Silverlight Mac OSX Desktop Application
NYTimes has released a Mac OS version of their desktop application Times Reader, so I decided to install it and here’s what I saw …
WO ! .. Silverlight for a desktop application? .. I continue installing and get it running and to my surprise it does in fact use Silverlight …
You can read a detailed description of the Application here on The New York Times blog, this is what they say about the technology used ..
Times Reader for the Mac is a native Cocoa application, which uses the Safari toolkit and Silverlight to render the pages.
Now this is not a new approach in the Flash world, but I think this is the first time it has been done with Silverlight.
In the process the guys at NYTimes were able to create a framework that does a lot of what AIR does .. native window, file read write, same code for web app and desktop app etc etc. This is very intriguing because if Microsoft decides to build upon this approach they could come with an equivalent of AIR that can run Silverlight based desktop applications across platforms. Of course, they do not need something like this for Windows since conceptually a Silverlight app could be compiled to run on Windows desktops, but this could be an interesting approach for them to take on other platforms. What do you think?
May 28th, 2008
you have quite a good knowledge of adobe products
May 28th, 2008
Hi mrinal,
Good info given, iam wondering about one thing why Abdul is not making any post at his blog ?, i asked this because you know about Abdul well i suppose.Is he fine ?.
Just wanted to know if he is fine.
regards,
kumar.
May 29th, 2008
@kumar thanks, sorry for disappointing by not posting in last two months. I am doing well, just0taking a break with family. I would soon be active on blog and flex groups.
Thanks, really appreciate this.
Thanks Mrinal for informing about this comment.
-abdul
via mobile
May 29th, 2008
@Abdul .. enjoy the well deserved break !
May 29th, 2008
Hey,
Does this mean that the Adobe Air vs Microsoft Silverlight campaign is not valid anymore?
May 30th, 2008
Hi Balaji,
That’s a good question … AIR != Silverlight is still very much valid .. the above example is just an example of an approach Microsoft could take if they intend to build something like AIR … Flash Player was embedded in applications in a similar way long before AIR came around, but AIR’s true strength is in masking the complexities involved in the process of making native applications. In the above NYTimes application desktop abilities are provided by the native code written around silverlight and not silverlight itself
May 30th, 2008
Hi Abdul ,
Enjoy your break ! and do come back soon , awaiting posts from your blog.
regards,
kumar.