Accelerated Silverlight 2 will get you up to speed with the latest version of Silverlight quickly and efficiently. Author Jeff Scanlon assumes you’re already comfortable with the basics of .NET coding and with WPF, and they help you build on your existing knowledge to make your journey to Silverlight 2 proficiency as quick and painless as possible. Where coding techniques are similar to other, more established, areas of .NET, they’ll say so. Likewise, where there’s a syntax or conceptual “gotcha” that you’re existing coding habits will walk you into, they’ll point that out, too.

You’ll find fast–track coverage of all the most important elements of the Silverlight 2 technology ranging from XAML to standard controls, from dealing with media to networking, from testing to deployment. Two fully worked sample applications conclude your path to Silverlight 2 mastery because nothing reinforces your understanding of how concepts fit together as much as looking at finished code.

The book is based on the assumption that readers will already be very comfortable with the workings of the .NET Framework. Knowledge of Expression Blend is useful, but the authors don’t assume that you’re a master of it. You’ll learn the Blend techniques that you need to know as you go along. By the end of the book, the authors will have provided you with a sound, concise, path to mastery of Silverlight 2.
What you’ll learn

* Emigrate your existing .NET skills to Silverlight 2 as quickly as possible.
* Learn everything you need to know to start developing quality Silverlight 2 applications with confidence.
* Explore techniques and best practices in code–heavy case studies that you can relate to.


Who is this book for

This book is for .NET developers, whether they are already using .NET 3.5 or are in the process of migrating up from .NET 2.0. The book aims to ease people’s migration paths as much as possible. The authors include notes to highlight important features of .NET 3.5 that people need to be aware of and also to highlight where Silverlight’s working and syntax differs substantially than that of WPF.