Issues or reasons against updating Silverlight 2 project in development to Silverlight 3?

Question

I currently have a recently started project in development with a 2010 target date developed primarily in Silverlight 2, making use of the March Silverlight 2 Toolkit.

Now that Silverlight 3 is gold, is there any reason to not migrate the project to Silverlight 3 in order to be able to take advantage of added features and improved performance? Given the "quirks" mode present for Silverlight 2 applications, it would seem easier to handle any such an update while the project is still in early development.

My two main areas of concern are with the Silverlight Toolkit (can I simply install the Silverlight 3 version of the Toolkit, or does the 2 version work out of the box), and with theming.

Theming (using the Toolkit) has been a cause for headaches with Silverlight 2, and I've needed to create various work arounds to ensure dynamic content is properly themed while maintaining performance. Silverlight 3 advertises theming as a built in feature - is this an integration of the Toolkit's version of theming, or does Silverlight introduce a completely different theming mechanism?

Answer 1

If you're project is not due to out for that long, you might as well switch to 3 now. Any headaches you encounter won't be as serious because you're whole application won't be finished.

It's always easier to fix mistakes and make changes sooner rather than later.

Answer 2

We just completed an upgrade to SL3 RTM, it went smoothly and I'd have to recommend it. Keep in mind that controls have moved between the toolkit release you're using and Silverlight 3. Some of the controls went from toolkit to SL3 and some SL3 beta (maybe SL2 also?) controls were pushed back into the toolkit. Here's the list of changes between 2 and 3:

http://docs.google.com/View?id=dnkk749_0czvc86gx

Answer 3

When you install Silverlight 3 tools (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=9442b0f2-7465-417a-88f3-5e7b5409e9dd), check out Changes.docx in the Silverlight 3 SDK. It can help you mitigating upgrade issues and assessing the time you may need for the migration.

BTW, Silverlight 3 RTM is out. The only reason not to upgrade would be the amount of time you may have to spend...