Microsoft Silverlight Books

waste of money

I agree with many reviewers. Search the web for WPF tutorials/information.

I can only guess why few of the books do a good job explaining a complex subject such as "binding". Even one of the authors of this book (Griffiths) said understanding is gained by experience. This book doesn't explain "binding" unless (as many books) you already know the subject.

Read the reviews. Reviewers for the MacDonald book say

This book doesn't explain "binding" unless you already know the subject. The vocabulary is partly to blame. Never use terms that haven't been defined.

After I've mastered the subject, I'll be able to explain the subject in minutes. Why? Because I understand how to introduce a complex subject without relying on previous knowledge.

In this book there is an example "Binding to Relational Data". The author(s) start off fine but wander into synchronicity using complex terms. Best to stick to explaining the binding involved. I converted this example to using MS SQL Server 2008 but still do not thoroughly understand the "binding" involved. I can email the project if you'd like to see it.

New development...I bought the Sams "Teach Yourself WPF in 24 hours" and it is great!

I'd start with "Teach Yourself WPF in 24 hours". Terse/clear handling of code snippets to put over a point...completely.

Many books require a knowledge of the subject in order to read it.

I wonder where all these rave book reviews come from. friends and family?

Want a example of WPF + SQL Server 2008 Express? Email [...]

uses delete, update, select and insert.

Do me a favor and shoot it full of holes!

I wrote it for VS 2008 Express and it converted correctly to VS2010 Beta2 (except for a bunch of artifacts)



Landon M. Kelsey III
02 November, 2009

.NET Developer Group Coban

Es un libro facil de entender. LWPF es una framework de presentacion muy buena y completa. Me gustaria ver este libro en espanol y las ilustraciones en color.

By:

Jose Rolando Guay Paz
19 July, 2009

Out of Date & VERY bad index

If you like using the index in the back of your reference books then this is NOT the book for you. It is shameful how HORRIBLE the index is.

It was also written before framework 3.5 came out. So, it's pretty out of date.

I bought this book based on all of the good reviews. But in the course of developing while learning WPF, I went to Google instead of this book 9 times out of 10 whenever I had a problem.

A. SMOLAK
09 July, 2009

Not Recommended

I bought this book with great expectations, but was disappointed. After spending several months trying to become somewhat familiar with WPF, I thought I was ready to delve into the details. So, I purchased "Programming WPF." Sorry to say, I couldn't understand much of what the authors had to say.

If you already have a good understanding of WPF, you can probably learn more from the book. Don't expect this book to help you much if you are relatively new to WPF.

This book suffers from three common problems. The index doesn't relate well to the content. The book lacks a glossary of terms. The book was apparently reviewed by a technical editor who focused only on accuracy; it should also have been reviewed by an editor who focused on how well the text might be understood by learners.

People who already know WPF well might learn much from this book. It's not a book for people who are not already experienced.


Gordon Padwick
28 March, 2009

Good overview but details must be obtained elsewhere

A person learning C# programming like me needs a method to gather user input and show results to users; WPF is the obvious choice. This book provides a good overview of WPF and gets you started programming it. However, you will still have to make frequent reference to the Microsoft library documentation for details of the various classes. Also, many of the examples are advanced and presume you are just adding on WPF knowledge to a strong .NET probramming background. This makes the book of limited value to beginners.

Gerry 73
07 January, 2009

Great Book - Still one of the better primers on WPF

The book is well organized and very easy to read. It captures both the novice as well as those who have been working in WPF since beta (or is that CTP). The only complaints I have for the book are really just complaints on WPF in general. A lot of the material in the book (as well as WPF in general) focuses on making fairly outlandish applications (getting all the wizz bang features and animations). What I find lacking are items like validation, threading (when having a long background task), and items more akin to Windows Forms development. This book was an invaluable tool while I put together my first WPF application.

Mathew Upchurch
04 November, 2008

Possibly a "Classic"

A quick background of my skills prior to reading the book so you know where I'm coming from:
- Strong: C++, Win32, 2D UI
- Learning: C#, .NET, WPF, XAML, XML

Being extremely anxious to dig in to WPF, I was seeking a book that would hold my hand through the process but by the end, leave no stones unturned. This book comes close.

My first attempt at learning was "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan. I quickly became frustrated with the book because I was regularly feeling lost. You know, like when you are conversing with a really intelligent person who has a hard time helping you connect the dots. I do recommend Adam's book as a supplement as it's got good material and is in full color. After reading the reviews for "Programming WPF" by Sells & Griffiths I took the leap.

I read the book cover to cover minus 3 chapters: 3D, Interoperability and Async/Multithreaded -- about 700 of 800 pages. Usually books this fat have lots of useless pages. Not this book, no sir, which just goes to show how much there is to learn about WPF and XAML. In a word, the book is brilliant, written for experienced programmers who want to learn WPF and XAML.

It has the same feel as Petzold's Win 3.x books, i.e. Light-hearted, start easy and built to a powerful crescendo as the chapters progress. The latter chapters are no more difficult to digest than the previous chapters, but do build upon previous chapters. That said, I was extremely grateful that the book didn't have a grand project that was slowly built upon chapter by chapter; code examples mostly stood on their own and were plentiful (and they worked as printed!)

