Understanding the Microsoft Shift on Silverlight and HTML5

As the old proverb goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em. That must be Microsoft’s mantra as it prepares to unveil a new strategy for Windows development at BUILD. It’s hard to fathom that only four years have passed since Microsoft originally introduced Silverlight, but in that short period the world- and Microsoft- have clearly changed. With the rising HTML5 sun on the horizon, Microsoft is signaling a new dawn to its legion of developers.

Microsoft overstepped with Silverlight and HTML5 is the correction. A careful study of Silverlight’s roots makes this clear while simultaneously underscoring the close relationship HTML has with modern Window’s development. No observer of Microsoft history should be surprised by the coming changes to Silverlight or HTML5 in Windows 8.

Let me explain.

The Roots of Silverlight

Rewind your mind to 2003. Windows code named “Longhorn” is generating waves of excitement, showing-off the beautiful successor to XP and promising futuristic new ways for storing files and… a brand new Windows graphics subsystem, codenamed “Avalon.” Avalon eventually progressed to what we know as WPF, but what you may not know is that Avalon’s roots are actually in the web.

Prepare to have your mind blown.

Michael Wallent is not a name you may recognize, but you’ll definitely know the products he has been responsible for during his tenure at Microsoft: Dynamic HTML (IE4), IE5 & IE6, WPF, and ultimately the roots of Silverlight. His background with Internet Explorer and HTML are supremely interesting when overlaid with the foundations of WPF (aka Avalon).

In what should be required viewing for anyone looking to understand Microsoft’s Silverlight story, Michael expounds on the background of Avalon to Tim Sneath in 2006. From the Channel 9 video (emphasis mine):

Michael: “So we finished-up with IE6 in 2001 and we had this real choice: this ‘web-thing’ is really taking-off and we want to make sure we build a platform for that. But we’re not really sure Trident (IE) is going to do it for [Microsoft] because of the scalability issues. And because the programming model between [JavaScript] and C++ is dramatically different and fraught with security issues. And [Trident] just doesn’t scale to meet the problems we needed to solve. It doesn’t do a great job with media. It does an okay job with UI stuff. But we felt in many ways we were limited with [what we could do with Trident].”

“So we said, “Hey, we’re going to start this new project, code named Avalon.” We started it towards the end of 2000, beginning of 2001 to try to build a web client platform that was a follow-on to Trident, but something that was modern that we could really build Windows on top of, not just “dancing hamster” websites.”

Wait, what? That’s right! The roots of WPF are in a project that originally aimed to create a new, modern web client that Windows could be built on. HTML5 in Windows 8 is already sounding less crazy. More from the interview:

Tim Sneath: “When you started Avalon, was that really your goal to replace or supplant the web as we know it today? Or was it a contextual background [for the project]?”

Michael: “You know, “replace” is such a nasty word. I think what we were looking at at that time was that people wanted to build richer applications. And there wasn’t really a good way to do it. HTML is great for a lot of stuff. Nobody loves HTML and dynamic HTML more than me…but the fact is, there are some types of applications that you see people today where they fall off a cliff…what can we do to create a better seamless experience?”

“I think the market recognizes that HTML is good for some stuff, and then to go to the next step, you need other runtimes, because these HTML runtimes, coming from their SGML background, only can do so much. And you can’t push them too far or you’re not going to get a great user experience.”

Okay…so Avalon didn’t exactly aim to “replace” the web as we know it, but it clearly had the ambitions to take the web further. In fact, Michael goes on:

Tim: (paraphrasing) To go back to the genesis of Avalon, how did it incubate from that stage of recognizing the problems with HTML to a team of 100?

Michael: “Basically what happened is that we had a set of really smart folks working on Internet Explorer, and another set of smart folks working on the internals of Windows itself. And we merged those two teams together to create the Avalon team. So we thought it was the best of Windows, best of the web.”

And the veil continues to lift. The roots of WPF (and ultimately Silverlight) are in a project that literally merged Internet Explorer devs with Windows client devs, with heavy influence from HTML. And who had to bless this radical new “integrated platform” (Web/Windows) approach? Who do you think? From the video:

Tim: “Who did you have to persuade to build this team? What kind of buy-in did you have get internally to turn this in to a reality?”

Michael: “Basically, Bill [Gates].”

Tim: “You went and pitched him?”

Michael: “Many times. Many times. We effectively had a charter when we merged the Trident team with the User and DUser teams together to build the Windows platform.”

That explains (in part) why there were no new versions of IE for five years after IE6. It also underscores how significant this new “integrated” (web and Windows) platform decision was 10 years ago. It required approval from the top.

Digesting the Avalon Background

What do we ultimately learn from the Avalon interview with Michael:

1. Avalon (and in turn WPF and Silverlight) has strong connections to HTML and the web
2. Avalon was created because IE6-era HTML couldn’t meet the needs of Microsoft to build Windows (especially around media)
3. Avalon was hugely impacted by Microsoft’s new (at the time) bet on managed code (.NET), which is one of the primary reasons Avalon did not use XHTML for markup.
4. Windows, at least in concept, is built on an “evolved” web client platform

Bottom line: The Windows we know today already is heavily inspired by the web and HTML. The idea of Windows 8 integrating HTML5 for Windows development is nothing new. It’s just a new take on a 10-year-old concept.

