In some of my older posts I was creating a separate random generator for each object. However, the documentation on Random states: "The default seed value is derived from the system clock and has finite resolution. As a result, different Random objects...( read more )...(read more)
[game programming Silverlight silverlight 2 Silverlight Tools visual studio 2008 visual web developer ]
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You KNOW I'm a Control Junkie !! ComponentArt makes some cool stuff and they have a HUGE deal right now. Click Here to Check it Out http://www.componentart.com/store/ ... And if anyone else has a HUGE sale going on forthe holiday season. EMAIL IT TO ME...( read more )...(read more)
[Misfit Geek [Silverlight] Misfit Geek [Syndicated] Misfit Geek [WindowsClient] Partners & Products ]
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In Silverlight you can use the Storyboard control to animate properties of an object. It can be used against properties of type double, Color or Point. For example, you can animate changing the double type property Opacity of a Rectangle over time. A Storyboard can be declared in your XAML but it must be placed as a resource. For example, the following Storyboard is declared as a resource of the Canvas object: <Canvas> <Canvas.Resources> <Storyboard x:Name= "MyRect" >...(read more)
[game programming Silverlight silverlight 2 silverlight resources Silverlight Tools version 2 visual studio 2008 visual web developer ]
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If you are interested to implement game, it will a preliminary post that you shouldn't miss of. In the sample below, I demonstrated how you can control a game character using the keyboards. The Mario Kart will position according to the keyboard direction...( read more )...(read more)
[Animation Effect game mario Mathematics ]
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  The new Silverlight Toolkit includes a Expander control that, in its simplest form, is incredibly easy to add to your program,   [Composite image] To create the simplest expander, add a reference to Microsoft.Windows.Controls to your project...( read more )...(read more)
[Control Toolkit Controls ]
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<script src="http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=email%2Cweb&amp;charset=utf-8&amp;style=default&amp;publisher=385eda54-f85a-45b2-a8ed-a53b545fb5ad&amp;popup=true&amp;embeds=true" type="text/javascript" mce_src="http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=email%2Cweb&amp;charset=utf-8&amp;style=default&amp;publisher=385eda54-f85a-45b2-a8ed-a53b545fb5ad&amp;popup=true&amp;embeds=true"></script>

[Updated 16:00 GMT-5 to include working version and link to code:  Expander.zip ]

 

The new Silverlight Toolkit includes a Expander control that, in its simplest form, is incredibly easy to add to your program,

 

 
[Composite image]

 

To create the simplest expander, add a reference to Microsoft.Windows.Controls to your project,

and add the namespace at the top of your xaml file

xmlns:controls="clr-namespace:Microsoft.Windows.Controls;assembly=Microsoft.Windows.Controls" First Expander

A simple expander takes a direction, text for the header, and content; in this case an ellipse:

<controls:Expander Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="1" ExpandDirection="Down" Header="Click to Expose Ellipse"> <controls:Expander.Content> <Ellipse Width="40" Height="40" Fill="red" /> </controls:Expander.Content> </controls:Expander>(Special thanks to Justin Blunk)

You can vary the direction of the expansion, and you can vary what is in the header. Of course, you can do much more with templates, but that is for another day (and probably best shown in a video.  To give you a sense of the flexibility, however, I've created a second expander that opens to the right and whose header is not a string of text but is managed by a TextBlock. Also note that in this case the contents are not a single object, but rather a set of objects maintained in a stack panel.  I've not databound any of the contents, but that is easily done as well.  Here's the code, followed by the before and after images.

<controls:Expander ExpandDirection="Right" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" BorderThickness="0" > <controls:Expander.Header> <TextBlock Text="Please fill in your secret code word" /> </controls:Expander.Header> <controls:Expander.Content> <StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal"> <TextBlock Text="secret codeword" FontSize="14" Margin="5" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/> <PasswordBox PasswordChar="?" FontSize="14" Margin="5" Width="120" Height="30" VerticalAlignment="Bottom"/> </StackPanel> </controls:Expander.Content> </controls:Expander>

It is all in the Xaml, there is no C# code needed.