As noted above, I know very little about WinForms, and WPF is the obvious successor. Though parallels were duly noted, I was thrilled that there were not constant sidebars saying "Hey Mr. WinForms! Everything's OK! This is just new stuff and you can handle it. Rah! Rah! Rah!" As the authors make abundantly clear from page 1, WPF is light years ahead of WinForms.

As noted above, WPF and XAML are big topics so be prepared to get up and stretch your legs a lot, hold you head frequently and doubt the wisdom of learning new things.

On the down side, the book is weighted a bit too heavily towards XAML for my tastes. Since C# can do absolutely everything (and more) that XAML can do, I wish there were more dual examples that show how XAML does it and then how C# does it. There are examples like this but not enough. This would satisfy the curiousity of developers who wonder about how XAML "magically" achieves things.

Another gripe, now that I am attempting to apply what I have learned: I am frequently having to turn to a Google search to find details not present in the book. For example, the section about event bubbling covers good ground but I immediately had a problem when trying to use bubbling: I was attempting to use it with sibling elements and that does not work but (as far as I can tell) this was not noted in the book. It feels as though the book was not field tested.

And a final gripe: The index is sparse. I am regularly having to pencil in items.

Some brief notes:
- I really hope this book evolves along with WPF's evolution
- The material seemed fresh (as of Oct 2008) except the Silverlight appendix which has aged since Silverlight 2.0 has been released
- The corresponding errata website does not seem to be updated regularly (though I didn't encounter many editing problems)
- Even though the book only has a dozen pages of color plates, you won't feel deprived as the examples will light up your display in all sorts of fun ways.


T. Dowdell
20 October, 2008

Sells Sells

I have both WPF books by Chris Anderson and Adam Nathan. I read initial chapters of both of them but never got so excited to continue reading and got astray into LINQ and other stuff. Then I bought this one from Chris Sells and all I can say is it is much better than both Anderson and Adam book and the book keeps you engaged making you eager to find out what next in very simple terms and wonderful example. I loved the way the data binding chapter was explained and am hoping to finish this soon.

Great Job Sells and Ian.

Akash Aggarwal
18 September, 2008

A book even Evangelists can learn from

I'm almost ashamed to admit that after diving into WPF back when it was known as "Avalon", I haven't even touched WPF since. So I finally needed to suck it up, get started, and learn WPF.

As somebody new to WPF, I just have to give a huge "Thank You" to both Chris and Ian. This book is very entertaining and the quality of the writing between both Chris and Ian is just tremendous. The pace of the book is perfect and the teaching style is one that any developer can relate to.

As a Technical Evangelist working for Microsoft, I think that every "Evangelist" in the tech industry can learn from Chris and Ian on how to tell a compelling story that developers can relate to and "grok". We evangelists are all-too-willing to simply explain the technical details of an API while completely forgetting to answer the "why" (let alone telling a compelling story to suck people in). This is yet another area that this book excels at.

I can say with full confidence that this book is the first book I recommend to anybody wanting to dive into WPF. Enjoy!

Jason Olson, Technical Evangelist, Visual Studio & the .NET Framework
[...]


Jason Olson
05 September, 2008

Witty, clearly written, easy to understand -- an excellent book!

Writing a programming book is not an easy thing to do -- I know, because I've done it myself. And I have to say that I'm really impressed with the job that Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths have done with "Programming WPF". This is one of the best programming books I've ever read (and I've read a lot of them).

For a programming book to be good, it's not enough for it to simply contain all of the information that you need to know. If that information doesn't stick to your brain, then the book hasn't done it's job. If you want the information to stick, then the book has to be interesting to read. It has to have a lot of clear examples that show you real-world applications without extraneous fluff. And to be really effective, all of that should be done with a little bit of style and wit.

And I'm really pleased to say that "Programming WPF" does all of those things. I recently needed a refresher on WPF, so I just spent a lot of time over the last few weeks going through the book very carefully. And I have to say that I'm really impressed. It's engaging, interesting and they chose really good examples. And it's witty! (You'd be amazed at how the occasional chuckle keeps a reader from getting that "eyes glazed over" feeling that far too many books induce.)

I know from experience -- believe me, I know! -- just how hard it is to pull that off. And they did it with style. So first of all, congratulations to Chris and Ian for doing a great job. And second, if you're a C# developer looking for a good, hands-on way to learn WPF, I highly recommend "Programming WPF".

Andrew Stellman
25 August, 2008

Even better than the 1st edition

I bought the first edition of this book called Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (AKA Avalon) at the PDC in 2005 and read it completely on the plane home.

When I heard the second edition was released I didn't think much would have changed, but this is even better than the first edition. It's twice as big and covers all major (and not so major) topics in WPF (inc. an introduction to 3D and Silverlight).

I think this book will proof to be for WPF what Programming Windows, Fifth Edition is for WIN32 programming.

P. van Brenk
13 May, 2008

This Book is a Valuable Resource

This book is the most in depth resource into WPF i have seen. And not just that, it gets to the good stuff that you'll actually use in your code and not just filler or lists of properties that you can get from intelisense. The examples are extremely useful.

The other benefit of this book is that it doesn't just tell you how to do things, but why. This is incredibly helpful in finding the best solution to your specific problem.

