That means that WPF
applications can only be used on computers running the Windows operating system (specifically,
Windows XP or Windows Vista). Browser-based WPF applications are similarly
limited??”they can run only on Windows computers, although they support both the Internet
Explorer and Firefox browsers.
These restrictions won??™t change??”after all, part of Microsoft??™s goal with WPF is to take
advantage of the rich capabilities of Windows computers and its investment in technologies
such as DirectX. However, there is a separate technology named Silverlight that??™s designed to
take a subset of the WPF platform, host it in any modern browser using a plug-in (including
Firefox, Opera, and Safari), and open it up to other operating systems (such as Linux and
Mac OS). This is an ambitious project that??™s attracted considerable developer interest.
To make matters more interesting, Silverlight currently exists in two versions:
??? Silverlight 1.0. This first release includes 2-D drawing features, animation, and media
playback features that are similar to those in WPF. However, Silverlight 1.0 has no support
for the .NET Framework or the C# and Visual Basic languages??”instead, you must
use JavaScript code.
??? Silverlight 2.0. This second release adds a pared-down version of the .NET Framework,
complete with a miniature CLR that??™s hosted by the browser plug-in and a small subset
of essential .
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