[Mono-list] What features would be missed when developing

[Jacobo Polavieja]

Engler, Eric wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA256
>
>   
>> I've seen the impressive NYTimes reader that was done in WPF running 
>>     
> equally well on Silverlight
>
> I doubt if the NY Times app could work on Silverlight but I'd like to
> have a link for that if you have one. You may have been looking at a WPF
> Browser Application (XBAP), which is quite different. A WPF Browser
> application uses the full WPF stack on the client machine except that it
> runs in a security sandbox. Or you might have been looking at a Click
> Once WPF application.
>
> Silverlight itself has very poor text support, and it's generally quite
> weak across the board. It has streaming video and simple animations, but
> almost none of the features you'd need to a typical business
> application. The number of controls it has right now is extremely small.
>
> Of course it will get better over time. Mono's Moonlight may have
> trouble keeping up unless WPF will be implemented in Mono at some point.
> The main reason Mono's Moonlight works today is because there's only a
> small amount of WPF functionality in Silverlight at this time. Unlike
> the way Silverlight is implemented on Windows, Moonlight sits on top of
> Mono on the client. So linux client machines need Mono in order to use
> Moonlight.
>
> Eric
>
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: PGP Universal 2.6.2
> Charset: us-ascii
>
> wsBVAwUBRu6rYMhfyUs+le7yAQhmsQf+MANl0tKf68DHeQKgS8Zl96AIQk5Shqwe
> 5JACW038u71E0cgIvH+pKI75AwLGoQW5XHljuxSGfSCe5NTDqNcTz+4mlfk9UcsA
> H5t413zDQGm4u4I5dSOX/E8J00beYmg+z3RnZaAzSDWXJcSgjl0UDIlYYfHatWRR
> awb7zGZpmjiZTesrxizqj8d/Q5svudzPF6bdlqvF56lMqRgi+igxNMlvAPIgA6By
> LjxaAOZcx9soLcfMQaCpi3KhPzWbELSiOx2J9CD0L2aQQXV3rLgimzNi/3S5c5hc
> DjszmTxroh+YfSB8BUkOqvUk+yNXGeuseui70n4ZVbOSEhGSsmFSbA==
> =4L7V
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> _______________________________________________
> Mono-list maillist  -  Mono-list at lists.ximian.com
> http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/mono-list
>
>   
They claim it's Silverlight, not XBAP or ClickOnce. It actually works on 
a Mac.
Here's the link: 
http://www.visitmix.com/Blogs/Joshua/new-york-times-reader-in-silverlight/

Interesting thing (and counterpoint) is that the text placement is done 
on the server and goes to the client. Counterpoint is... I don't if that 
will use something Mono doesn't plan to implement. It's like having a 
part of WPF that's not included on Silverlight and taking advantage of 
it on the later. Sad thing is... it makes Silverlight not so 
cross-platforms as it uses WPF on the background and you still would 
need to have a Windows running it server-side (supposing my affirmation 
is right).

The thing about the right button click is also something problematic for 
the desktop... I guess the dream will have to wait and we still can't 
have the same application everywhere (using it from your desktop and on 
the web).

Implementing WPF is sooo much work... Seeing all the features it has, 
wow, I can't even think the amount of time it could get.

Cheers!