Here's the working example, streaming from Silverlight Streamling Live Services

<iframe style="WIDTH: 600px; HEIGHT: 200px" src="http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/20712/Expander%20Demo%201/iframe.html" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

 

[Controls Control Toolkit ]
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Sometimes, your application may need to save the user state or progress for various purposes. Rather than storing the information to server, both technology provided a very convenient way to store some temporary data into user computer. However, the storage...( read more )...(read more)
[Data Data Handling local storage ]
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I often get questions about how the ContentPresenter works in ControlTemplates. There are certainly oddities to how it works in practice, but this is some additional information that should help you make sense of it. By default, the purpose of the ContentPresenter...( read more )...(read more)

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When building a custom control in Silverlight 2, the OnApplyTemplate method gives you the opportunity to “wire-up” logical instances of elements in your control. When a control is loaded, it is important to realize that in Silverlight 2, this method is...( read more )...(read more)

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Join me on December 10th at 3:00pm EST for a MSDN geekSpeak webcast.  The format is “talk radio” style.  I’ll be talking about the ins and outs of Silvelright video players and taking your questions. It is a free event so register here and give me a shout! Event Overview In this geekSpeak, Microsoft Silverlight expert Corey [...]...(read more)
[Uncategorized ]
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Every once in a while you see something so promising you just have to pass it along.  The folks at divElements are developing SandDock for Silverlight; a floating windows management toolkit that looks very sweet indeed. I can't say I've really put...( read more )...(read more)
[Control Toolkit Controls Custom Controls ]
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Every once in a while you see something so promising you just have to pass it along.  The folks at divElements are developing SandDock for Silverlight; a floating windows management toolkit that looks very sweet indeed.

I can't say I've really put it through its paces, or pushed its limits, but there is a very professional feel about the work they've done so far, and I suspect this is a product worth keeping an eye on --  especially if you happen to need what they have on offer. From what I can tell, they're in (free) Beta now, with a product on the near horizon.

There are of course a number of great third party tool makers for Silverlight, the interesting question over the coming months will be whether folks will turn to buying their tools or creating them from the fundamentals provided by Microsoft and the Toolkit project.

[Custom Controls Controls Control Toolkit ]
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Still busy setting up my Windows 7 partition. Just noticed that Silverlight was pushed to it through Windows Update. Cool....( read more )...(read more)

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In this issue: Hannes Preishuber, Tim Greenfield, Peter Bromberg, and Jonathan van de Veen. Shoutout: Adan Kinney has announed a Windows FireStarter, free event on Dec 12th ... if you're in the area, it looks like it will be an interesting day! From SilverlightCream...( read more )...(read more)

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I've noticed that there is a bit of (understandable) confusion about what we publish in C# and what we publish in VB, and I thought I'd write a brief not to try to sort it out. I believe Tim and I are in agreement that: Our blog samples will be in whichever...( read more )...(read more)
[Recommended Resources Tools ]
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<script type="text/javascript" src="http://w.sharethis.com/widget/?tabs=email%2Cweb&amp;charset=utf-8&amp;style=default&amp;publisher=385eda54-f85a-45b2-a8ed-a53b545fb5ad&amp;popup=true&amp;embeds=true"></script>

I've noticed that there is a bit of (understandable) confusion about what we publish in C# and what we publish in VB, and I thought I'd write a brief not to try to sort it out.

I believe Tim and I are in agreement that:

• Our blog samples will be in whichever language we happen to be most comfortable in, with some variety now and again (and I further suspect that will usually be C#)
• The videos that we create will (nearly) always provide source code in both C# and VB, but the video itself will be in our language of comfort
• At the moment, I'm writing all the tutorials, and I'm doing so in both C# and VB.NET --- that each tutorial is published in a C# version and a VB version, in both HTML and in a pdf format, and of course the code is available in both.