The Silverlight Connection

When Avalon became WPF and shipped with Vista, Microsoft ushered in its rich new “evolved web client” platform for Windows development. That made sense.

Then Microsoft introduced WPF/e (e = everywhere), aka Silverlight. What started as a “merged” platform that combined the “best of the web with the best of Windows” was coming full circle in Silverlight and preparing to (in Microsoft’s view) replace the web as we know it (borrowing Tim’s words).

But the web of 2007 was very different from the web circa 2001 that inspired the roots of Silverlight. Browsers were evolving again. Standards were rapidly evolving to eliminate long-standing shortcomings. And perhaps most importantly, internet access was beginning to shift from Windows/Mac PCs to a world of multi-platform devices being lead by the iPhone.

Rather than read the writing on the wall and return to the tried-and-true Microsoft strategy of “embrace and extend,” Microsoft plowed ahead with their own custom approach to web application delivery.

Fast forward a few years and we find a developer community confused by the relationship of WPF to Silverlight. We find a Microsoft recommitted to the web via a reinvigorated IE development team. And we find a world where plug-ins are increasingly taking a backseat role to web application development.

Enter HTML5

Imagine how Windows might be different today if HTML5 had existed at the time of Avalon’s design. Given that the creators of Avalon were so inspired by the web, had the web of 2001 looked more like the web of 2011, maybe Vista would have ushered in an even more web-like development model that’s now being assumed to be part of Windows 8. And if that had happened, the conditions that created Silverlight would have never existed.

That’s not to say that XAML would never have existed (though clearly it would have evolved differently). What Michael says is true: HTML is great for some stuff, then other runtimes are needed to go further. Windows still needs its rich, native development environment. XAML provides that, and it will in Windows 8 and probably Windows 9.

What we don’t need is a replacement for the web. Michael knew better than to call Avalon a replacement, and Microsoft has now learned that lesson with Silverlight. Instead, with Windows 8 and HTML5, Microsoft is returning to the “embrace and extend” strategy that has served it well over the years, and re-calibrating what it means to create an OS that merges “the best of the web with the best of Windows.”

HTML5 in Windows is Not Radical

Despite the media and developer reaction to the early Windows 8 discussion of HTML5, the idea of Windows embracing web technologies for native client development is not radical. As you’ve seen in my documentation of Avalon’s evolution, the idea has been floating around Microsoft for at least a decade, and arguably for even longer than that (many of the anti-trust claims against Microsoft revolved around their deep integration of IE in to Windows in the early ‘90s).

Windows 8 and HTML5 are simply a re-focusing of this long-standing strategy, and it represents a “correction” by Microsoft to properly acknowledge HTML5 as the technology for the web, and XAML as the technology for Windows.

Microsoft “overreached” when it tried to make its “native” platform technology an equally suitable cross-platform, cross-device, “web replacement” platform. There are simply too many platforms and devices for Microsoft to attain that position. Instead, in September Microsoft will re-cast XAML as the solution for when HTML5 is just not enough, while simultaneously embracing more of HTML5 for “near native” Windows development.

Telerik Insurance

It goes without saying, but Telerik is insurance for perceived risk in Microsoft platforms. If XAML continues to be the platform that makes sense for your applications, Telerik will continue to be the premiere provider of XAML tools. If HTML5 and JavaScript make more sense for your next generation of “Windows” development, the new Kendo UI framework is worth investigation. Either way, Telerik, to paraphrase a customer, has your back.

Microsoft can’t replace the web, but that’s okay. With renewed clarity on where “native Windows development” and “native web development” meet, Microsoft and Windows 8 promise to usher in an era of clear developer direction and simplified Microsoft development decisions. Ultimately, what should now be obvious is that the “grand shift” Microsoft will discuss in Anaheim is nothing new. And with that perspective, you can start planning for the future with more confidence while Microsoft does a quick “take 2” on merging the web and Windows.

Important releases from Microsoft you may have missed

If you've not been keeping-up with the Microsoft blogs lately, there's a good chance you have missed some pretty cool releases from the folks up in Redmond. Microsoft's been busy releasing betas and CTPs and altogether new tools for developers, and primarily web developers at that. In typical "Microsoft of today" fashion, all of these releases are free, and most of them are available with source code on CodePlex.

What have you missed?