Thanks guys! great book!
Ralph

R. E. B.
02 May, 2008

Ignore the 2 and 3 star reviews

I say to ignore those reviews because they do not refer to this book. This is the second edition published August 28, 2007 with 863 pages. Those reviews are based off of the first edition published nearly two years before (September 12, 2005) and with only 447 pages.

Using Amazon's 'Search inside this book' takes you to the 2005 edition also. That shows only 10 chapters while this edition has 17. Most of the negative comments from the 2 and 3 star reviewers seem to have been resolved.

Jason Goemaat
25 April, 2008

Not Just XAML, Great on 3D

The biggest strength of this book is that it focus on using WPF programatically, not just laying out XAML. This is extremely useful if you are writing an application for 3D data visualization or a database driven application. You get to learn to create event handlers, generate meshes... all programmatically. I also believe that this book is great, not just as a learning tool, but as a reference guide. It is the most comprehensive book on the subject and a must for the aspiring WPF developer.

If you just want to focus on XAML, however, I will have to recommend "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" by Adam Nathan.

Marcelo Lombardi
26 February, 2008

Not worth of buying

As a software developer I've written tons of production-level code for many companies including Rockwell Automation, Compuware, MS.
And I found this book to be too shallow for a technical person like me.

[One can save money by simply downloading WPF SDK samples and learning them]

Can one design and implement a better than WPF framework after reading this book? Obviously not!

No wonder, the authors never developed significant portions of any known product/framework!

Also, my e-mail exchange with C. Sells indicates that he himself doesn't really understand WPF in depth.
(BTW, as a MS employee he has luxury of having access to WPF source code and symbols - he obviously didn't bother to do so)

Just a few examples:
-- Managed/Unmanaged transition, e.g. the MIL stuff
-- Lack of understanding the WPF control model
-- Lack of understanding the WPF text model
-- Just like in any other *shallow WPF book* [are there deep WPF books out there?] authors make no effort to scrutinize the existing framework (WPF). [Which is definitely far from being clean and nice]
-- WPF "GDI-free" claims are nonsense since WPF uses User32 and User32 and Gdi32 libs are tightly coupled.



Aleksandr Mikunov
15 February, 2008

The best WPF book

I've been starting to learn WPF for 6 months now. I'm stuck a bit in this study process as first of all in our company we have not had yet any project where we could use WPF.
Another reason why I was stuck was a bit because of books, so far I had following WPF books on my bookshelf:

Professional WPF Programming (Wrox, Chris Andrade et al)
Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (Sams, Adam Nathan)

Both books are not bad at all, but somehow I was having quite alienated feeling while reading them.

My common feeling from reading of Adam Nathan's books (Com Interop, WPF Unleashed, Silverlight Unleashed), is that I'm reading quite comprehensive and very nicely formatted/pictured Encyclopedia. Reading encyclopedias can be a good exercise, but in case of WPF I would not consider it to be the best first step to do.

Professional WPF Programming from Wrox is quite inconsistent for my type of programmer, because it looks like guys tried to write the book that would be have same value for the "creative UI" and core developers, while it may be important at some stage to see the WPF world by the "creative UI" developer eyes, it is not he best starting point for me.

And now, finally I got into the book which is making the trick of "being it" for me:

Programming WPF (O'Reilly, Chris Sells & Ian Griffiths)

The book is in its second edition now which proves something, and is pretty actual.

I'm absolutely enjoying the style of the book and the way information is provided. I'm typing/running my versions of the code they provide as I read and feeling finally well about the process of getting into the new technology.

It used to be Wrox 5 or so years ago to me, but now my credit goes to O'Reilly with series of books I consider to be the best in the field:
Programming WCF Services, Programming Windows Workflow Foundation, and now Programming WPF.




Stanislav Dvoychenko
22 January, 2008

Best book on WPF

I read another book on WPF before this, I read a bunch of articles but none like the sell's book are so practical and clear in explaining the approach to Windows Presentation Framework.
The book is not a "copy" of the documentation, Sells give a lot of tips on how to use WPF and XAML in the best way.
There is also an excellent appendix on XAML that give you all the essential things you need to start using it.

DelBono Emanuele
18 January, 2008

Very Complete 2nd Edition - Must Have

Programming WPF is probably the first book on WPF I ever read (the 1st Edition) and the last one (2nd Edition) I'll be buying (which is a good thing, since I have 7 WPF-related books now). The first edition was a real treat because there was nothing else available a the time and Chris and Ian really hit some topics (like Databinding) very well - so well that they set the standard for books to come. As each pre-release of WPF came out they dutifully updated the XAML and Framework calls of all the examples from the book. But with the production version of the .NET 3.0 Framework there was so much more that programmers needed to know. Ian took the WPF show on the road and Chris listened to a lot of feedback from the developer community - the results of which really come out in this new edition.

The 2nd Edition of Programming WPF comes in strong as the most complete text available on WPF. The authors' diverse background lead to a great blend of clear and concise writing for a wide variety of topics. The introductory chapters are great for beginners just getting into WPF, but there is also great detail in the advanced chapters to get you well into topics such as: handling graphics, bitmaps, databinding (templates and stying), animations, 3D, text and flow documents, and more.

