Surely by now you've heard of Silverlight, Microsoft's new "cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications (RIAs) for the Web." That's a direct quote from the official site; Steve at How to Split an Atom provides an MS-to-English translation: "Flash re-branded and re-factored by the Big M."
If you're hard core, you know that Silverlight's code name was the euphonious and memorable WPF/E.
Now Windows Vista tech insider Tim Sneath graciously discloses how Microsoft developed the Silverlight name:
It was a tough choice; we know that WPF/E was much loved by the community and that acronyms can be both inspiring and evocative, but we really wanted to try something radical and different.
We had some really great alternative choices that we considered before settling on Silverlight, and I thought now would be a perfect time to share them. I hope that after you see the other brand names we considered, you'll be happy with our final choice. So here goes... drum roll, please; here are the top 10 names we rejected before settling on Silverlight:
10. GrayLuminosity (close, but there was just something not quite right about it)
9. AJAX - Asynchronous JavaScript And XAML (turns out that acronym was already taken)
...and finally:
1. Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation Live Rich Client ActiveX Player R2 Ultimate Edition Service Pack 1 CTP (or WPFLRCAPR2UESP1CTP for short)
The rest of the list is just as funny.
Hat tip to the indefatigable Mike Pope!
Well posted Nancy, heh.
Posted by: Steve S | April 21, 2007 at 02:09 AM