1. ASP.NET AJAX 4.0 Preview 6 - This is the client-side portion of ASP.NET 4.0 that includes all of the cool news things like client-side templates, client-side data context, and client-side "controls." I've been using and demoing these bits since Preview 4, and I think they are one of my favorite new features in ASP.NET 4.0. You can use them today, though, since all you need are the new JavaScript files. Download on CodePlex.
2. Microsoft Ajax Minifier - One thing that jQuery has bested Microsoft on for quite some time is library size. jQuery is about 50 KB in its commonly distributed "minified" format, Microsoft Ajax is about 100 KB. The new MAM tool helps close that gap by providing build-time support for minifying any JavaScript file, including Microsoft's Ajax libraries. It's not the first JavaScript minifier, but MSFT is claiming it is one of the most efficient, and the MSBuild scripts don't hurt its likability, either. Download on CodePlex.
3. ASP.NET MVC 2 Preview 2 - The second update to the ASP.NET MVC v2 project is now available. Preview 2 adds support for things like "Areas," model validation providers, and client-side input validation. Phil does a better job elaborating. If you're an ASP.NET MVC convert (or fan) and you want to get your hands on the latest and greatest, the source is now available (as usual) on CodePlex.
4. ASP.NET MVC 2 Upgrade Tool - Just squeezing-in before the bell for this blog post, Microsofty Eilon Lipton has also just released a simple tool that helps you upgrade ASP.NET MVC 1 projects to ASP.NET MVC 2. Simple tool, but helpful perhaps for any of you ready to upgrade your MVC 1 sites to a preview framework...Download from his blog.
5. Ajax Control Toolkit - Do you use the Microsoft Ajax Control Toolkit? If so, you might want to check out their latest release (published earlier this month). It contains a few new controls- SeaDragon control (for Deep Zoom images) and AsyncFileUpload- and a lot of bug fixes. The controls and the source are...everyone now...available for download on CodePlex.
6. Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 - Last but certainly not least (and just publicly revealed), Microsoft is finally releasing a broad, public beta of Visual Studio 2010. Beta 2 will be broadly available tomorrow (Wednesday) and it will be your chance to start playing with all of the goodies in .NET 4.0. VS 2010 also sports a pretty nice visual makeover (new logo below), so unlike the upgrade experiences from VS.NET to VS 2008 ("Okay...looks...the same..."), you'll instantly notice that VS 2k10 is a major upgrade. Details on Hanselman's blog. Download from Microsoft.

And I think that's all for October. I could be wrong. Microsoft is updating at a furious pace as we head towards PDC, so it is tough to keep-up. At the very least, this is a great collection of updates any ASP.NET developer should check-out. Grab the updates from Microsoft and try them out this week...because in a few weeks, you'll have lots of new Telerik code to play with!

TechPath shows-off use of Telerik Silverlight on Telerik TV

For those of you that enjoy seeing "real world" uses of the Telerik RadControls (and, really, who doesn't?), there is a freshly minted Telerik Real World episode now on Telerik TV. In this episode, Michael Petersen from TechPath and Jake Winett from Microsoft show-off a very cool (and very complex) reference application that TechPath built for Microsoft. The application was originally premiered at the NAB 2009 conference, and it represents a push by Microsoft to show how all of its technologies can be combined to create an efficent media workflow.

TechPath turned to Telerik to help deliver the rich UI that this application called for, specifically using the RadControls for Silverlight. TechPath had 8 weeks (!) to build and deliver version one of this application for NAB, so they needed UI components that were easy to use, easy to learn, and provided all of the powerful features they needed out-of-the-box. Check-out the video to see how TechPath used the RadControls for Silverlight to deliver their solution on time and then stay tuned for more great Telerik Real World episodes.

Watch TechPath Real World video on Telerik TV in full resolution

Join me for Silverlight training TODAY (in Houston)

With all the hustle and bustle of the Telerik Q1 release, I forgot to plug my free half-day Silverlight 2.0 training that's happening today at the Microsoft offices in Houston! This four-hour training will cover everything from 101 to 301 and it will be a mix of presentation and hands-on labs (that I've created specifically for this training). The goal is to enable people that have never worked with Silverlight to learn everything they need to know to feel comfortable building "real" applications for themselves with Silverlight 2.0 (3.0 is off-limits for this training). The training will start at 1:00 PM local time and run 'til about 5:00 PM. The official title of this session is ".NET Dojo: Silverlight"- not my title, but it works, especially with the Telerik .NET Ninja motif. If you want to attend, you'll need to register, which you can still do online through Microsoft: http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032405198&Culture=en-US I will be repeating this training in Austin on April 2nd, so if you're in the Austin area, watch for that registration soon. Otherwise, for those of you in driving distance to Houston, I hope to see you in a few hours at the training!

Download Windows 7 public beta today

Did you miss the news? In yesterday's Microsoft CES keynote, Steve Ballmer announced that the first Windows 7 beta will be made publicly available today, January 9th. All you have to do to get your hands on the beta bits is visit Microsoft's Windows 7 website. Now, if you had any doubt that we wouldn't be seeing Windows 7 sooner rather than later in 2009, this should definitely put you on notice. Hopefully Microsoft will do a better job (which all likelihood, they will) than they did with Vista in getting the RTM out the door after Beta 1. As you may recall, it took nearly 18 months for Vista to go from Beta 1 to RTM. Assuming they don't repeat that timeline, we all need to prepare for a Windows 7 world sometime this year. And, if first impressions count, that's not a bad thing. I've had some time to see Windows 7 in action- both at PDC and recently when my brother (who works at Microsoft in Redmond) showed it running on his laptop- and I've got to admit it looks good. It's not "revolutionary," but it's a solid, practical step in the right direction for Windows- similar to the steps Apple has been making for years with OS X. And if the touted improvements in startup, shutdown, and standby time are true, this is definitely an upgrade worth evaluating early. Telerik, clearly, will be working with the Windows 7 betas to ensure all our UI components work with the new OS, and we'll post the news of our tests as the beta period progresses. You can be sure that when the new OS is ready to meet the world, Telerik's components will be ready, too, so you can deliver world class applications. Grab the Windows 7 beta bits now (or as soon as MS enables the download link)

