Essential Windows Presentation Foundation

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Essential Windows Presentation Foundation

The Microsoft .NET Development Series has always been agreat source of information for some of the latest technologies to emerge. Essential Windows Presentation Foundationis no exception. The book s author, Chris Anderson, is one of the chiefarchitects of the Windows Presentation Foundation. This fact is one of thereasons that the book does such a great job at describing the ins and outs ofthe new framework. The detail and depth that Andersongoes into for the overview of the new framework is great. The book has twoforwards, one by Microsoft great Don Box and the other by another well-knownMicrosoft guru, Chris Sells. Both forwards are worth the time to check out.

By the time I finished chapter one, I had a good overviewof how WPF worked and I was left with an insatiable appetite for more. I couldn twait to learn about that next cool feature that WPF had to offer. Chapter twospends a good amount of time discussing the different ways an application canbe built, and goes through the details of its deployment. The author gives us ataste of Click once Web deployment and goes into detail on how to rebuild anapplication as an XBAP file for use over the Internet. At this point, the bookranks as one of the best books I ve ever read.

The failing point of this book, for me, comes with themissing details in the samples. All the code samples are well thought-out andexplained, but they are all just mere code snippets. There are only a handfulof complete code samples throughout the entire book. Furthermore, the booklacks the details on what is required for the samples to run. This shortcomingcould have been overcome by simply providing a sample CD or Web site with thebook. I could not find either one. A good workaround for this issue was to readthe book with MSDN at your side. MSDN was able to fill in any missing details,such as object namespaces and usages that the book omitted.

The remaining chapters (three to eight) continue to discuss other objects in the new framework andthey do it in fabulous detail. We get a nice walkthrough on everything from thecommon control library to 3D graphics and animation to advanced data bindingand triggers. By the time we hit the end of EssentialWindows Presentation Foundation, Andersonhas given us enough information for us to begin writing professional-level WPFapplications.

Overall, this book does a great job of explaining what WPFis and how it works. I consider it one of those books all developers shouldhave on their bookshelf for reference. Anyone reading this book can expect toget an in-depth walkthrough of WPF. This book shouldn t be considered a bookfor beginners; I recommend anyone wanting to learn about WPF start with theMSDN docs to understand how to install it and run it and then move on to thisbook.

 One final note hereis that this book was written while WPF was still a beta, so some of thereferences to classes have changed. Also, there is no mention of WPF/e (a.k.aSilverlight). However, I think many developers will appreciate the effort theauthor makes to provide great documentation on a new technology that is stillchanging and, therefore, that makes this book a good read.

By Gregory Corbin

Rating:

Title: Essential Windows Presentation Foundation

Author: ChrisAnderson

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

ISBN: 0-321-37447-9

Web Site: http://www.awprofessional.com/bookstore/product.asp?isbn=0321374479&rl=1

Price: US$49.99

Page Count: 458