- Animation
- Application design
- ASP.NET
- C#, .NET 3.5
- Controls
- Data access
- Effects
- Expression Blend
- Expression Design
- Game development
- Graphics
- Javascript and AJAX
- Math and Physics
- Media streaming
- Multimedia
- Security
- Silverlight
- Styling
- UI Design
- VB.NET
- Video
- Visual Studio
- WCF
- WPF
- XAML
BlueForest Networks
Pro Silverlight 3 in C#
Publisher: Apress - August 01, 2009 ISBN-10: 1430223812, ISBN-13: 9781430223818
Author: Matthew MacDonald
600 pages
Pro Silverlight 3 in C# - book reviews: 26
Four-color graphics and screenshots throughout make Pro Silverlight 3 in C# an invaluable reference for professional developers wanting to discover the new features of Silverlight 3. Author Matthew MacDonald's expertly crafted tutorial guides you through creating rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you're most productive in–no matter what the target platform.
As you learn about the features that put Silverlight in direct competition with Adobe Flash, such as rich support for 2D and 3D drawing, animations, and media playback, you'll experience the plumbing of .NET and the design model of WPF through Silverlight–all of the same .NET technology that developers use to design next-generation Windows applications. Author Matthew MacDonald provides an expertly crafted tutorial written from professional developer to professional developer. You'll learn to create rich media applications using Silverlight in the environment you're most productive in–no matter what the target platform.
What you'll learn
- Develop rich media applications using Silverlight across browsers and platforms.
- Create a project, set up a layout, and use controls.
- Handle both 2D and 3D drawing, animation, and media playback through Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
- Integrate web services support.
- Use Silverlight in conjunction with ASP.NET and its interactions with HTML.
Silverlight 3 is the latest iteration of Microsoft's cross-browser technology for creating rich user experiences on the Web. Like its predecessor, Silverlight 2, it rides atop the .NET Framework for maximum ease of use and coding efficiency. The new technology carries forward much of the work that has been done before and augments it in many important respects, including support for H.264 video, major improvements to the graphics engine (including true 3D rendering), and much richer data-binding options for interfacing with other applications.
Who is this book for?
.NET developers encountering Silverlight for the first time. No prior knowledge of WPF or ASP.NET is assumed.
WELL DONE
well done , and waiting for the new version(SL4). A good solid foundation before Diving into SL4(silverlight).
eric njoroge
29 August, 2010
Good Choice for Learning Silverlight
This book is well written and covers most of what you need to know about Silverlight. If you are new to Silverlight then you probably need this book.
Bob Flora
02 June, 2010
Excellent coverage of Silverlight
This is a great book for anyone wanting to get into Silverlight development. The book covers a wide array of Silverlight topics at a fairly low level providing the reader with a solid all round knowledge of the technology. Matthew MacDonald's writing style is also clear and easy to follow.
I'd like to give this book 5 stars but the editing, formatting of this book is a little sloppy. Not that that really matters to much, but it does detract from an otherwise excellent read.
S. Thompson
03 April, 2010
Best in class
By far the best book I've found on Silverlight. And I bought 4 of them. That said I still consider it a bit lightweight on Enterprise interaction and there's very little coverage of the Silverlight Toolkit. I KNOW that's technically not part of Silverlight but most developers would use many toolkit controls in a production application. Regardless - I highly recommend this book.
Matthew J. Reines
02 April, 2010
Book Review for Pro Silverlight 3 in C#-Cecil Champenois
I was first amazed at the XAML and C# code being laid out in color, as well as the graphics, or screen shots. I thought that was cool and more realistic to what you'd see in Visual Studio. Other similar books do not go to this much trouble to turn out such an appealing product. The book also contains 792 pages, including the index in the back.
This book is so well-organized and excellent in its presentation that I would not doubt if colleges and universities throughout the United States are using it for their course's text, and if not, they ought to use it to teach Silverlight to their web-programming students. This book is exceptional! I'd highly recommend it as the best book for Silverlight 3 on the market.
Matthew MacDonald explains the separation between creating the code for the Silverlight application in Visual Studio and the graphics portion (WYSIWYG) in Expression Blend. Too bad Microsoft hasn't combined this capability into one application.
This book explains XAML and the Silverlight controls in detail. The other benefit is that you get the C# code with it, which helps a lot for those who favor C#. (I favor C#.) XAML really isn't that difficult to learn. If you are an Adobe ColdFusion web developer, you will easily pick up Silverlight's XAML code. Also, when you lay out your Row Definitions, you should note that the XAML controls are not contained within the beginning and ending XAML code. Yeah, it's weird, but just realize this is how it is and move on.
You can do a lot of graphics development in Silverlight 3 with somewhat better control than by using Adobe's Flash. The more difficult graphics, of course, are prepared more easily in Expression Blend.
There is a comparison between Flash and Silverlight at the beginning of the book you should read. If you learn the XAML code in this book, it will also prepare you to write WPF forms, which have replaced Windows Forms. Or, if you are already developing desktop apps using WPF, that knowledge will also help you with XAML for Silverlight.
At first, I didn't know that there was a graphic representation of whatever XAML code you'd write, using Visual Studio 2008, but the graphical design is actually there in VS 2008. You have to pull the graphical page up to see what the XAML code is building.
If you want to see the properties for your Silverlight 3 XAML code, you will have to use Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 (not the more recent RC1). Hopefully, Microsoft will fix the Silverlight 4.0 deficiencies in their final Visual Studio 2010 release.
This is the un-official go-to Silverlight text-book. If you want the best book from which to learn Silverlight 3, get this book.
Cecil T. Champenois Jr.
08 March, 2010