I like the way they take typically hard topics (e.g. Control Templates) and go deep with concrete examples and helpful code/apps like "Show Me The Template!" from Chapter 9. They also show that they understand "real programming" environments when they don't just gloss over issues such as the interoperability of WPF and Windows Forms (which isn't a stretch because they've written on Windows Forms as well).

A "taste of Silverlight" left me wanting more - maybe there will be a companion Silverlight book once 2.0 ships? The color section in the middle was helpful but awkward, as you read through it when you get to the center of the book and see color versions of pictures you are already past and glimpse pictures of what is to come. I applaud the inclusion of only 32 pages of basic XAML syntax - enough to give you an understanding of the language but not so much as to take over the book (some books can end up being 1/3 to 1/2 syntax and framework references, which is why you install the MSDN Library and Intellisense). I wanted to see something about Expression Blend or even Design as these tools become important when doing good UI design, but at 800+ pages already there really isn't room (and I don't know what I would have cut to make room).

While several of the other WPF books have been good to read through and learn from, I can see the Programming WPF book being one that will become a reference book to return to many times over when you have need for a certain feature of WPF.


Bruce Abernethy
31 December, 2007

A great comeback!

The first edition of "Programming WPF" was the first book I've read about WPF (I bought it at PDC 2005) and, since then, a lot of others appeared maybe better than that, now dated, release.
The new version comes back with nearly the double of pages and others chapters missing on previous edition (3D and Silverlight among them).
This 2nd realease has doubled the pages and contains useful details and inner workings haven't found anywhere (e.g: this book contains the best definition of a freezable object I've ever read)
Even if i own nearly all published WPF book, i always go to this to catch up the final detail on any WPF doubt.
Recommended on your desk!

Corrado Cavalli
11 December, 2007

Pragmatic, immediateley applicable, well done.

This is exactly the book you need on "both ends" of working with a technology like WPF:
End 1 - The Beginning - When you're brand-new to WPF, you're quite anxious to start coding immediately, and this book pays off immediately. In each section, there is meaty depth (or, if you're vegan, "carroty depth") with extensive code examples you can type in and fiddle with. While each chapter does build upon the previous, you still get to really work with each chapter's topic instead of the overly-Professorial or baby-step approach you get with other books.
End 2 -- Well on the road -- Once you're up to your armpits in real WPF development, the book is fantastic as a reference. Look up the topic you can't quite figure out or can't recall, and everything you need is there, again with terrific code examples and notch-outs with real-world experiences to keep in mind.

Somewhere along the way, a book like WPF Unleashed (which I really don't consider a competitor to this book, but instead a good companion) is a good read to fill you in on the deeper architectural and design patterns within WPF, and will fill in any cracks that may remain after reading this text.

But for a "dive in now" AND "reference later" text, this is an excellent choice. It's also over 600 pages, making it an excellent footrest or doorstop, in the event you decide WPF is not for you.



Michael Henderson
16 November, 2007

Great Book from Excellent Authors

The life of a computer consultant can at times be very trying. I've been tackling new technology for over twenty years and the transition phase is always interesting. You're not only struggling to find time to learn the new technology, but since there's almost no public expertise to tap into (even Google can't find information that hasn't been written yet) I rely on books and whatever online forums are the most active.

In the case of Windows Presentation Foundation, there is one fairly active online forum on MSDN:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=119&SiteID=1

But even the forums are fleeting. If the person that knows the answer to your question happens to see it fly by and is in the mood to tap out a detailed answer, you're one of the lucky few to get a quick answer. More often than not, you'll get a pointer to some section of MSDN and well, that's not really an answer, is it?

So that leaves us with the books. The books are often rehashes of the online material, but in the case of Programming WPF this is definitely not the case.

Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths have added quality code samples while welding together an enormous amount of material to make a highly readable and usable book.

WPF and XAML are really very different technologies. If you're comfortable with HTML, XAML is going to drive you crazy at first. If you read through the book, you're going to eventually see how it all folds together and those frustrations will fall to the wayside. The power and potential of WPF is clear once you work through how to layout windows, how to develop controls, and how to still do all of the things you're used to doing in a Windows application.

I highly recommend this book for anyone that's transitioning to WPF and/or Silverlight technologies.


David A. Cornelson
19 October, 2007

The definitive WPF title...want to learn WPF, buy it!

In common with Chris Sells' previous book this has quickly become the definitive work on this technology. Ian and Chris have produced a wonderfully readable work (a BIG plus for a book on a technical subject) with the most complere coverage yet seen, which makes this new technology a breeze to learn.
I was going to write a long, rambling review of this book...but it doesn't need it. If you want to learn WPF buy this book...there's nothing else out there which even touches the detail and coverage of this one!

Scott Galloway
09 October, 2007

This is *The* WPF Book for Application Developers

I was lucky enough to be the developmental editor for this book. This review is from that perspective.

First and foremost, this is not a quick and dirty update to the previous edition. Ian and Chris spent a lot of time to produce a thorough update that retains the same tone as the previous version while providing complete coverage of the important WPF 1.0 concepts and bits.

Additionally, the book is easier to read than the previous edition because Chris and Ian also spent significant time on the writing itself.

