Microsoft WPF - Silverlight Comparision
Microsoft WPF vs. Silverlight, a comparision
| Microsoft WPF - Silverlight Comparision | ||
| Features/ Support | WPF | Silverlight |
| Platform Support | WPF is a Windows desktop technology for developing Windows application in the .NET framework | Silverlight is a web technology, that is fully supported by a browser plugin on both Windows and MAC (in a similar fashion to Flash). There is also a plugin for running Silverlight on Linux (Moonlight). |
| Architecture | Presentation Core --> .NET Framework --> CLR | Presentation Core -->.NET for Silverlight --> CLR for Silverlight --> Browser Host |
| Deployment | WPF applications can be deployed as a standalone application, ClickOnce application, or a XAML Browser application. BAML is a binary form of the XAML in a WPF application | Silverlight applications are hosted within a web server and a web page. To minimize client download size, Silverlight uses an XAP archive. A XAP archive is a zip-compressed archive of the Silverlight application, plus a manifest file describing the content. |
| XAML processing | WPF has its own XAML parser | XAML parser that is part of the Silverlight core install |
| Xml/Object Data Provider |
Supports the XmlDataProvider and ObjectDataProvider |
Supports the XmlDataProvider but not the ObjectDataProvider |
| Access to .NET Network Stack | WPF has access to the full .NET networking stack and can make any type of call | Silverlight is a browser-based technology that has access to a subset of the .NET Framework (called the CoreCLR). Can only make asynchronous network calls |
| Cryptography Namespaces | WPF has access to 107 cryptography classes and supports the full range of algorithms in the .NET Framework. | Cryptography (Silverlight has 20 classes in the namespace. Silverlight supports only 4 hashing algorithms and the AES encryption protocol |
| Deep Zoom | No | Yes |
| Data Binding | Supports MultiBinding | Doesn't support MultiBinding |
| Triggers | Yes | Limited support |
| Commanding | Yes | No |
| Freezable objects | Yes | No (Flow Document are designed to optimize viewing and readability) |
| 3D Drawing | Yes | 3D Support is limited |
| Flow Document support | Yes | No |
| Dynamic resources | Yes | No |
| Multitouch API |
WPF has element-level support for multitouch events on its UIElement class. |
Silverlight 4 client as a whole is registered for touch messages, and the multitouch events are handled through a client-level Touch service class. |
| Out-of-Browser Support | WPF has an XBAP deployment model that runs in a browser | Silverlight uses a different deployment technique where an application can be configured to run outside the browser after being installed from a host Web page |
| Screen Coordinate System | WPF has a theoretically unbounded coordinate system | Silverlight has a bounded coordinate system |
| Measurements | WPF supports a measurement system that by default is based on Device Independent Pixel (DIP) units | Silverlight supports a measurement system that is always based on pixel units. |
| URL based navigation | No | Yes |
| Clipboard | Anything serializable | Text only |
| Controls/Elements | All visually rendering elements derive from the Visual base class | Elements derive from Control |
| External Device access | Anything with drivers, COM, Win32 or Communication Protocol | Webcam, Camera, Microphone and device with COM API or compatible communication protocol |
| File Access | Unlimited | Limited |
| WPF Specific Functionality | Desktop Functionality (Printing, XPS Documents, Speech, InterOp) XAML (Styles ) User Interface (3D Graphics, Themes, Skins, Image Manipulation, Page-Based Navigation, Input Gestures) General Functionality (Freezable Objects, Data Providers, Validation, Dynamic Resources, Code Access Security ) | |
| Silverlight Specific Functionality | Web Functionality (Browser InterOp) Media (Traditional Streaming, Progressive Download, Smooth Streaming, Timeline Markers ) Deep Zoom |