Telerik beats Microsoft to the jQuery punch (barely)

Microsoft let loose some big news on Sunday: in a few weeks time, they will officially be shipping the popular jQuery JavaScript library with Visual Studio! Being a long time user and fan of jQuery, I personally found his announcement very exciting. If you've never used jQuery, you've been missing out. It was the first JavaScript library I used that actually made JavaScript programming fun (an adjective not usually associated with the world's "favorite" scripting language). jQuery makes simple JavaScript animation, DOM querying, CSS manipulation, and so much more so easy and very intuitive. Point: jQuery is great. Microsoft's decision to ship jQuery will not directly affect the framework (MS is not changing or "enhancing" the library), but the attention will definitely help drive jQuery's popularity and in turn its online support. For Microsoft's part, they will be shipping free Visual Studio IntelliSense providers for jQuery in "a few weeks" and then providing "official" Microsoft product support for jQuery later this year. And while the Microsoft announcement is great, Telerik has got even better news! Before Microsoft ever indicated that they would be making this move, Telerik began showing-off jQuery integration with the RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX. Our developers, like Microsoft's, recognized the power of this compact framework and its ability to easily enhance the RadControls. In fact, on Friday (days before the MS announcement) our own .NET Ninja Vladimir Enchev showed you how you can use jQuery to add some neat animations to RadGrid. Imagine our surprise when days later Microsoft made their jQuery announcement! Are our offices bugged?! Either way, we're thrilled Microsoft has officially decided to support jQuery, too, and we're happy to be leading the way for Microsoft and the rest of the ASP.NET AJAX component world. Stay tuned for more details as Q3 draws near!

IE 8 beta 2 available for download

Looking to get your hands on the latest and greatest version of Internet Explorer? Then don't miss the just released update to Microsoft's new IE 8 browser. Now in its second beta, Microsoft unleashed the bits yesterday for general consumption, so you can download them now and start testing your sites in the version of the browser still set to launch officially in Q4 of this year.

There is not much "surprising" news with this release, but there are quite a few enhancements both in performance and features. The most notable new feature is the "InPrivate" browsing mode (similar to Safari's "Private Browsing"), which will probably damage Safari's reputation as the browser of choice for porn. Frankly, I'm surprised Firefox didn't add this feature to FF3, as they are now the outsiders when it comes to providing built-in private browsing.

Speaking of Firefox, it is clear that the IE team now has its sights squarely set on toppling the upstart that challenged its dominance on the web. The latest IE beta includes modern in-line Find (finally!), groupable, color-coded tabs (FF does this with a add-in), and vastly improved developer tools (a la FireBug). Add to this IE's big steps forward in performance and memory management and you start to have a compelling alternative to Firefox. Now, if only it were cross platform...

Either way, the sleeping giant has awakened and I think Mozilla has been put on notice with the latest IE8 beta. What do you think?

Download the IE 8 beta 2 bits now

IE8 Beta 2 Release Notes

Get all the IE 8 details on the IE Team blog

VS 2008 SP1, .NET 3.5 SP1 ready for prime time

What a piece of news for a Monday! Shipping a little earlier that anticipated, Microsoft announced this morning the general availability of Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and .NET 3.5 SP1. These major updates to the .NET developer tools are already available for download from Microsoft's website, so I encourage you to grab them now. If you've been paying attention, you know that the SP1 beta shipped almost three months ago, and at the time I warned early adopters to beware. In theory, Microsoft has used the time since then to respond to all of the beta feedback and problems, so today's release should make it possible for everyone to start enjoying the new stuff in SP1 (which I also detailed when the beta dropped). And since I know many of you wont take the time to go back and review what's in SP1, here are just a few highlights:

• New ASP.NET URL Routing Engine (from MVC)
• New ASP.NET Dynamic Data framework
• ADO.NET Entity Framework (yay?)
• ADO.NET Data Services
• SQL Server 2008 support
• Real-time C# error checking

If you want a more complete list, you've got to review my old post. The point, though, is this: this is way more than a typical SP release, so don't miss out on all of the new tools at your finger tips. And if you hit any problems, let us know! Download VS 2008 SP1 Download VS 2008 Express Editions w/ SP1 Download .NET 3.5 SP1 NOTE: Credit to Kevin for beating me to the punch!