However, my favorite aspect of the book was how much new stuff about WPF I learned. I'd been a writer on the Microsoft WPF SDK for almost 1.5 years when I did the developmental edit on their book, so I was pretty comfortable with WPF. And, yet, several chapters enhanced my knowledge (of concepts and bits), particularly the data binding and graphics chapters.

I am bias in my review of this book given my role in its development but, irrespective, it's the only WPF book *for application developers* that I'll be using.

M. Weinhardt
03 October, 2007

Important material unique to this book

I've read many "how to program with WPF" books, and already have a year of programming experience in WPF, so I'm really not able to fairly review books like this, at least from a beginner's point of view. However, I am confident that there is enough important material unique to this book that it is a must-have for the shelf of a WPF programmer. Despite its girth (835 pages), it isn't able to explain every facet of WPF in detail - in particular, I noticed that the Border class was given very little reference. I was worried that I wouldn't find much of anything I didn't already know, but I was fortunately wrong on that account, and will close the review by summarizing the most interesting bits (to me):

p. 59: You can safely use data binding with Settings.
p. 136: Explains how focus scope affects command routing.
p. 189: Good information on validation, including custom validation.
p. 226: Grouping with PropertyGroupDescription.
p. 298: Handy table of the template parts used by each control.
p. 336: The ValidateBindings method.
p. 341: You can navigate a NavigationWindow to a string.
p. 379: It's dangerous to use types as resource keys.
ch. 12: Great information on resources.
p. 432: Working with bitmaps and bitmap effects.
p. 484: Low-level text output.
ch. 15: Outstanding information on printing.
p. 672: Using attached properties to identify template placeholders.
p. 730: Screenshots demonstrating airspace issues with interop.

E. Ball
02 October, 2007

One of the best technical books I've ever read [updated]

I've read hundreds of technical books; this is one of the best. Period, and without exaggeration.

Sells and Griffiths combine phenomenal insight into the technology with years of practical application and an extraordinary ability to convey highly technical material in a way that is clear, concise and coherent. I wish I knew as much as they, or wrote as well; and that is not false modesty: they are the gold standard.

The second edition builds on the foundations they laid in the first, but goes well beyond. If you bought the first edition do not hesitate to buy the second; it not only updates the material, but adds at least half again as much new information and greatly expands on the insights they have to offer.

There are other books on WPF well worth owning, but this book is absolutely mandatory. If you have only enough money for one, this is the one. If you can't afford this one, then give up Starbucks and start drinking Dunkin'... 'cause you have to have this one.

On a personal note, Ian has tech-reviewed one of my books, and I can personally attest to the depth and breadth and comprehensiveness of his knowledge. He knows whereof he speaks; and I've yet to find a single instance where his understanding was shallow, let alone wrong. He brings a rigor to his writing that is not marred by pedanticism, and together, he and Chris Sells have managed that most difficult of feats: a two-author book that speaks with a single, clear voice that leaves you with few questions.

This is a six-star book; don't hesitate. In fact, stop reading my silly review and buy the book.

[NB: My opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of Microsoft Corporation, O'Reilly Media or any other entity real or fictitious. Your mileage may vary. Contents are hot. Void where prohibited.]


=====

Updated 2/24/08

I'm working on learning Silverlight 2 very fast. And I have very limited resources: the compiler (which is changing every day), the documentation (which is changing every day) and numerous books on WPF (which is very nearly a superset of Silverlight 2).

When I read through the 3 main books on WPF I liked them all, though at the time I gave this one the nod, albeit just barely. But now I'm not reading through them, my professional life is on the line. I have real work to do on very tight deadlines and tough concepts to understand fully (concepts like Dependency Properties and Routed Events) and little time to learn them fully and viscerally.

No other book comes close. The documentation is very good, but it doesn't come close. This book is by far the best resource and it is because Chris and Ian have the ideal combination of a deep understanding of the technology and an unusual ability to convey that to their target audience (which, as far as I can tell, is me).

Writing a book that can make powerful and important concepts immediately clear, accessible and usable is uniquely valuable, and makes this book a clear candidate for Programming Book of the Decade.

-Jesse Liberty
Senior Program Manager - Silverlight Development Division
Silverlight Geek
Author
(Opinions expressed are mine alone)

Jesse Liberty
30 September, 2007

Well done!!!!

Thank you very much for this book, Chris!!

This is an excellent book, well organized smooth flow from start to end.
Easy to understand, before reading this book, learning WPF was really frustrating after reading this book, seems too easy. Code samples are excellent, I am working with VS 2008 beta 2 and pretty much all programs work too...


Wpf lover
28 September, 2007

A great way to get started with WPF

I read many articles on WPF, seen many presentations and read Petzold's book on XAML. They all seem to focus on the 3D rendering aspects, and spend little to no time on how to create real business style applications, which use normal controls, care about localization, layout of lists and trees. Chris his book made me understand WPF and XAML in a way I can truly say I not only understand it, but I can also apply that knowledge to build real WPF application. Given I was not and will never be the expert Windows UI developer, "Programming WPF" got me going. It is easy to read, with clear language and clear examples.

Thanks Chris,
Gert "DataDude" Drapers
Software Architect
Microsoft Corp.

