Before PDC 2009, I had a short wish list for the next version of Silverlight:

1. Real support for commanding
2. Some kind of full trust mode similar to Click Once
3. More complete data binding
4. Context Menus
5. Relational (Isolated) Storage

I was pretty excited as The Gu’s keynote played out and I saw my wish list filled one item at a time.  There are some other things I’d like, but these are things that aren’t in WPF either so I don’t really dare hope for them.  These items include things like adding extensibility to the Binding framework: too many aspects are internal/sealed black boxen.

The missing #5 would probably have involved something like a cross platform SQL Compact.  The ability to drop a small relational store into Isoloated Storage (or anywhere on the file system using elevated trust) would open up a whole new avenue for Silverlight applications.  Even without tools like the Entity Framework this could be huge.

I recalled my Return of the Smart Client article where I expressed what I believe are common concerns and frustrations developers have when building Enterprise applications using the usual web development tools.  If you needed further convincing that Silverlight is a real alternative for creating browser delivered rich internet applications you need only review day two of the PDC 2009 keynote.  Silverlight is as big as anything going on at Microsoft.  I can’t wait for MIX 2010!

In just over a week, on November 14th, I will be speaking at the Chippewa Valley Code Camp taking place way up in Menomonie, WI on the UW-Stout campus.  The topic is Advanced Silverlight Development however the content will be somewhat different than my talk by the same name I gave at MadCamp a little while ago.  Doug and company run a healthy community so I’m looking forward to good conversations.

Details on the code camp can be found at: http://www.chippewavalleycodecamp.com/ 

The schedule of topics can be found here: http://www.chippewavalleycodecamp.com/Schedule/2009Schedule/tabid/74/Default.aspx

The elusive Christopher J. Barwick will be accompanying me and making his return to Public Nerd Life.  I am looking forward to seeing Jason Bock and Chris speak, and I’ll probably check out some of the non-Microsoft or Building Better Software topics in between.  We’ll be up the night before and open to grabbing a drink with any local geeks or speakers who may be available.