The goal is to provide access to all of this information at a very high level of comfort for both VB and C# programmers. 

My personal opinion is that it is important to be able to read programs in either language; they are incredibly similar, and translating from one to the other is, for the most part, mechanical. 

Instant Maven

One wonderful resource, both for saving time and for learning whichever language you are less comfortable in, is InstantC# or InstantVB

 

It is not uncommon for me to put in an entire solution developed as an example for a tutorial or video and have it converted in seconds, requiring no hand changes whatsoever

(Full disclosure: as noted  previously, I've been receiving free evaluation copies). 

Notice in the illustration above that I've circled the link to "Compare converted to original code. This little feature can be very useful when you want to learn a bit of VB/C# syntax,

though the truth is that the limitations in this window mean that you can only go so far. If I were truly interested in spending time looking at the two versions I'd put the files (or the entire folders) through Exam Diff Pro – my favorite utility for comparing files or directories,

What is interesting here, though, is not the quality of the comparison utility but rather that such a comparison is possible and straight forward.  You can practically map from the C# to the VB, word by word, line by line.

You are very much entitled to love one and hate the other, but I would suggest it is the familiarity that breeds the contempt; the true hatred one can only feel for members of one's own Klan.

In any case, next stop: Iron Ruby.

Hope your holiday was splendid.

[Tools Recommended Resources ]
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I am a VB developer. As most of expert coder are using C# I must step forward. B# is the language which can be written by VB guys and make it readable for C# gurus. Today's topic is the data store of Silverlight on client side- isolated storage. Isolated...( read more )...(read more)
[Silverlight .NET c# VB.NET ]
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In this issue: Michael Washington, Adam Kinney, Arturo Toledo(2), Hannes Preishuber, Tim Greenfield, and Jonathan van de Veen. Shoutout: Bill Reiss has an announcement on his blog that I keep forgetting to mention: Silverlight Games 101 Blog moved and...( read more )...(read more)

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Please join a group of Silverlight fanatics at Interface Technical Training in downtown Phoenix from 6 to 8 pm. Steele Price will be giving a talk on the Silverlight Toolkit and the goodness surrounding that. Be there at 6pm for pizza, soft drinks, and...( read more )...(read more)

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McCann Worldgroup is looking for a Silverlight Engineer in San Francisco. From MediaBistro.com: http://www.mediabistro.com/joblistings/jobview.asp?joid=85919&page=1...( read more )...(read more)
[Silverlight Silverlight Jobs ]
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In this issue: Timmy Kokke, Martin Mihaylov(2), CASON Engineering Plc., Bryant Likes(2), and Stefan Olson. Since I had seven submittals, I decided to do them first today and post my web-scrapings later :) From SilverlightCream.com : Silverlight Without...( read more )...(read more)

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Few days ago, I found an interesting Flash Ecard made by me 8 years ago. At that time, I was still using Flash 4 and the Ecard is completely horrible. Well, through it's ugly, you will never get improved if you didn't try your first step. Same as before...( read more )...(read more)
[ecard Technology News ]
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Happy Thanksgiving everyone! In this issue: Martin Mihaylov, Tim Heuer, Katrien De Graeve, Expression Blend and Design Blog, Ruurd Boeke, Mike Snow(4), Jeff Wilcox, Michael S. Scherotter, Terence Tsang, and Corey Schuman. Also: Michael S. Scherotter has...( read more )...(read more)

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Yesterday I saw that the Expression Blend and Design team had blogged about the new DeepZoomTool.dll : In our most recent release of Deep Zoom Composer, one of the major changes we made was to change how we generated the image tiles both for designing...( read more )...(read more)
[Silverlight Deep Zoom WPF/E ]
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Hello! We’ve posted a new challenge for you. This time it is for you to create a Silverlight + Live Services experience. Very fun! Here’s how to compete in the online PhizzPop Design Challenge! First of all if you have not done before, register...( read more )...(read more)
[Annoucements ]
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