At the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference in October, the company indicated that it might be changing the focus of Silverlight, causing some to worry that the technology would be phased out in favor of HTML. In a move to help set its record straight, Microsoft staged an all-day developer event called the Silverlight Firestarter Dec. 1.

Silverlight is a platform for creating and delivering rich Internet applications and media experiences on the Web. Silverlight 5 will build on the foundation of Silverlight 4 for building business applications, premium media applications and applications that reach beyond the browser, Microsoft says.

According to Microsoft, Silverlight 5 will introduce more than 40 new features. These include support for running Silverlight applications with desktop features in the browser, enhanced video quality and performance improvements, and other features "that improve developer productivity."

Silverlight 5 offers improved media support and rich UI capabilities, including the ability to tap into GPUs (graphics processing units) for H.264 decoding, improving high-definition video on lower-power devices, says Microsoft. A TrickPlay feature allows video to be played at twice normal speed, while pitch correction preserves audio intelligibility, the company adds.

Microsoft adds that Silverlight 5's improved power awareness prevents a screen saver from cropping up while video is being played, and also allows a computer to sleep when video is not active. Remote-control support will allow users to control media playback, and DRM (digital rights management) advances enable "seamless switching" between DRM media sources.

Meanwhile, for business application development, Silverlight 5 supports the creation of "next-generation" business apps, with a smoother, more fluid user interface. Inter-Layout Transitions enable developers to specify animations to apply when elements are added, removed or re-ordered within a layout. This provides smoother user experiences when, for example, items are inserted into a list, according to the company.

Microsoft says the next version of Silverlight will also feature improvements that make it possible to build rich magazine-style text layouts, including:

• multicolumn text and linked text container allow text to flow around other elements
• tracking/leading to provide full creative control of precisely how far apart each character is
• improved text clarity via pixel snapping
• improved text layout performance
• enhanced OpenType support

Performance improvements

Performance has also been improved in Silverlight 5, Microsoft claims. Enhancements include reduced network latency thanks to a background thread for networking; Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) parser improvements that speed up startup and runtime performance; and support for 64-bit operating systems.

Graphics improvements include a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) accelerated 3D application programming interface (API), an immediate mode graphics API that allows direct rendering to the GPUs, and hardware acceleration that is enabled in windowless mode with Internet Explorer 9, says Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Silverlight 5 will also support WS-Trust support for message security. This means messages are encrypted at the Windows Communication Foundation level using Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) authentication tokens, the company says.

Indeed, Silverlight offers a new class of trusted applications that brings desktop capabilities to the browser for the first time, according to Microsoft. said. These features, when enabled via a group policy registry key and an application certificate, mean users will not need to leave the browser to perform complex tasks.

According to Microsoft, Silverlight 5 applications will be able to:

• host HTML content as a Web browser control within the Silverlight application
• read and write files to the users My Documents folder, making it easier to find media files or create local copies of reports
• launch Microsoft Office and other desktop programs, such as Outlook or Word
• access devices -- security card readers or barcode scanners, for example -- and other system capabilities by calling application COM components
• provide a full screen mode with full keyboard support
• call existing unmanaged code directly from within Silverlight with PInvoke

Meanwhile, Telerik -- a maker of tools for building .NET- and Microsoft technology-based applications -- announced the official release of Silverbook, a Microsoft Silverlight-based client application for Facebook. This was formerly released by Microsoft as Microsoft Silverlight Client for Facebook Beta in early 2010.

Telerik says it will take over the application from Microsoft and continue to further its evolution and support as a free tool for the public. Silverbook is touted as providing "unique" features such as access to a device's video camera and drag-and-drop from the local file system. New features in the official release include instant loading and smooth scrolling of the Facebook wall, notifications and chat, the company added.

Further information

According to Microsoft, the Silverlight 5 beta will be available sometime in the first half of 2011, and will released to the web later in the year. More information will be available at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight, the company adds.

For on-demand viewing of presentations from the Firestarter event, see Microsoft's website, here.

Darryl K. Taft is a writer for eWEEK.

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