I've just found out about Visual Studio LightSwitch, Microsoft's new Silverlight-centric RAD tool. Does this occupy the same space as RIA Services? Is RIA effectively dead?
+3
A:
Lightswitch does not make RIA Services obsolute. They are both valuable but are aimed at different audiences. RIA Services is aimed at professional programmers that want a high degree of control. Lightswitch is aimed at non-professional programmers. You can think of it as a Microsoft Access for building Silverlight applications.
Phil Wright
2010-09-13 05:24:53
Thanks for the comment Phil, though I did recently read the following from Eric Nelson, comparing Web Matrix and LightFoot - "WebMatrix is ...targeted at non-professional developers to make it easier to create new websites from scratch...In contrast, LightSwitch is targeted at professional developers and power users looking to create custom LOB applications..."
CraigS
2010-09-13 06:44:49
+4
A:
I've been doing some reading, and it seems that LightSwitch actually builds on top of RIA. I saw the following in a review in The Register -
Database connectivity and user authentication in LightSwitch uses WCF RIA Services, Microsoft's web service framework for Silverlight, though developers are shielded from the details. This means there is a middle tier running on Microsoft's IIS web server.
CraigS
2010-09-13 23:01:18