Programming Windows Presentation Foundation

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.

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 Bo

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.

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