A number of HMI / SCADA companies have now built their products upon Silverlight, and while this creates some awesome graphics, I have to standby what I've always said about building (at least in our industry) on the tumultuous Microsoft base. Last week Microsoft announced a shift of emphasis from Silverlight to HTML5. I shouldn't have been shocked because I've been predicting this, but I WAS shocked because Silverlight just hasn't been around that long. I think it's fine that Microsoft shifts with the times and I think it is a particularly smart move for them to shift toward HTML5, but in the HMI, SCADA and MES industry such rapid shifts spell disaster. This is because in our industry things have to last a while. I think building HMI, SCADA and MES software on top technologies that change every two or three years is like building skyscrapers on top of the San Andreas fault line.
2 comments:
As you might imagine, Silverlight developers are all up in arms over this.
http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/p/207084/487334.aspx
Silverlight is a cool idea/technology. Microsoft just lacked the clout and/or timing to pull it off. The real mistake was in the SCADA companies quick decision to adopt it for industrial use. Why they never seriously considered Flash or Java years ago is beyond me...
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