I have seen the PDC sessions and some great stuff is coming down the pipe from Microsoft with regards to their Cloud / Mobile / Web / etc... strategy.  Going through the different sessions from keynote to specific topics, there was great information shown with regards to HTML 5 and the headway IE9 has made in this space (from performance to possibilities).  That being said, there was also a lack of discussion around Silverlight in general as to how this technology is strategic to Microsoft's execution of their strategy and where this technology fills the gap.  Of course, there were sound bites and sprinkles across the spectrum, but I think the biggest mistake (to some folks) was not utilizing the Keynote to drive home its importance. 

 I have read some of the post discussions around what Microsoft is now doing with Silverlight.  Honestly, I watched the keynote and most of the sessions and kind of found some of these post comments pretty humorous.  They ranged from level headed discussions all the way to over the top (Silverlight is dead) and cited different pieces/ sound bites from the keynote.  I am the co-founder of the .NET User Group in Lafayette, LA and had one of our passionate members describe the end of Silverlight.  Won't go into detail about the discussion but the gist is there is no need to interpret the intent from Microsoft and I firmly believe that this technology will be around for a while.  What the future holds remains to be seen.  Reminds me of the recent Microsoft commercial - Thinking to myself (Really).

 Anyway, I was pleased to see some announcements from Microsoft clarifying their position on the subject (Thank You!). 

• Statement from Bob Muglia (President of the Server and Tools Division at Microsoft)
• Scott Gu discussing the state of Silverlight with John Papa
• Robby Ingebrestsen describing Silverlight and HTML5 and your Future
• Steve Ballmer - PDC Thoughts

Looking forward to the new features that will be coming out in Silverlight 5 and to new features being developed to standardize and push HTML 5 from its current infancy status to prime time in 2 or 4 or 6 years :)  All joking aside, I am excited about HTML 5 and what it has to offer to compliment other web technologies.

Regards,

Carlos

I have noticed several questions regarding how to add the SL toolkit to Visual Studio 2008 or Expression Blend 2.  There are a lot of posts out there that show how to do one or another but sometimes we work in both applications and need to add it to both.  Here it goes:

 You first have to download the Silverlight Toolkit.

1. Download the latest release of the Silverlight Toolkit -- December 2008
2. Unzip the file and extract to a location on your OS (e.g. D:\Projects\Silverlight\Source\Silverlight Toolkit\December 2008

How to add the Silverlight Toolkit to Visual Studio 2008 Toolbox

Note: You can add the controls anywhere in the Toolbox.  I will create a new tab (Silverlight Toolkit) for this example.

1. Right click in the Toolbox and select Add Tab then name it Silverlight Toolkit.
2. Right click in the empty space of the Silverlight Toolkit Tab and select choose items.
3. Select the Silverlight Components tab.
4. Click Browse then browse to \Binaries folder and add Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input and Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization
5. The controls will now appear in your Toolbox.

Adding the Silverlight Control Toolkit to Expression Blend Asset Library

It is now easier to add to Blend, even though you have to repeat this process for every project.  When you make controls available in Blend you need to add references to your project, which increases your download size. 

1. In the Project Pane -- right click on References then select Add Reference.
2. Add references to Microsoft.Windows.Controls, Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization, Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input.
   
3. The controls will now appear in the Custom Controls section of the asset library.
4. 

This is a list of what is in each assembly:

Microsoft.Windows.Controls

• AutoCompleteBox
• DockPanel
• Expander
• HeaderedContentControl
• HeaderedItemsControls
• Label
• TreeView
• TreeViewItem
• Viewbox
• WrapPanel

Microsoft.Windows.Controls.Input

• ButtonSpinner
• NumericUpDown

Microsoft.Windows.Controls.DataVisualization

• Charting (with associated Axis, DataPoint and Series

You can find good support for the Silverlight Toolkit on the forums for Silverlight.Net.

The source code for the Silverlight 2 controls was published.  This is the source code for the controls as shipped in the runtime and SDK.  Here is a snapshot of the project:

 The source code for the Silverlight 2 controls includes implementations for the following controls:

• ButtonBase
• Button
• HyperlinkButton
• CheckBox
• RadioButton
• CheckBox
• ToogleButton
• RepeatButton
• RangeBase
• Slider
• ScrollBar
• ProgressBar
• Calendar
• DataGrid
• DatePicker
• GridSplitter
• TabControl

Unit tests for the SDK controls have also been included as well!  Very cool! 

You can download it from here: Source code for Silverlight 2 Controls