ActiveDen aren't the only ones broadening their horizons. Today sees the beginning of regular Microsoft Silverlight content being published on Activetuts+ and I'm thrilled to say we have Silverlight Evangelist Mike Taulty on board to help us meet demand!

This is the first of two screencasts (with the second coming tomorrow) demonstrating how to build a simple Silverlight 4 map application, using Visual Studio and the C# programming language. You'll get a decent overview of the Silverlight workflow, and learn what advantages it has over ...similar technologies.

Go on - check it out and let us know what you think!

Section 1: Setting Up Silverlight and Bing Maps

Scroll down to see a list of all the links in the text file that Mike writes in this tutorial.

Section 2: Calculating Walking Routes

By the end of this part, you'll have created an app that lets users choose any two points on a map, and displays a route for them to walk between those places.

Resources: Useful Links

About Mike:

Mike Taulty Microsoft (UK): http://mtaulty.com: mtaulty@microsoft.com: twitter.com/mtaulty

Where to download Visual Studio and the other software required for Silverlight development:

• Visual Studio 2010 ( free 'express' version ): http://bit.ly/vsWebExpress
• Silverlight 4 tools for Visual Studio: http://bit.ly/silverlight4ToolsForVS
• Silverlight Toolkit: http://bit.ly/silverlightToolkit

Working with Bing Maps:

• Bing Maps Control for Silverlight: http://bit.ly/bingMapsSilverlightSDK
• Bing Maps Routing WebService: http://bit.ly/bingMapsRouteService

How to fix the Web Service issue, if it comes up:

• WebService Issue: http://bit.ly/silverlightProxyIssue

Where to download Expression Studio: (You won't need this till the second part of the tutorial, but feel free to grab it in advance :) )

• Expression Studio ( Expression Blend ): http://bit.ly/expressionStudioTrial

Next, check out Part 2 to learn how to use Expression Blend to change the design of your app.