Microsoft releases (big) ASP.NET AJAX road map

Microsoft has just published a new, huge road map for ASP.NET AJAX. I know?! After all of this time being fed bits and pieces from many different sources to stitch together ASP.NET AJAX, it turns out there is actually a road map for these features and tools. Or, at least there is now. The published road map is loaded (clocks-in at 13 pages) with interesting ideas and proposals for ASP.NET AJAX v-Next and beyond, so I highly encourage you to take a minute to review it if you're an ASP.NET developer. If you're short on time, though, I've done the reading for you and here are some highlights:

• MS is going to bring some order to the release schedule of ASP.NET AJAX, it's tools, and it's controls by moving towards more "normal" CTP, Beta, RC release events
• MS is going to add many features to its client-side scripting libraries, further imitating the features of libraries like jQuery. CSS DOM selectors, Chainable DOM generation, and CSS-based event targeting are all proposed enhancements.
• MS is going to add "flexible" drag & drop and animation frameworks to the client libraries (a la jQuery, YUI, etc.)
• MS is going to build client-side data source controls (!) to enable complete client-side data operations. The controls will have corresponding server controls for easy setup.
• MS is going to invest heavily in the Ajax Control Toolkit with plans to add more complex controls in to the suite. Proposed controls include (quoted from road map):
• Grid: a client-side, templated grid control with client-side sorting, paging, and editing
• Treeview: a client-side, tempalted and web-service aware tree with a full client-side object model
• Upload: an upload control that works outside of full postbacks with progress monitoring
• Rich Text Editor: a simple, cross-browser and extensible rich text editor
• Chart: simple and extensible charting, possibly based on Silverlight
  
• MS is going to ensure ASPNET AJAX compatibiliy with ASPNET MVC and other non-Microsoft Ajax frameworks/client-side libraries
• MS is going to deliver a number of improved JavaScript dev tools, including improved IntelliSense and new JavaScript Build Tools (to aggreage, minify, etc. JS code at build time).

This obviously isn't everything from the 13-page road map, but rather a Reader's Digest version. On the surface, Microsoft's goals look ambitious, but they certainly sound like they'll benefit the ASP.NET developer community if met. And while most of the plans in the new road map represent v-Next ambitions, Microsoft isn't aiming to deliver everything covered ASP.NET AJAX v-Next. The following chart summarizes Microsoft's high-level release goals.


You can see that the client-side UI controls are "last" on the list right now, and everything is at least "likely" to make v-Next. As a component vendor, I find it interesting that Microsoft is choosing to wade-in more heavily to what has traditionally be a 3rd party supplied UI market. While 3rd parties like Telerik will leverage their agility and close relationship with customers to always build richer, higher performance, and more complete UI controls than Microsoft, you can never ignore a move like this that creates a "free option" from the creator of the framework. Time will tell if this is a good move for Microsoft or not.

In the mean time, what do you think? Should Microsoft try to deliver more advanced controls like client-side Grids and Treeviews or should they leave that to 3rd parties? Also, what do you think of Microsoft's ambitious plans for ASP.NET AJAX? Sound-off in the comments and don't forget to give Microsoft some feedback, too!

Read the ASP.NET AJAX Road Map now

Windows 7 (barely) demoed, Gates and Ballmer reflect

Despite all of the press surrounding Windows Vista, the Redmond crew is pushing forward and moving the conversation officially (if ever so slightly) on to Windows 7. In a special interview with the Wall Street Journal tonight, Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates took the stage to retell stories of Microsoft's early days and give a super-early preview demo of Windows 7. Engadget provided the live-blogging of the event, so if you're interested in the play-by-play rundown of what happened, check them out. For this audience, I think the Windows 7 portion of the evening is of the greatest interest.

Unfortunately, the "small little snippet" of Windows 7 shown-off by Ballmer tonight does little inspire on the software side of life. The demo primarily focused on new support for multi-touch in Windows 7, a feature in my opinion largely driven by hardware. And unless we all start swapping out our 24"+ monitors out for touch-capable screens, this isn't a feature that many of us will use. Similar to Ink's usage in the still tepid tablet pc market. (UPDATE: A video of this feature is already available online (posted earlier today), so check it out if you're interested.)

Still, if we are to accept that Windows can drive future computing trends, here's what we have to look forward to in the Windows 7 era (still on target to ship "3 years from Vista general availability"- in other words, early 2010): heavy focus on alternative input techniques- multi-touch, voice, ink, et cetera. And sadly, that's about all we can glean from tonight's demo. No talk of radically changing UIs (other than to accomodate aforementioned multi-touch). No talk of the once heralded WinFX file system. No talk of tighter "cloud integration."

Does that mean those things aren't coming in Windows 7? Of course not! In fact, based on the demos, I think tonight's stunt was largely Microsoft's effort to make it clear to the world that they thought of multi-touch in the OS before Apple makes it even more pervasive than it is today in OS X. They're trying to stem the "you copied Apple" criticism that Vista suffered around the time of its launch. Will the stunt work? I guess we'll find out in about 18 months.

For a better explanation of what Windows 7 will look like and why Microsoft is being more tight-lipped than usual about its development, check-out a post on the Windows Vista blog published today by Chris Flores. In short, despite tonight's public stunt, Microsoft still isn't ready to publicly talk about Windows 7- at least not beyond its support for new input techniques.

Microsoft CodePlex now using RadEditor

It has been a lot of fun to start sharing with you over the last few months the work that Microsoft is doing to using the RadControls on their various sites. Today I get to share another exciting Microsoft implementation. The CodePlex Wiki is now using the RadEditor on all Project Discussion pages. The Editor implementation is relatively simple, but it makes the process of adding formatted content to the CodePlex discussions much more intuitive. If you're an active user of this community resource, hopefully you'll enjoy the improvement!

We're all very excited at Telerik to be able to keep providing you with these great "real world" examples of our controls in action. I've said it before, but it's worth re-iterating: awards and trophies are great, but solid real world uses of the RadControls on huge, high-volume sites like MSDN, TechNet, and CodePlex are much better proof the quality of the work we're doing. If our tools are the choice for some of the most active sites on the web, there is no question they can support the demands of your next project.

In fact, do you have any cool implementations of the RadControls you want me to feature? I'd love to show-off your work with the broader community, so if you have a public site that features the RadControls that you want me to highlight, send an email to todd[dot]anglin[at]telerik[dot]youknowwhat. You may just find your site as the next great "real world example" of the RadControls featured on this blog!

[Note: To see the RadEditor on CodePlex, simply visit a project page and then start a new Discussion. You must be logged-in to do this.]

VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 SP1 beta now available, Early adopters beware

Have you been eagerly waiting for the first round of service packs for Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5? If you haven't, then you are probably unaware of all the new features these service packs are delivering. These are aren't "standard" SPs that ship mostly invisible improvements and hotfix roll-ups. No, these SPs are shipping so many new features that it took the blogging powerhouse ScottGu a little over 4,000 words to describe them all. And since I expect many of you don't have the time to pour through a 4,000 word blog post, let me summarize the highlights of these betas (an impending final releases) here:

• .NET 3.5 SP1
• New! ASP.NET Dynamic Data (scaffolding support)
• New! ASP.NET Routing Engine (URL routing ripped from MVC)
• ASP.NET AJAX History Support (Fix back button, Support bookmarks)
• ASP.NET AJAX Script Combining (combine any JavaScript files on the server)
• Client and web performance improvements
• Client apps cold starting up to 40% faster
• ASP.NET apps improving throughput up to 10%
• New! WinForms Controls (go figure...)
• Including VectorShape, DataRepeater, PrintForm
• New! WPF Extensible Shader Effects
• Hardware accelerated visual effects (like DropShadow, Blur, etc.)
• Tons of WPF performance improvements
• New! ADO.NET Entity Framework and LinqToEntities
• Can be used with any database, not just SQL Server!
• New! ADO.NET Data Services (formerly "Astoria")
• REST-based data service support
  
• Visual Studio 2008 SP1
• Improved IntelliSense support for multiple JavaScript/Ajax frameworks
• HTML Designer and Source view performance improvements
• Improved WPF project and designer support and performance
• In other words, WPF development experience is much improved
  
• New! ADO.NET Entity Framework designer
• Looks like LinqToSql designer
  
• Improved C# real-time error checking (more red squiggly errors sans-compile)
• Um...finally!
• Complete support for SQL Server 2008

Clearly, a lot is packed-in to these updates. If you weren't eager to install these SPs before, you're probably a little more excited now that you know what they're bringing to the table. But before you run off to volunteer as a guinea pig for these freshly baked service packs, there are a few serious "issues" with these betas you should consider:

1. If you're using Vista, you must have SP1 installed.
2. You need to uninstall the VS 2008 Tools for Silverlight 2 Beta
• A compatible version of the tools will be available in a "few weeks"
3. You need to install a new "special" version of Expression Blend
• The "special" version addresses a temporary problem in .NET 3.5 SP1 that will go away in the final release, at which point you'll need to reinstall Expression Blend...again.

If those aren't deal breakers for you, then take a minute to read ScottGu's post and follow the download link to grab all of the new bits. For everyone else that would prefer to wait for more stable bits, look for the final release of these service packs "this summer."

Microsoft using Telerik RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX

Often- well, maybe not "often," but every now and then- I hear criticism that goes something like this: "Yeah, your UI controls look cool and work well in your simple little demo apps, but where can I see them working in the real world?!" It's a fair critique. After all, nobody at Telerik is ignorant to the fact that the applications you're building with our controls are much more complex than the demos we usually put out there. Largely this is to keep the demos simple enough to still be usable as learning tools (imagine trying to use your massive project as a learning tool......), but still, no excuses! You want some real-world proof that our controls really are the best out there!

I'm pleased to announce that after a number of month's of work, Microsoft has begun rolling out Telerik's RadControls for ASP.NET AJAX on its MSDN and TechNet websites. How's that for real world use?!

In this initial roll-out, Microsoft has replaced the rich text editor in their Wiki Annotation feature (used to add and edit Community Content in the MSDN and TechNet libraries) with the RadEditor for ASP.NET AJAX. If you ever add Community Content on the MSDN and TechNet websites in the future, you'll be using the RadEditor. To see the RadEditor in action, you will need to login to the MSDN or TechNet website with your LiveID. The partnership with Microsoft is also benefiting the RadEditor for all Telerik customers as we work hard to add features and maximize performance with Microsoft's valuable feedback.