Gert Drapers
23 September, 2007

No business value

I learned more on wpf from Microsoft Expression blend tutorials on weblogs than i did in this book.

It will tell you a lot about
1)Layout (manual layout in code/xaml)
2)Graphics (manual graphics in code/xaml)

It will NOT tell you about
1) dynamic data binding
2) how to create an app start to finish using expression and all of the tools available to you for wpf
3) how to validate data
4) how to use the navigation service and pages
5) how to use page functions
6) how to use property bags


And those are just the road blocks i've run into so far and had to research on my own. This book really let me down by not giving me even the slightest hint into the tools i would need to finish a business project!

James D. Peckham
11 April, 2007

Be warned - very out of date!

The next version - based on the final release of WPF, and updated to reflect the numerous changes to WPF since this first edition was published (and so contains code samples that actually work, correctly named classes/methods etc) - is not due to be released, according to the O'reilly website, until July 2007. Personally I would STRONGLY suggest holding off buying this book until then. When I read this edition in mid-2006 it felt out of date even then, let alone now! Please note: the new edition will be called "Programming WPF".

For example, excerpt from the first edition:
"Relational Data Source. As of the current build, WPF has no direct support for binding to relational databases, and the indirect support is not in such great shape either" meaning none of that is covered in this book.

Jack Ukleja
15 March, 2007

A great overview

This book is a little out of date, but it's clear and concise. It's an excellent overview that helped me to get my first application up and running.

Adrian R. Jones
06 March, 2007

Very good book on WPF

This covers all the necessary topics on WPF. It gives good starting point about WPF programming. I liked the author style and the way examples were given. Though this book is old version of WPF still you will get good hang of WPF programming.

K. Kolla
08 January, 2007

Good book to get advantage

Some times when you need to get advantage in you code of technologies that will be coming soon, you must read a heterogeneous sources of information each one of them partial. This is a book to join them together. This is my first reference book in WPF. This is what you need if you want to be a high technology programmer this is your book.

Caja Madrid Visa Electron
10 November, 2006

Excellent book, we even use it at Microsoft ...

I am working on a commercial XML application at Microsoft that is heavily leveraging WPF and pretty much all of the devs on my project that are developing in WPF have this book sitting open on their desks right now. It is a really great, easy to read and understandable book. You still need the detailed documentation on MSDN when you want to see all of the API details but if you want a logical, understandable walk throught WPF this is the book.

I am amazed at WPF's power, flexibility, and architectural consistency. In my opinion WPF will impact all of our thinking about fat versus thin client and what is possible on the desktop. We will see this in the next wave of applications built with WPF that will soon show up, and represent the state of the art in client based applicaions. This book is the seminal publication that many of us will remember as launching us into this new, groundbreaking technology.

Dave Remy
http://blogs.msdn.com/daveremy

David L. Remy
19 June, 2006

Very Out Of Date

While Avalon aka Windows Presentation Framework is still in beta, I had hoped that the code examples and references in this book would not be far out of date. I am finding that they are dramatically out of date (writing this review 04/27/2006). This is not to criticize the quality of the book or of the content; it appears to be well written. However, it was written in September 2005, and there has been at least 3 new beta releases of the framework since then. About 1/2 of the examples I have tried will not even compile, or have bad runtime errors.

The "big concepts" are mostly unchanged. However, I cannot recommend this book to anyone. Programmer to programmer, you will be better off reading examples from online sources like msdn.microsoft.com and downloading new WPF tools like "Expression". This book will find you confused with broken examples fast. I look forward to an updated version when Avalon solidifies.

Jason Jackson
28 April, 2006

A thorough grounding

The nascent WinFX API, of which Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a part, is one of the most exciting developments in Windows programming in years. Though the technology is still in beta (it is slated to ship with Windows Vista in late 2006 or early 2007), it can be used to build working applications now, in either the Vista beta or Windows XP with Service Pack 2, allowing the adventurous developer to get a jump start in the technology that will drive Windows development for the next decade.

I know of no better introduction to WPF than this book. The authors are extremely well-versed in the topic and their writing is clear and concise, enabling you to get up-to-speed in the minimum amount of time. You can tell that they are as excited about the promises of this technology as the rest of us, and the enthusiasm they bring to the topic makes the reading more enjoyable. They also volunteer their time in many forums and newsgroups (as well as maintaining their own Web sites and blogs), answering questions and helping programmers ramp up quickly. They even provide an eMail address that readers can use to get help with technical questiosn.

The task of writing a technical book is daunting enough under any circumstances. I can't even begin to imagine what it must be like to attempt the feat with a technology that is still in constant flux. With every new Community Technology Preview of WinFX, Microsoft makes major changes to the syntax of WPF. Therefore, through no fault of the authors, it must be noted that many of the examples in the book are out-of-date. However, Chris maintains a list on his Web site (sellsbrothers.com) of changes necessitated by each successive release. And actually, being aware of the transformations the syntax has gone through over time can give you invaluable insight into how the technology works, deep down.

As they note in the Preface, the book is not for neophyte programmers. Chris and Ian assume that their audience is familiar with Microsoft .NET programming and with Object Oriented Programming concepts. Further, all examples in the book are either in XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language, the XML-based language for declaratively creating WPF user interfaces) or C#. However, VB.NET developers should not shy away from the book, as the examples are mostly clear enough that they can be deciphered pretty easily. In fact, translating some of the C# examples into VB.NET code can be one of the best ways to ensure that you understand the principles that a given example seeks to illustrate.

