The goal of this test is to directly compare performance of different RIA frameworks / approaches in different browsers. The test, which implements simple animation demo was initially created in DHTML, then ported to Silverlight (WPF/e), Flex and WPF (XBAP). The code used in DHTML, Silverlight (WPF/e) and Flex is essentially the same while for XBAP demo it was ported to C#.
The applicability of results is limited of course to the performance of animation, however, this is correlated to many practical patterns of modern RIA applications such as drag-and-drop and layout transitions. Additionally it allows to quantatively compare performance of different versions of browsers / frameworks.
