Microsoft Silverlight Books

Reworked Silverlight 1.1 Book, Limited Info

I was very dissapointed with this book. I ordered it and got it "hot off the press", desperately seeking a good reference. This was not it.

This book was obviously a Silverlight 1.1 draft manual. It has almost nothing worthwhile regarding Silverlight 2. It also has almost nothing about databinding, one of the most important features.


M Scott St Cyr
26 August, 2008

Junior League Silverlight book

This book format was terrible -- half of the book consists of blank 7x9 pages -- how do you print updates in that kind of punched hole paper -- it doesn't fit into my laser printer and I wouldn't even try to handfeed so many sheets. Index changes, table of contents changes. Topics are kid stuff, most web sites have more detail. I was very excited by the technology and very very disappointed with this book. It was a waste of money.

Silverbust
11 August, 2008

Good Introductory Silverlight 2 Book

I don't think there's any pretense made about this book not being an introductory book, and as such, I think it does a great job from the ground up.

The add-in sections idea is a clever concept for a technology that's not fully baked yet. How do you get material out the to people clamoring for it on something that is still in beta release?

In my opinion, there's never too much introductory material because everyone learns different ways. There will be plenty of advanced books to go around I'm sure, as soon as Silverlight 2 is fully released. Until then, we're all playing a game of watching and waiting.

What better way to wait than to have something on-target now that will also be on-target later with the pages you either print or purchase and insert yourself.

What I do -- pull out the sections you're reading to take with you to avoid dragging a large book around -- I like it!

-Dave

D. Campbell
20 July, 2008

Waste of time and money

This book is a total waste of time and money if you have done anything with Silverlight 1.0. Most of the content is about basics or JavaScript which is very likely NOT the reason why you are interested in Silverlight 2.0. Half of the book constists of blank pages ;-((

Sunchaser
06 June, 2008

Not bad but I was hoping it would be more like a Nutshell book

Overall the book was good even though most of the material could easily be found on MSDN or the Silverlight sites, however, I still prefer having it in a book that I can put stickies in and write on. I had hoped it would be more of a reference book like the Nutshell books, maybe they will dedicate a substantial portion of the blank pages to that (hmmm, no reason someone other then the author couldn't write a quick reference and share it on the internet to be inserted into the book). The blank pages are of course the Up-to-date pages that you print updates to. I like the idea except it looks like it's a push model where they email you the link to download the updates, what if your email address changes? Another thing that needs changed is the studs that hold the binding together don't allow you to lay the book open, a notebook ring binder would have been nicer.

C. Holliday
01 June, 2008

Introductory Concepts and That's All ...

The book seemed to cover the general concepts of Silverlight 2.0 and its new features (.NET CLR, new controls, etc). I would have liked to see more code examples, opposed to 'this is what Silverlight 2 is'

If you know nothing about Silverlight 2 and played with Silverlight 1, it might be a good book for you. If you're more on the 'get your hands dirty' kind of person, then this book is a poor choice.

12 May, 2008

Absolutely disliked the book format and the updates approach

I totaly disliked the book format and the continuous updates approach. When I paid for this book nobody mentioned such a format. In fact, I would be more willing to wait until the final version was out, if I knew about it. I feel that either O'Reilly or the authors took an initiative with my money without asking me about it. I would suggest you to wait until the final version of the book comes out.

SPYRIDON PRANTALOS
08 May, 2008

Book's Format as Interesting as Its Content

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As a person who works with multiple teams to design Web applications, keeping up with technology is essential. It becomes second nature to take an interest in any new thing that may affect your job in the future even though you (or the new technology) may not be ready for immediate implementation.

Microsoft's Silverlight is one of those new things I am talking about. Even if studying this book does not make me an expert, I know I will be ready when some boss, developer, or product manager asks me what I think Silverlight can or can not do.

If you are in the field, you know that Silverlight is a "rich Internet app" framework that some people call a "Flash killer." Whether it is a Flash killer or not, I will leave to the experts and time to tell. I do know that after going thru the initial examples, helped by Christian Wenz's downloadable code examples, I now have a more concrete idea about what Silverlight can do and how easy or hard it is to do certain tasks compared to other frameworks.

Speaking of keeping up with new things, the book's format itself is worth a note. As the editorial review above says, the pages are bound with pegs held in place by a stiff plastic cover. Since the content of the book is based on a pre-beta version of Silverlight 2, you can be sure that updates will be coming down the pike from Microsoft. The idea is that new information can be printed and easily added to the binder.

I have really gotten accustomed to the convenience of some of the O'Reilly books I have read lately where the book lies flat while I follow from the keyboard. That's why at first this binder format bothered me. It would not lie flat. But it finally came to me to snap open the plastic cover and take the pages off the pegs one by one as I progressed. This was much better.

Now I hope I am ready for those updates...
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Brett Merkey
10 April, 2008