CODEWITHSUNDEEP
silverlightcomponentsthemeswindows-8windows-runtime
Edward Brey
Edward Brey

Reputation: 41698

Silverlight as a downlevel WinRT platform

Two interrelated questions:

  1. For an app suite with an app for each major device platform (iOS, Android, Windows Phone 7, and WinRT), is Silverlight a good platform for a "downlevel" (Mac/7/Vista/XP) version of the WinRT app?

  2. If so (or to make it so), what Silverlight components emulate the Metro controls and their themes to minimize the effort of making the Silverlight app consistent with the WinRT app?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 173

Answers (1)

JP Alioto
JP Alioto

Reputation: 45127

I don't think so. Silverlight does not give you the kind of touch support you need to truly match with a Metro style app. You can use things like NESL or roll your own gesture library, but it can never really match the type of experience you will get from a Metro style apps and of course stops being cross platform at that point. The closest I've ever come is building a Silverlight full-screen out of the browser app where we rolled our own gesture library and it was still unsatisfying.

Metro is a new and unique design language and without an OS that has been built from the ground up to support the experience, you will find it a bad experience and worse, you will be battling the technology the whole way.

Responding to comment: It absolutely can be done. See http://www.flickr.com/windows7 for example.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions