• Bufferless Video
Downloads

Calling all fellow developers. Let's rise up and take over the world. These cheeky downloads and links will help.

  • VISUAL STUDIO TRIAL

    Provides an industry-leading developer experience for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the Web. To enable evaluation of Visual Studio 2008, this page provides links to trial editions of Visual Studio 2008.

Designers are great, FACT. But these downloads and links make us even greatererer.

EXTRA LINKS – BECAUSE WE LOVE YOU

  • JOIN THE MICROSOFT PARTNER PROGRAMME TODAY FOR FREE

    Get access to discounted software bundles and subscriptions, receive the latest industry info with our RSS feed, and network with people just like you... Just click and join for free - the first 150 sign-ups will get a copy of the book ‘Introducing Silverlight 3.0’. Read the Terms and conditions for instructions on how to claim your book.

  • INNOVATE ON - ON THE WEB

    Get FREE resources to help you build, market, and deploy successful Web solutions to your customers. Get started now by exploring the site or experience a more tailored view by registering on the site using your Windows Live ID!

  • SILVERLIGHT.NET

    Microsoft Silverlight has redefined the term 'rich user experience'. This portal is devoted to all things Silverlight, with info, communities and help.

  • LIVE LABS

    For all the very latest web developments check out Microsoft Live Labs. For example, find out more about Photosynth, designed to take regular photos and makes them 3D. And Deep Zoom, which allows the user to pan and zoom in a high resolution image.

What is Web Harmony About?

Since the dawning of time (or actually since the dawning of the Internet) there has existed a tension between Web Designers and Web Developers.

The reason is simple. Say a designer creates an idea for a web page, then hands it over to the developer. The problems start when the developer can't recreate the designer's page exactly because of technical limitations. The designer blames the developer, and the developer blames the designer.

If you're a designer reading this, you’re probably thinking; 'Yeah, well it IS the developer's fault. He had my design, he knew what I wanted to create, but he fluffed around all day with his precious code and now it looks nothing like how I wanted it to look. I'm in a huff now. I'm going home to watch some pretentious Italian cinema.’

If you're a developer, then you might see things differently. 'Old Leonardo over here should be more aware of technical limitations. Whatever he designs I have to recreate in code. It would be nice if he could see things from my point of view for a change. I wish intergalactic teleporters really did exist – I'd show him.'

It can all get pretty messy pretty quickly. Well, thanks to the web solution tools from Microsoft it needn't all end in fisticuffs. That's because the solutions we create use XAML code, so designers and developers can work on the same file. Together. Collaboratively. So, no more creating designs that can't be coded, and no need to compromise designs to meet technical criteria. It's a beautiful thing this Web Harmony.

Developer: XAML is a mark-up language for declarative application programming. It is a subset of XML - and we all know how easy that it is to pick up. XAML provides language support for types such that you can create the majority of your application UI in (XAML). Designer: Easy there, Yoda. What that means is that it's like using your source files for your final assets - you can edit them at any time.