Joe Stegman's WebBlog

I would add a couple of things that I'm hoping make it into WPF and Silverlight in the near future.

On the 3D front, I would like to see more than the basic DX/XNA like API.  I would like to see support for Patch based models so that 3D GUIs become more virtual and scale better.

I would also like to see some good 3D Layout Panels, and support for those panels in ItemsControl (maybe an ItemsPanel3DTemplate property).  Silverlight should support hardware accel if the support is there.  3D should become an integrated part of the UI.

On the non-GUI stuff I would like to see better support for threading and MVVM.  Maybe something like INotifyXXX supported LINQ queries that would provide a thread safe alternative to the CollectionView class.  The I/O model in Silverlight forces the use of worker threads (which is a good thing) - but the support isn't there to build good, thread safe, observable collections and 'live' in model queries.

Silverlight also needs real support for markup extensions and better databinding  support to better address the incompatibilities with WPF.  Key driver here is cost in maintaining the differences.

I would also love to see a browser implementation (Trident engine rewrite) as a object model translation from HTML to XAML, JavaScript to .NET.  This active translation layer would allow full, same level interop between the SL/.NET world and a hosted or hosting HTML document.  The scenario here is cost - the HTML investment/skills and resources would become part of the XAML implementation.

"Clipboard support"

The only available solution to copy some text to clipboard now, is to use flash..

And that pissing off sometimes, it make perfect application looks some-like ugly.

I think a rich text editor (probably with HTML support) is one of the most needed features.

I would like to see support for the workflowruntime to run WF workflows or at a minimum support for the rule engine.  Our apps typically have complex validations field to field that would benefit from having xaml-based rules to run on the client as opposed to going back to the server every time.  

Need support:

WSHttpBinding - Session support

GZipStream

DataGrid - virual mode like WPF - EnableRowVirtualization="True" AND ScrollViewer.IsDeferredScrollingEnabled="True"

FlowDocument (Rich text support)

keyboard support in full-screen mode

Two features

1) Bitmap APIs -- both bitmap manipulation and caching.  these are commonly used in flash, and could help make silverlight much prettier.  there are obvious reasons silverlight might not want to do this, but the benifits are great.

2) Binding support to anonymous types -- do I need to say anything more?  every silverlight developer would find this useful.

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As a note I would like to add Ctrl+F support would be nice, but with some fancy javascript handling (mouse down & text select) it can already be supported manually.

Some "small" points:

1. It would be really nice to see the option to control anti-aliasing, especially one of the fonts.

2. As well in my opinion there must be nice-skinned controls out-of-the-box instead of those cartoon-likely with big too-antialiased borders.

3. Surely, for the best UX I'd like to see the native bitmap effects like glows and shadows.

One "BIG" point.

It will be just GREAT if Silverlight will be able to be deployed on desktop like with Adobe AIR and Google Gears (which in the same time should give some advantages like filesystem integration and cross-app drag-n-drop). This is exactly the THING we were looking at before starting some projects. While Adobe AIR installs in just "two clicks" (as well as AIR apps) and can "play" the same apps written for the in-browser Flash Player, the only deployment scenario for Silverlight is inside browser and if you want something alike desktop integration then there is need to install full .NET 3.5 (which is not that fast and simple as AIR install), then recompile the app as the WPF app and only then install.

The main idea is to have some lightweight runtime like Adobe AIR from the MS itself instead of using third-party burden like "Desklighter". Integrate it with some HTML engine like Adobe did and this will make many new advanced deployment scenarios available.

I have made a post on my blog to help people identify any area's that they feel need adding in Silverlight. I think the idea to have a 'central' list is a great idea.

Link: http://silverlightblog.com/post/2008/12/25/Silverlight-Features-List.aspx

In this issue: Jim Lynn, Silverlight Girl, Microsoft Natal, Damon Payne, Lutz Gerhard, Tamir Khason,

Right click and native Mouse wheel support ! PLEASE!!! (and don't hide behind that security excuse again. I know several ppl on the silverlight dev team who thinks this is totally possible in a secure manner)

Binding to DependencyObjects like in WPF MUST be supported. The limitation is currently only allowing us to do it on FrameworkElements, which makes absolutely no sense. You can't for instance bind the rotation angle on a RotateTransform. Grrr

Thank you for this post.

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I am not sure if this is a thing you are looking for, but I would very much like integrated unit testing of SL in VS (like the current MSTest works, using key shortcuts and no reason to leave VS) and in msbuild (so the build server can also do the unittests)

I know and use the current unit testing framework, but I don't like that it opens a browser for unittests and isn't integrated in VS and I can't run the tests on the buildserver.

I also realize that a first version probably only will/can work with class libraries and non-visual stuff, but that would be a very nice first step!

Thanks for taking time to read this.

We intend to use Silverlight for our next-generation corporate thin client. The things we need first priority:

-Improved Grid with filtering, sorting, progrssive loading and item grouping

-Right mouse button

-Selectable text

Other good things:

-Offline and/or out of browser support

-Printing

-Synchronous web service calls

-SaveFileDialog

-Full 5.1 sound (I assume MS wants people using the XBox 360 as a media extender for SL. Netflix anyone?)

-Dynamic assembly caching

-Synchronous web service calls

-Right mouse btn

-More sophisticated WCF serialization a la .NET 3.5 SP1.