I am going mad with these questions. Hope someone could help me.
1. What is the difference between windows phone 8.0 and windows phone 8.0 silverlight (if any) applications?
2. After updating my windows phone 8.0 application (not a silverlight application) into windows phone 8.1 applications, it became silverlight application automatically. Both are same?
3. If both are same, then what does the Blank App (Windows phone) means in windows phone 8.1 templates?
Thanks in advance.
Windows Phone 8.0 Silverlight apps are Windows Phone 8.0 apps written using Silverlight framework. Meaning that you probably used XAML to define the UI of your app, and C# or VB.NET for the logic in your code-behind.
It is the same platform, yes, only now you have the latest Windows Phone 8.1 Silverlight APIs, and possibly some breaking changes (APIs that were available in Silverlight 8.0 but are not available in Silverlight 8.1). The fact that it now explicitly says Silverlight in Visual Studio is because there are now two ways (platforms, models, however you wish to call it) to develop apps for Windows Phone 8.1 - based on Silverlight and WinRT. By upgrading a Windows Phone 8.0 app to Windows Phone 8.1, you keep using Silverlight as before, only now the Visual Studio is explicitly saying that it's Silverlight because the upgrade path goes only from Silverlight to Silverlight (can't automatically migrate from Silverlight to WinRT).
Blank App (Windows Phone) means a blank WinRT Windows Phone app. It's not a Silverlight app, and it's blank in the sense that there are no predefined controls or mock data in the project, just a bare minimum that you need to get started.
1). Windows Phone 8 apps are by default silverlight apps. So when it comes to windows phone 8 there is no difference between Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8 Silverlight apps. Both are essentially same.
2). Because WP8 apps are silverlight apps when it is converted to WP8.1 it is stil a silverlight app. Windows Phone 8.1 apps have 2 types i) Windows Phone silverlight apps ii) WinRT apps. You can create a Windows PHone 8 silverlight app and it will work on Windows Phone 8.1 device with out any issues. But windows Phone 8.1 WinRT apps are not backward compatible with Windows Phone 8.
3). Windows Phone blank app in Windows Phone 8.1 sdk is by default a WinRT app. Its not a silverlight app. But it also has Window Phone silverlight apps as a template.
** When you select a Windows Phone silverlight app and click ok you are presented with a dialog to select the platform either WP8.0 or WP8.1.
Hope this answers your question.
