Microsoft Silverlight Books

A little dry but informative

I would only recommend this book if you're an intermediate or advanced .NET developer as there's a lot of high-level concepts discussed. Understanding the premises of object oriented programming is important as the book will talk about various techniques revolving this main concept. The book does feel very much like a textbook and can be dry but nonetheless, you'll pick up a thing or two that will make you a better programmer. I found the random comments throughout the book to be a good supplemental feature to the topic being discussed as some are key personalities in the industry; and it's always good what they have to say.

Lastly, the included DVD is just a presentation that can be found easily online, so it's nothing to be excited about. If you're looking to become a better API designer, or a better programmer, the book is a must-have. On the other hand, if you're a novice, you'd want to maybe hold off buying until you've understand the basics of OO and programming in general.

Dennis Rongo
16 April, 2010

Great Purchase

I run a small group that creates library components in DotNet and this book was a great read and very relevant for our work. I would say that it is a must read for any one that creates code to be shared by others. One of my reports liked the book so much that it caused him to re-design the library he was working on at the time. Too bad, I did not give it to him earlier.


Alan Fryer
29 December, 2009

Great book for writing developer friendly API's

Although I haven't designed any frameworks or components yet which are meant to be re-used I found this book very informative. I believe this book is relevant for any (.Net) developer because it explains some very useful design practices. It gives great insight how frameworks should be designed and the book contains examples how this is achieved (or not!) in the .Net framework.

M. Duiker
23 August, 2009

The DVD is available for free

I haven't purchased this book yet, but the DVD that it comes with has been made available for free by the publisher through the Internet.

I can't provide the link here (because of Amazon review guidelines) but if you go to Google and type in "framework design guidelines extra content", you won't have problems finding the download link.

Becket
21 May, 2009

A Must not Only For .NET Developers...

Also if you're thinking on developing a framework on any Object Oriented language, this is your book, it covers all the guidelines that makes a framework usable and powerful.

Igor Guerrero
02 April, 2009

must read

Good to see the way how they created the framework, what makes them to apply these rules and patterns. This book expanded my .net world and I was pondering over the design many times.

Idei Csaba
09 March, 2009

Great read for anyone who designs APIs for external users

I build a product for users that has a large and complicated API. Over the years the API has grown sort of as the users needed it, and as the developers working on it thought of things. As a result you end up with one designers version of a variable called IsSet and another in another class called Active. The little things in an API (like consistent naming) make a big difference to users. So I was interested when I saw this book was from the Dot Net team.

The book is a series of guidelines, and then callouts from various contributors to the framework of why they like or dislike the rule. And in some cases very frank revelations about where they broke the rule and have now come to regret it. I like that format as most of the authors seemed to be very willing to discuss the frameworks mess ups and not just point to the parts they got right. It makes it seem much more human and approachable to me now.

There is not a lot of examples in the book though, it is mostly about building a style and set of guidelines for your application framework. I think this would make a great read for entry level programmers to help them understand the why you don't allow them to change the way things are exposed publicly, or to programmers who are looking to start designing APIs and are just looking for guidance. It is not a concrete how to build an API for doing "sometask". It is all about the theory behind API design and why you should employ the rules.

I have experienced many of the pains they explain in the book first hand (especially about Interfaces). Wish I would have read it before I released the first version of our API. I am implementing some changes based upon what I have read here, so it is definately a worthy book for those looking to take their design skills a little further.


Jason Short
05 February, 2009

A must-have personal favorite

If you haven't bought this book yet, you really should. The first edition has been an invaluable asset to me on a number of past projects, and the second edition is even better with sections on newer language and framework features such as Linq and extension methods.

I've seen, read, and even written a few standards documents in my time as a professional programmer, and I think this book is the last one I'll be needing. The format of the book is one I always enjoyed, with the guidance interspersed with comments from the "peanut gallery" of Microsoft architects. These asides give you a lot of insight into the "why"s, something which a lot of standards documents are missing (I'm talking about YOU, IDesign). It's one thing to be told to do something in a particular way, but it's a lot better when you are taught why. Simple coding patterns that I wouldn't have given a second thought to have turned out to have a great impact on other aspect of my code once they were explained.

The basics are covered, such as naming and formatting standards, but the book goes much further with sections about when and how to use certain interfaces, and provides some brief explanations of common design patterns as they relate to the .net framework. I'm not talking about "Visitor" or "Model View Presenter" here, I'm talking about "IDisposable"... muuuch lower level stuff.

Basically, this book isn't just about what you ought to be doing, it's about explaining why Microsoft did what they did in the .net framework. It's refreshing at times in the book to find a discussion about how something was a bad choice in retrospect, or how the framework designers wished they had done something differently knowing then what they know now. I feel a lot better about my own changes of mind, and less like an amateur for not having seen the eventual solution in the beginning. After reading it, I'm more comfortable that I've made the right career decision to stick with this programming stuff.

Another great asset included with this book is the DVD. It's full of training sessions and example API specifications. One of the first things I did with the previous edition was to convert all the videos to play on my Zune, and spent the next few weeks watching through them whenever I got the chance. I probably won't watch them all over again, since I think they're the same videos, but they're definitely worth the watching.

Melvin W. Grubb
18 January, 2009

A complete college course for the price of a book

If you are doing .NET development, you must have this book by your side. It is a great reference and it is very readable. It is great to just flip through and pick out a topic or to read from start to finish.

The knowledge the notes included by industry leaders provide great insight into the 'why' of the decision to do what they did. They also point out the mistakes made in the framework design that often lead to confusion when using the framework.

It stands as our coding standard on our team for framework development. It gives our team a solid base of information to refer to, especially when arguing about religious issues and doing code reviews.

The CD includes classes (videos) that teach every chapter of the book. It is like getting a complete college course for the price of a book.

If you don't have this on your shelf or in your backpack, do not bother interviewing for my team.

T. Anderson
04 December, 2008

A Developer Must Have

This book is a must read for .Net developers. I highly recommend it. I'm sure everyone will be able expand on something they didn't know with this book. I would have liked to have seen a electronic copy of the Coding Style Conventions and a summary of all the Do, Consider, Do Not for each chapter to use as a quick reference guide.

DRS
22 November, 2008