Write Silverlight applications with dynamic languages

March 28, 2008

The Dynamic Silverlight SDK lets you write and run IronRuby and IronPython (or Managed JavaScript) Silverlight applications locally.

I’ve been playing around a bit with the SDK and start to like it. Although pretty basic for the moment, it’s functional.

Typical development steps include the creation of three files:

  • the XAML manifest
  • the HTML file
  • the code file (app.rb, app.py…)

Once these files are ready, use the following command to run the Chiron dev server (coming with the SDK) which packages things as a XAP module seamlessly:

chiron /webserver

An introduction to IronRuby (French readers)

As a sidenote, French readers may want to check out my introduction to IronRuby on developpez.com (one of the largest French developer communities).

Update (2025): Silverlight was discontinued by Microsoft in 2021. The Dynamic Silverlight SDK no longer exists. This article is preserved as a historical record — running Ruby inside a browser plugin was an interesting experiment that foreshadowed today’s WebAssembly-based approaches.