Silverlight. Day 1.

"What the hell is this? Where are the controls? What is this mess inside the project?"

These are my first impressions after I open a friend's example (first thing I saw was a XAML file, then some code, and then some messages about trials), without reading no tutorials or going to therapy, to prepare myself with this 2008 shock. I had the same sensation that I experienced 10 years ago when I wanted to do some UI stuff with Java; no IDE, just some third party tools or code it by hand. Blindness.

My pal told me: "You make the UI with expression Blend".

But why do you need a special tool to manage XML UI definitions? There's no more IDE. This is a MDE (Messy Development Environment).

The apology is based in roles. The designer need something to design and the developer someting to code. But when you make some desktop app you have controls, or a web app you have more controls, why with Silverlight you ain´t have nothing?

(I suddenly remember this song: Two steps behind - Def Leppard)

Now I understand why in the last 3 MS events where they showed this things I felt very upset and confused.

After this non pleasant experience, I believe Flex is a much better platform to make RIAs. No doubt about it.