WPF and Silverlight...and a few Flash tidbits

I realized at the meeting yesterday I needed a clear explanation of what WPF is and how it relates to Silverlight. Wikipedia has a nice, straightforward write-up:

The Windows Presentation Foundation (or WPF), formerly code named Avalon, is the graphical subsystem feature of the .NET Framework 3.0 (formerly called WinFX)[1] and is directly related to XAML.[2] It is pre-installed in Vista,[3] the latest version of the Microsoft Windows operating system. WPF is also available for installation on Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. It provides a consistent programming model for building applications and provides a clear separation between the UI and the business logic. A WPF application can be deployed on the desktop or hosted in a web browser. It also enables richer control, design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs. It aims to unify a host of application services: user interface, 2D and 3D drawing, fixed and adaptive documents, advanced typography, vector graphics, raster graphics, animation, data binding, audio and video.

Microsoft Silverlight is a web-based subset of WPF. During development it was named WPF/E, which stood for "Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere". Silverlight is based on XAML and JScript. The Silverlight subset enables Flash-like web and mobile applications with the same code as Windows .NET applications. 3D features are not supported, but XPS, vector-based drawing and hardware acceleration are included.

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As long as I’m mentioning Silverlight, here is a blog entry from   Ted Patrick (Flex/MAX Evangelist)

 

“It has been 4 years since Microsoft started talking about "Sparkle" and 2 years since unveiling WPF/E at MIX '06. Microsoft shipped Silverlight 1.0 today. It's great to have such a large company trying to compete with Adobe Flash Player.”

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One last tangent: Lee Brimelow is joining Adobe as a Platform Evangelist.