Introduction

Hello everyone,

This blog will be a place for me to discuss the newest technology that web designers and developers may adopt. For the next several weeks I am going to be exploring Microsoft Silverlight development using Microsoft Expressions Blend.

A little about myself - I am a 28 year old web designer who has been using flash since Macromedia Flash v.3. I consider myself to be very versed in Action Script 1 and 2, but am not looking forward to learning another iteration of AS. Instead I want to focus on learning a language that will not be gone next year. I have a feeling that XAML may be just what I am looking for.

Over the past couple of years my Flash projects have become more dynamic as I began using external XML files to load elements into my applications. I was very happy in my actionscript 2 world within Macromedia Flash 8, but this turned out to be a short lived existence. I have gotten my feet wet with the new Flash CS3 application as well as the Expressions Blend Pre Release 2, and have to say that I am far more impressed with the Microsoft Product. Believe me when I say that I am just as shocked as you that I am publicly giving kudos to the same company that brought us such gems as Frontpage.

So grab a cup of coffee, sit back and read the trials, tribulations, and successes of techno-tony's adventures in Silverlight!