All in all, I find it hard to imagine a better introduction to WPF than this book. If you're a Windows developer, you should be interested in WPF (and the other pillars of WinFX), and if you're interested in WPF, you need this book.

Jeffrey J. Tennessen
20 April, 2006

Get up to speed quickly

Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths' PROGRAMMING WINDOWS PRESENTATION FOUNDATION is for programmers new to WPF as well as those with some experience. Get up to speed quickly writing WPF applications, then use the examples and disussions of the new programming features to understand how its complex features work. WPF will streamline both web and Windows applications programming. All are excellent guides promising lasting references.


D. Donovan, Editor/Sr. Reviewer
13 April, 2006

They don't come better...

I honestly can't remember the last time I had so much goood old fashioned fun whilst working through a software engineering book. I'd recommend Sells and Ians book over the Wrox press title since it some how manages to appeal to both the left and right sides of your brain at the same time. A neat trick and something any book about programming UI and user experiences should aspire to. The only "problem" with this book is that it's oh so tempting to go off on little "what-if" programming tangents as Chris and Ian reveal just how darn elegant WPF actually is. Get this book.

T. Kirby Green
05 April, 2006

Painless intro to powerful technology

If you want a slick and pain-free introduction to WPF, this is the book to get. It's based on Whidbey Beta2, so it's pretty current. Chris's style, as usual, is conversational but information-rich, and he carries you along easily from subject to subject. Highly recommended for all skill levels. Okay, you'll probably want to be pretty comfortable in the .NET environment and UI control development.



James Galasyn
18 March, 2006

VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

Are you a developer? Well, you're in luck! Authors Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that will help you get your job done.

Sells and Griffiths, begin by introducing the basics of WPF. Next, the authors show you how to use the layout toolkit, and how to extend it. Then, they describe the controls built into the WPF framework and show you how to make your application respond when the user interacts with controls. The authors continue by showing you how to use WPF's data-binding features to connect the user interface to your underlying data. In addition, the authors next examine the customization facilities and show you how the styling and template mechanisms allow you to wield this power without compromising the consistency of your application's appearance. They also describe WPF's resource-handling mechanisms, which are used for managing styles, themes, and binary resources such as graphics. Then, the authors discuss WPF's powerful set of drawing primitives. They continue by describing WPF's animation facilities, which allow most visible aspects of a user interface (such as size, shape, color, and position) to be animated. In addition, the authors next show you how to write custom controls and other custom element types. Finally, they describe how ClickOnce allows applications to take full advantage of WPF's rich visual and interactive functionality while enjoying the benefits of web deployment.

The good thing about this excellent book is that it will get you up to speed on WPF. Needless to say, WPF (as is discussed in this book) represents the best of the control-based Windows world and the content-based web world.


John R. Vacca
12 March, 2006

Excellent for those of us getting started with WPF

When I opened this book I knew very little about WPF (Avalon). The book is serving as a fine introduction to the topic. It's well written and seems to have just the information I want it to have.

I'd like more info about the 3D features of WPF, but I understand that's a bit outside the scope of the book.

Very well done.

Eric Sink
28 February, 2006

An amazing reference WPF

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), while in its early stages, is poised to make radical changes in the way that we design and code our applications user interface. Community Technology Previews (CTP) of the technolgy have been out for quite some time now, and while the documentation for WPF has been quite good, there has been no real roadmap or guidance on the fundamentals.

This book fills that gap. It starts at the most basic level, working it's way up to more complex examples (and I do mean complex, going into gradiant shading and animations with multiple timelines, for example). This is all done at a pace that I found very easy to handle, while maintaining my interest in the book overall with clear, concise examples which I find myself referencing over and over.

This is one of the few books that I will keep on my desk, and refer to over and over.

Nicholas A. Paldino
09 February, 2006

Must have pre-release reference!

If you're thinking of learning "Avalon" before it releases this is a "must have" to get started. Combine this with some of the videos from the PDC[1] and you have a comprehensive introduction to "Avalon".

Some things have changed since the book was written, but Chris and Ian have a website dedicated to what has changed. If you type in the code and it doesnt work check the "Change Notes" page [2] first to see if its something they've noted.

There are several other books in the works by Chris Anderson [3] and Charles Petzold[4] which may also help after "Avalon" releases.

December 2005

[1]http://microsoft.sitestream.com/PDC05/Default.htm
[2]http://www.sellsbrothers.com/writing/avbook/
[3]http://www.simplegeek.com
[4]http://www.charlespetzold.com

JFo
30 December, 2005

Must Have At This Point

If you are interested in Avalon (WPF) at all, then this is the book you need! It is by far the best book on the subject that's currently available. Sure, this is still beta technology and by now a few new builds have been made available, but updated samples are available online.

Not only will the technology change before it is released, but there will also be a lot of new tools available by the time it ships. For the time being however, this book tells you how things are done without special tools. And it can never hurt to know how things are done under the hood.

Long story short: If you are interested in Avalon, buy this book!

