Entries Tagged 'Flex' ↓

For me, one of the most difficult aspects of making the jump from Flash to Silverlight/WPF was finding simple, to the point, tutorials to work from.

There are a few great resources out there now but at the time there was little information available, and what was out there assumed you already know a good deal about C# and .NET.

This made it very frustrating to get going because although I was proficient in AS2, I never really made the transition to AS3 before I dove into WPF and C#. Things that I could code up in AS2 in a matter of minutes became stumbling blocks along the way.

Recently a coworker let me borrow the book Foundation Expression Blend 2 by Victor Gaudioso.

If you’re new to WPF, or a Flash Developer making the difficult transition from ActionScript to XAML/C# this book will give you a great head start. Unlike some other books on the subject this one assumes little about your knowledge of WPF and C# and has a lot of simple tutorials that walk you through projects from end to end.

It seems like a lot books in this space are either written for developers or designers. This one hits that sweet spot in the middle and appeals to the technical designer, which is where a lot of Flash developers fall.

If I had found this when I was getting started it would have saved me a lot of time getting up to speed.

Here’s a look at the current Google Search trends for WPF, Silverlight, Flex and Air.

It’s a little tough to make a direct comparison with the rather generic product names Adobe is using, but it does hint at the momentum that Silverlight (shown in blue) is seeing at the moment.

Electric Rain has released Harmonyâ„¢, a Flash SWF-to-XAML Converter.

Electric Rain claims Harmony will convert SWF files to WPF and Silverlight based XAML. Sound to good to be true? Give it a try and let us know how it works.

Ryan Stewart at ZDNet has put together a great statistical analysis of the current job market trends for Flex, Silverlight, javafx, laszlo and WPF.

Adobe Flex has had a good head start but it is encouraging to see this sharp rise in Silverlight jobs since April.