So while survey-based awards and niche industry awards are good to have on your shelf, being able to point to your controls as Microsoft's choice for UI components on MSDN and TechNet (I think you'll agree) is much more valuable. Watch for more great announcements stemming from this partnership in the future, and in the mean time, enjoy developing with the tools the guys and gals in Redmond use.

Tons of IE8 details from Microsoft (update)

One of the big announcements at MIX last week was the official release of IE8 beta 1. The beta marks the real beginning to Microsoft opening-up about their next browser version and breaks the painful silence suffered through most of 2007. And now that the seal has been broken, the members of the IE Team are wasting no time in telling you everything about the new features in the browser.

If you're not subscribed to the IE Team Blog (and based on the running poll results, you're probably not), you're missing a lot of info describing IE8's new features like WebSlices, Activities, and LCIE (Loosely-Coupled IE). Since this info should be very important to those of you developing for the web, here are some direct links to posts from the IE Team I think are important to review (in reverse chronological order):

• IE8 and Loosely-Coupled IE (LCIE)
• Address Bar Improvements in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1
• Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 for Developers – Standards Highlights
• Improved Productivity Through Internet Explorer 8 Developer Tools
• The Default Layout Mode
• Activities and WebSlices in Internet Explorer 8

Clearly, no shortage of reading material on the IE Team Blog. One of the more interesting points to note is that IE8 will render in standards mode by default. This is a change from the Team's position several weeks ago (which I blogged about) and it means you will need to make sure your sites work with IE8 standards mode soon. If you don't want to bring your site up to standards mode compliance, you can now use the new X-UA-Compatible meta tag to tell IE8 to render your site in IE7 mode. The passive behavior will now promote standards, which is a good move according many "web expert" opinions. Don't let it catch you off-guard.

So enjoy the beta and make sure you start preparing your sites for the new version of the world's (still) dominant browser. In my casual review of Telerik's ASP.NET components in IE8 beta 1, I do not see any major problems. Telerik will, of course, provide complete support for IE8 when it is released, but even in early beta stages you should find your Telerik controls work well in IE8 standards and IE7 emulation mode. We're just that good <wink>.

UPDATE: A quick correction about IE8 compatibility with the RadControls. Currently, there are a few issues with IE8 standards mode that are negatively affecting RadGrid and RadMenu. These issues are due to missing features of the IE8 table DOM and the bad handling of overlays and animations in IE8. Also, according to Telerik's devs, IE8 seems to have a major glitch with Sys.UI.DomElement.getLocation that is negatively affecting all absolutely positioned elements. All Telerik online demos are currently forcing IE7 emulation mode in IE8, so you won't see these problems online. Hopefully the IE8 team will address these problems in the next beta and we can enable true IE8 rendering support at that time.

Global Launch Wave starts today, "Dynamic IT" is the theme (update)

Did you forget? Today is the official beginning to the much hyped Microsoft Global Launch Wave designed to "introduce" the world to Visual Studio 2008, Windows Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008. As I type this post, Mr. Ballmer is blaring on my laptop speakers via the live web cast coverage of his West Coast keynote, doing his best to put a good face on the "2008 brand" products. There is not really much new being shared- at least not yet- and even Ballmer acknowledged during his prepared remarks that the Internet has changed the nature of product launch keynotes since so much is known before products are "officially" introduced.

To be completely honest, it is a little hard to focus on writing this post with his presentation running in the background, so I apologize if the writing is a little disjoint. For now, I'll watch the remainder of the keynote and update this post if any new or exciting details are shared. If you hurry, you can catch the last 30 minutes of the live web cast, too, and enjoy some Ballmer antics today. Yay...

UPDATE: The keynote is over and, as expected, there is not much new to report. What I am excited to mention, though, is that Telerik's Silverlight controls were in the Ballmer keynote! I won't say where, for now, but after MIX next week I'll share the full story. Until then, you'll have to try to figure it out on your own...sorry.

Visual Studio 2008 "officially" released

Apparently somebody on Microsoft's marketing team failed to actually talk to the Visual Studio, Windows, and SQL Server teams and explain to them that a "simultaneous software release" meant everything would ship at the same time. Announced today in an email I received from Microsoft, Visual Studio 2008 is now officially available in all distribution channels- volume licensing, retail, and MSDN downloads. Of course, many developers have been working with VS 2008 since November when the RTM bits were published to MSDN, so this news is for those of you that don't have access to MSDN and missed all of the VS 2008 InstallerFests (and for those of you just interested in seeing Visual Studio's new retail packaging...oooh...).

But back to my original point. The big, fancy worldwide launch wave kicks-off in about a month in Los Angeles and right now it's shaping up to be more of a Windows Server 2008 launch event (assuming it doesn't get delayed again). Couldn't the "official" VS 2008 release have waited 30 more days to help the event somewhat live up to its original billing? Guess not. Enjoy retail bits!

Shocker: SQL Server 2008 delayed

I didn't see this one coming. Microsoft announced today (Friday) that SQL Server 2008, originally due to ship in Q2, will now ship in Q3! Now in most cases this would hardly be news; Microsoft announces and delays products religiously. But what makes this announcement of particular interest is that SQL Server 2008 was slated to be one of the three pillars in the "biggest concurrent software release ever" kicking-off late next month. The Global Launch Wave was to feature VS 2008, SQL Server 2008, and Windows Server 2008.

