Silverlight 2.0 Release Candidate Available -- Visual Studio Magazine

Silverlight 2.0 Release Candidate Available

Release Candidate 0 (RC0) Developer Runtime edition is now available for download.

By Kurt Mackie
10/15/2008

Microsoft's closely watched Silverlight 2.0 cross-platform, cross-browser plug-in-based on Microsoft's .NET Framework, which developers can use to create Web-based applications-has passed its latest milestone: Release Candidate 0 (RC0) Developer Runtime edition is now available for download.

The new RC0 runtime is strictly designed for developers and will help them get their apps in working order by time of the product's final release, according to a blog post by Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division. The regular end-user product that plugs into the browser is still at the Silverlight 2.0 beta 2 stage.

Making Web Apps Easy
Guthrie didn't say when Microsoft will issue the official product release, but there have been reports that it could happen at any time this month. Microsoft released the RC0 runtime to provide the closest functionality to the real thing with the aim of getting final feedback and bug fixes. However, RC0 does include some new features, including three new controls -- ComboBox, PasswordBox and ProgressBar -- that Guthrie demonstrated in his blog post.

The final release of Silverlight will feature improved "default control template skins" and developers will be able to tweak them using Microsoft Expression Blend.

Guthrie stressed that Silverlight is suited for simplified Web app customization.

"This goes beyond simple styling of colors and fonts -- you can literally completely change the visual UI of a control, as well as customize its behavior (for example: add animation) without writing any code," he wrote.

Both Mac and PC versions of Silverlight RC0 can be downloaded, along with associated Visual Studio tools and the latest Expression Blend UI-design tool. To use RC0, developers first have to install Service Pack 1 of Expression Blend 2.0.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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