Markus Egger
29 December, 2005

Currently the best book to learn WPF (Avalon)

I can't add much more than what has been said by other reviewers. Excellent book, well worth the price. Until possibly Chris Anderson's book arrives (http://www.simplegeek.com/), this is the only book worth buying on WPF

Matt Davey
http://mdavey.wordpress.com

M. Davey
17 December, 2005

Cutting edge, well written and illustrated

All too often the first several books on a new technology are poorly written. This definitely not the case here. The book is well written and illustrated. The topics are covered clearly and with the level of depth we have come to expect from an O'Reilly walkthrough book.

This book is written in a walkthrough format. This is not an API reference. This book will take you through the API by showing code example and what those look like as displayed in the interface. That's what is needed right now, so I totally understand the style as it's used here.

Jack D. Herrington
13 November, 2005

Sells is great - Insider Microsoft knowledge pays off big

This is the only way to really get a grip in Windows Presentation Foundation (codename Avalon). It covers all the basics, and will really give you a new framework to think in when designing the next generation user interfaces for windows. The author is a microsoft insider, and has a unique view of this new technology. With all the new tools coming available to developers and designers, its going to make the transition to those tools much simpler if you understand the general concepts of WPF, XAML, animation, objects, databinding, etc.

Note: This is not really a book for product designers, its focused squarely on a developer audience (as it says in the opening chapter), so if you dont know C# you will probably get a little lost as the book progresses. If you have some programming background, it will be a great read. I enjoyed it over the course of a week, and now that I understand all the capabilities and key concepts of this new way of thinking about UI design, I'm ready to start prototyping and demo-ing this technology to my peers to convince them of the capabilities of WPF.

C. McKinnon
02 November, 2005

Learn To Use WPF & XAML

Wow things sure have changed since the early days of Windows programming!! The first thing that hits you as you open up '
Programming Windows Presentation Foundation' by Chris Sells and begin to learn how to program Windows for the future is how different things are compared to where they were just a few years ago when MFC was still the norm.

Gone are the confusing syntax of MFC and deciding whether to put things in the Document or View part of your application. Gone is the hard to follow API and gone are the basic graphics and simple controls that you once had!! As I went through this book I was truly astounded at how different programming in Windows will be for Vista... while daunting in HOW different this is from the past, I love that fact that Microsoft has worked to try and simplify things in that each "page" is like an application in itself. Since everything is class-based in .NET, each XAML page has its very own class associated with it that can be used to easy talk and populate the Vista page in question that you are coding.

It's quite clear that with the next generation of Windows, one of the main focus points was the graphical side of things. With WPF, there are a myriad of graphics APIs built in, and it's very easy to create shapes, animations, effects, etc. with a very simple set of code.

This is an important work, important because it is getting a taste of Avalon out to the public very early and will allow programmers to start getting familiar with it right away. The writing style is easy to follow and examples are present throughout to give the reader plenty of opportunity to see the next generation of Windows in all its glory. I was happily surprised to turn to the middle of an O'Reilly book and see COLOR pages to emphasize the kind of graphical abilities that are built in = nice touch!!

No doubt with this being a beta book that things will change as we get closer to the Vista release date, but this is a required read for anyone that will be programming on the newest generation of Windows in the future.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Daniel McKinnon
21 October, 2005

Nothing Short of Outstanding!

It takes a lot of "huevos" to write a book when the technology is in beta or pre-beta in this case. Obviously things are going to change a little bit before RTM, but the authors are posting updates to avoid confusion for the readers. After reading Chapter 1, I went straight into the databinding chapter and was floored. The entire book is great - almost too much to digest. As a .NET developer who spends a lot of time with markup to create ASP.NET apps, I've been dying to see markup as a way to create WinForms. I'm well versed in DHTML and the DOM, and if you're like me, you'll be very excited about WPF and XAML. After reading this book, I feel like I can hit the ground running. Buy it now!

Sean P. Chase
16 October, 2005

Indispensable Learning and Reference Work

Despite the fact that Windows Presentation Foundation (aka Avalon) is beta-ware and therefore still very much a moving target, this book is invaluable for getting to grips with programming in XAML.

It systematically works its way through getting started, styling, templating and data-binding, animation and graphics and more, with worked examples & downloadable code (including updates to reflect later changes in the WPF sepcification).

It is probably the first major work on WPF, but as others emerge they will have a hard time matching it for clarity and structure. WPF is destined to be a BIG area of future Windows development and there is much more to be written on the individual aspects of the subject, but I'm willing to bet that this book (and the scheduled revised version due for the final release of WPF) will be the seminal work that others will be compared against.

Gordon Mackie
10 October, 2005

This is what a WPFer needs!

It's more than two months now that I'm working on WPF and I did a lot with it. The book helps immense to get into programming WPF and moreover to understand the mechanisms and th programming model of Windows Presentation Foundation.
The Chapter "Custom Controls" mentions many issues you have to know but I wish there could be some more practical examples (I know this is not the intension of that book and perhaps you can write a whole manuscript concerning Custom Controls).
The book's structure is concise which supports efficient work. This book is essential for both: WPF-Beginners in order to understand WPF and of course for more experienced WPF-Programmers in order to have an excellent reference compared to the WinFX Documentation.

Christian
10 October, 2005