We .NET developers find ourselves at an interesting crossroad today, which can be summed up by a question: when should I take the plung and learn Silverlight/WPF/XAML? If you're like me, this decision may depend on whether or not we have the need to use it - like clients asking for it. If you do, the next thing you'll need is the confidence that Silverlight/WPF/XAML can handle the needs that business applications present to us. There are two schools of thought on whether or not this is true. Some say no; all of the colleagues I hang with, including Rocky Lhotka, say yes.
If you're like me, you don't have a current business need to learn Silverlight/WPF/XAML. Despite that, I'm still going to everything I can to learn it well. In my opinion, and many others that I respect, Silverlight/WPF/XAML is the future of UI development. Many believe that in about 5-10 years it will be take over as WinForms and WebForms. As Rocky explains in his post, once you get past the learning curve the UI development is much more productive.
To assist me in my commitment to learn Silverlight, I've volunteered to do a Silverlight presentation in about 3 weeks. The best way to learn anything is to teach it; so I'm very much looking forward to it. If I can get through this presentation, I know I will comfortable enough with Silverlight to start using it on a regular basis. My hope is that I'll also find new ways to use Silverlight, along with using it as a regular part of my freelance projects. Once I do that, I should be ready for primetime consultant work with future clients that my ask for it.
