The first stable release of the OpenSilver project has been published, offering an open implementation of the Silverlight platform, which allows you to create interactive web applications using C#, XAML and .NET technologies. The project code is written in C# and distributed under the MIT license. Compiled Silverlight applications can run on any WebAssembly-enabled desktop and mobile browsers, but direct compilation is currently only possible on Windows using the Visual Studio environment.
Recall that Microsoft stopped the development of Silverlight functionality in 2011, and on October 12, 2021, scheduled a complete cessation of support for the platform. As with Adobe Flash, Silverlight development was phased out in favor of using standard Web technologies. About 10 years ago, based on Mono, an open implementation of Silverlight, Moonlight, was already being developed, but its development was stopped due to the lack of demand for the technology by users.
The OpenSilver project has attempted to revive the Silverlight technology in order to extend the life of existing Silverlight applications in the face of the end of Microsoft's support for the platform and the end of browser support for plug-ins. However, .NET and C# enthusiasts can also use OpenSilver to create new programs. To develop an application and migrate from the Silverlight API to equivalent OpenSilver calls, it is proposed to use a specially prepared add-on to the Visual Studio environment.
OpenSilver is based on code from the open-source Mono (mono-wasm) and Microsoft Blazor (part of ASP.NET Core) projects, and applications are compiled into WebAssembly intermediate code to run in the browser. OpenSilver is being developed along with the CSHTML5 project, which allows C#/XAML/.NET applications to be compiled into a browser-readable JavaScript representation. OpenSilver extends the CSHTML5 codebase with the ability to compile C#/XAML/.NET to WebAssembly instead of JavaScript.
In its current form, OpenSilver 1.0 fully supports all the main features of the Silverlight engine, including full support for C# and XAML, as well as the implementation of most of the platform's API, sufficient to use C# libraries such as Telerik UI, WCF RIA Services, PRISM and MEF. What's more, OpenSilver also provides some advanced features not found in the original Silverlight, such as support for C# 9.0, .NET 6, and new versions of the Visual Studio development environment, as well as compatibility with all JavaScript libraries.
Future plans include the intention to implement support for the Visual Basic (VB.NET) language next year in addition to the currently supported C # language, as well as providing tools for migrating WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) applications. The project also plans to provide support for the Microsoft LightSwitch development environment and provide compatibility with popular .NET and JavaScript libraries, which are planned to be delivered in the form of ready-to-use packages.
Source: opennet.ru