Silverlight/Flash control on the page read from the server. When you don't have a web connection you can't interact
with that page/"application".
So yes, you can do a rich text editor in SL, but with the qualification that there is today no disconnected-use/high-local-use-and-integration story for Silverlight. (Anyone: Am I going too far with that?) I have seen discussion about using something like
Google Gears to support disconnected-use of SL (eg.
http://nerddawg.blogspot.com/2007/06/google-gears-and-silverlight.html), but I haven't heard of any official Google-Gears-like capability that will be delivered from MS for Silverlight. Personally I can live with the "use WPF" response to AIR, but others
may not be satisfied.
Nice question and thanks for introducing me to "Buzzword". I've never heard of it till now and i have to admit after spending the last 20 mins playing with it it really impressed me ...
As for whether we can build something similar with SilverLight 1.1? I honestly believe we can.
I've seen enough silverlight code snippet goodies out there to make me believe it can be done. Actually Im going to start a completely new project (ill call it "SilverWord") that will set out to prove this..
ps. It will take some pretty fancy coding and long nights... fun times ahead!
rbg306
0 Points
1 Post
Silverlight and something like Buzzword
Oct 12, 2007 10:06 AM | LINK
The other side (FLEX) is develping very sophisticated apps.
I mean for example Buzzword or Sliderocket. I put the question
whether Silverlight 1.1 is a platform to develop a similar app to
an insider in silverlight development (outside MS). His answer was:
At this moment, the Silverlight framework lacks some very important
concepts in order to consider implementing something as complex as Buzzword.
So I ask the MS people here on the forum:
Will silverlight framework allow us to create a Rich Text Editor in the near future?
Alan Cobb
Member
479 Points
208 Posts
Re: Silverlight and something like Buzzword
Oct 13, 2007 07:03 PM | LINK
>Will Silverlight framework allow us to create a Rich
>Text Editor in the near future?
Absolutely. My wild guess would be that someone at MS is working on something like that right now.
>"At this moment, the Silverlight framework lacks some very
>important concepts in order to consider implementing something
>as complex as Buzzword."
Hmmm... Can you go back and get that insider to be more specific ;).
Apparently Buzzword was recently bought by Adobe:
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200709/100107VirtualUbiquity.html
http://www.adobe.com/special/buzzword/faq.html
Based on the descriptions of Buzzword in the links, maybe your contact was concerned about how Silverlight would respond to this Buzzword feature: "[Buzzword] also will run on Adobe AIR, offering users a hybrid online/offline experience and the ability to work with both hosted and local documents."
Assuming your contact is talking about the "What's Microsoft's response to AIR?" issue: First, what is AIR? See http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/ and http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/AIR:Developer_FAQ
So as I understand it, the two big selling points of Adobe AIR versus Silverlight are that it: 1) Allows disconnected use of Flex/Flash applications, across all the platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux and mobile devices eventually) supported by Flex/Flash. 2) It offers better integration with the client's local system (read and write local files, drag and drop files to/from native applications, clipboard functionality, native menus...).
The standard use-case today for Silverlight requires a connection to the web, as does simple Flash. You browse to a website and you see the Silverlight/Flash control on the page read from the server. When you don't have a web connection you can't interact with that page/"application".
Based on the following blog post, apparently MS's response to AIR and its disconnected-use/high-local-integration features is Windows-only WPF: http://blogs.msdn.com/msmossyblog/archive/2007/10/01/what-s-your-story-around-air.aspx
So yes, you can do a rich text editor in SL, but with the qualification that there is today no disconnected-use/high-local-use-and-integration story for Silverlight. (Anyone: Am I going too far with that?) I have seen discussion about using something like Google Gears to support disconnected-use of SL (eg. http://nerddawg.blogspot.com/2007/06/google-gears-and-silverlight.html), but I haven't heard of any official Google-Gears-like capability that will be delivered from MS for Silverlight. Personally I can live with the "use WPF" response to AIR, but others may not be satisfied.
Alan Cobb
www.alancobb.com
BenHayat
Participant
1097 Points
656 Posts
Re: Silverlight and something like Buzzword
Oct 13, 2007 09:18 PM | LINK
Hi Alan;
As someone who was just reading your post/answer, I found your post to be very informative. Thanks!
Best Regards;
..Ben
liquidboy
Member
290 Points
67 Posts
Re: Silverlight and something like Buzzword
Oct 14, 2007 10:34 PM | LINK
Nice question and thanks for introducing me to "Buzzword". I've never heard of it till now and i have to admit after spending the last 20 mins playing with it it really impressed me ...
As for whether we can build something similar with SilverLight 1.1? I honestly believe we can.
I've seen enough silverlight code snippet goodies out there to make me believe it can be done. Actually Im going to start a completely new project (ill call it "SilverWord") that will set out to prove this..
ps. It will take some pretty fancy coding and long nights... fun times ahead!
JesseLiberty
Member
511 Points
1013 Posts
Microsoft
Re: Silverlight and something like Buzzword
Oct 15, 2007 12:41 PM | LINK
I posted my response to this as a blog entry. Thanks. -j
Silverlight Geek