So let's review. Of the three big products due to "launch" next month, one shipped really early (Visual Studio), one will ship really late (SQL Server), and (presumably) Windows Server will be the only product that ships "on time" at the launch (though it has already been delayed from 2007 to 2008). Somehow it hardly seems fair to call this the biggest concurrent release of business software anymore.

To be fair, Microsoft will be shipping a new release candidate of SQL Server 2008 at the big launch event, so it won't be a total no-show. The take-away: if you were planning on using SQL Server 2008 this spring/summer, your plans have changed.

Microsoft: WinForms here to stay...for now

As promised, here is the shocking news that is starting to come to light. When Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 start shipping in a few weeks, Microsoft won't be recommending that companies use WPF to build applications. No, they'll be recommending that people building new LoB (Line of Business) apps (a.k.a. business apps) use the tried and true WinForms technology to get the job done. WPF won't be explicitly discouraged, per se. Instead WPF will be encouraged as the platform for "rich experience apps" and WinForms will get the nod for everything else...from Microsoft.

If that doesn't surprise you, then you've probably missed what seems like at least a year's worth of "WinForms is dead" "don't start any new development in WinForms" discussion in the industry. It will be very interesting to see how this increasingly public position from Microsoft will affect the adoption rate of WPF in business development and how the component industry will react. Microsoft claims this is not a new position and consistent with the messages they've been sending, and based on the details in the WPF paper they promoted technically they're right. In fact, for many months Microsoft has been saying "use the best technology and integrate" (meaning build with WinForms and integrate WPF), it just seems that message is finally starting to sink in.

So what does this news mean? Does it mean the tools in Visual Studio 2008 aren't really ready for full scale WPF development? Does it mean WPF itself (or at least with its current out of the box tools) is not ready for business development? I'll let you draw your own conclusions on those points, but it definitely does mean that WinForms development is here to stay for at least another couple of years. Sound off and let me know what you think of this news in the comments.

Silverlight 1.0 released, 1.1 alpha refreshed

Brad Abrams must have had some fresh milk in his refrigerator when he predicted on August 25th that Silverlight 1.0 would be released before the milk in our frigs expired. Either way, three days later than I predicted, we finally have an official Silverlight 1.0 release. The release itself does not contain many surprises, but Microsoft did make some interesting revelations today.

First, Silverlight 1.1 alpha has been refreshed and new alpha bits are now available. Yes, that's right. Alpha bits. Microsoft is still tight lipped about when Silverlight 1.1 will ship, but with references to many more "refreshes" this year I expect we're starting to look in to 2008. Hopefully you didn't plan on doing an .NET development with Silverlight this year.

Second, Microsoft announced a formal partnership with Novell (see where this is going) and a project called Moonlight that will bring Silverlight to Linux. Based on Mono, Moonlight will enable JavaScript and .NET Silverlight development on Linux, further enabling the Silverlight plug-in to gain universal distribution. How long did it take Flash to support Linux? Along these lines, Microsoft will also develop the Silverlight Media Codecs for Linux so the media experience is the same on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

So there you have it. After months of waiting and small refreshes, 1.0 has finally shipped. Download the new bits, check out some early adopters, and then back to the waiting game for 1.1.

exclusive: Silverlight 1.0 getting official this week

At today's Houston TechFest, Microsoft's Brad Abrams was the keynote speaker and he delivered what has become (more or less) the standard Silverlight overview presentation. He showed off Silverlight applications running on his Mac PowerBook and showed off the incredible new media capabilities that Silverlight is aiming to provide in the near future. If you've seen a Microsoft delivered overview on Silverlight before, then you pretty much know what was covered in this keynote (the Airlines demo, the chess demo, etc.).

But the one question on everyone's mind is when will all of this Silverlight stuff officially be released (you do remember that even Silverlight 1.0 has yet to be released, don't you?). While Brad claimed that the "people" at Microsoft would not let him provide exact dates, he did provide a juicy clue that indicates Silverlight 1.0 will be officially released within the next week. As Brad put it today, "Silverlight 1.0 will be released before the milk in you refrigerator goes bad." I don't know about the milk you buy, but milk that's in my frig now will probably expire in about a week, maybe two.

Brad seemed very eager to share (dang corporate shackles), so I'd be inclined to think his "hint" meant we'll see the official release of Silverlight 1.0 this week. "So what?" you say. As Brad put it again, the official release of Silverlight 1.0 marks the beginning of the Silverlight adoption clock. Partners that have "real" applications built on Silverlight- like MLB and Fox- will begin to turn on their new Silverlight services with the official release and we'll finally start seeing adoption of the Silverlight plug-in outside of the group of early-adopters (a.k.a. Microsoft developers)- a critical step in the evolution of Silverlight if it is to compete with Flash's 98% global adoption.

So there you have it. Silverlight 1.0 will (most likely) be officially released this week and you heard it here first.