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Beginning Silverlight 4 in C# (Expert's Voice in Silverlight)

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Beginning Silverlight 4 in C#, by Robert Lair, promises that "By the time you finish this book, you'll have a firm foundation in Silverlight, and you'll be able to create your own Silverlight-enabled applications." Well I have finished this book and I feel very confident that I could build a Silverlight app.

Let me start by saying that while I have a lot of development experience, and I'm competent at C#, I came into this book with zero practical Silverlight experience, having only done exercises from a book review in a previous version of Silverlight. That being said, I'm very attracted to Silverlight for the reasons laid out in this book:
* It offers cross-platform/cross-browser support
* It provides a cross-platform version of the .NET Framework
* XAML is a text-based markup language (not binary).
* Silverlight uses familiar technologies
* Silverlight offers an Out of Browser and Full Trust option
* Silverlight is the main development platform for Windows
* It's easy to deploy the Silverlight runtime to clients

With this version of Silverlight, I felt Microsoft had finally built a development environment for business applications that could run in a browser with minimal frustration.

This book starts slowly and assumes you know nothing about Silverlight, which as I said was appropriate for me. It might be helpful to know about coding, but even if this were your first foray into application development, a reasonably smart person could follow the examples. One of the things that's really helpful is that there are lots and lots of screenshots that show the effect of almost every code change you make.

While it starts at the bottom, the author builds nicely, using previous examples when introducing new topics until he arrives at a very nice pacing that he continues throughout the book. He maintains a professional tone throughout that's very easy to read and follow, and foregoes opportunities to make cheap puns and jokes. (Read it and you'll see where I mean).

This book does a solid job of teaching the fundamentals of Silverlight. Looking at the table of contents in "Pro Silverlight in C#", also by Apress, I see there's still a lot more to learn, but you could start building business applications in Silverlight if you read this book, as promised.

Regardless of the raging debate between HTML 5.0 worshipers and Silverlight devotees, both have oodles of promise and both point the way to a more versatile and dynamic internet. They may even end up as complimentary, rather than dueling, technologies. Though some sites currently feature HTML 5.0, it has a full implementation schedule akin to a Gaudí cathedral. Silverlight, by contrast, has already grown from its rudimentary origins into something that should give all contending Rich Internet Application technologies something to muss their hair about. For one, Silverlight looks ready to move into Flash's territory. It also promises improved cross-platform support sans wads of scripting (we'll see if it delivers). Needless to say, many who have dipped a nervous toe into the simmering Silverlight pool have become instant advocates. Other remain cautious given the technology's indelible ties to Microsoft. But of course making up one's mind involves actually interacting and creating something with this new hyped technology. That's where the incredibly facile "Beginning Silverlight 4 in C#" can lend more than a few fibers.

The book does ultimately keep its promise about endowing readers with the ability to create Silverlight applications. But that depends on what sort of applications readers have in mind. It does teach the basics, no doubt about that. If anything, this book builds a solid foundation via hands-on examples. The reading to coding ratio remains high throughout and tilts more towards the coding side in some sections. But don't expect to create anything really complicated, such as a Line of Business Application or a full-blown animated website. That will come later, and anyone aiming there will need the information in this book. This book remains at a pretty basic level. So anyone looking for a taste of Silverlight without investing hoards of time should look here. After all, most tech books dwarf this under 400 pages runt. And given the glut of screen shots and code reviews, overall reading time ends up pretty minimal. On the other hoof, those who know, and know it to their core, to the very depth of their souls, that they want to develop in Silverlight may just as well tackle bigger fish. The considerably heftier "Pro Silverlight 4 in C#" by Matthew McDonald may serve such stalwart developers better. It even covers much of the same ground, but with more depth. One other detail not really mentioned: a few chapters of this book cover Expression Blend. In other words, they assume that you have access to a copy of this not so cheap software. Don't panic, anyone can download a 60-day trial of Expression Blend from Microsoft (in Expression Studio Ultimate), but the clock starts ticking right away. Needless to say the coverage here of Blend remains very high level, so download with discretion. The book also assumes some experience with C#, as the title suggests. Keep in mind that the cover doesn't read "Beginning Programming with Silverlight" but instead reads "Beginning Silverlight." As such, absolutely fresh, green, neophyte newcomers should not start their programming careers with this book, tempting as it seems.

Apress has an entire series of Silverlight books, and this one begins the entire line. "Introducing Silverlight 4" doesn't include the hands-on learning of this book, but it or the "Pro" book could make decent follow-ups. Then, after mastering one of those meatier books those who want to build Silverlight business apps should turn to "Pro Business Applications with Silverlight 4," in which the database capabilities of the recent WCF RIA get rolled out. Yes, Silverlight can build regular old business applications, not just flashy websites or mind-blowing phone apps. At least Microsoft hopes that will happen, but ASP remains an alternative. So choose a starting point. Either wade in with this light fare or dive in with the "Pro" book. Either way Silverlight will definitely make an impression, positive or negative. Let the games begin.

This book is perfect for SL beginner. I had zero experience in SL programming prior to reading it and finished two SL apps before reaching the end of the book. I do not feel I need to read another book to advance my SL programming skill though there is always much to learn. With the foundation laid by this book, I feel I can utilize many online sources easily to get things done. Actually I did resort to online sources frequently when developing the apps while reading the book because the book is not meant to be a reference. The book is very readable and flows smoothly with practical sample code clearly illustrating the points. I enjoy it.

This a very good book for people who want to begin to learn the basics of Silverlight 4. The reader should already be familiar with some C# programming. I would say that the reader would need an intermediate level experience with C# to make the most of this book, or maybe a beginner who is progressing towards intermediate level.

If you have done some programming in C#, and want to learn the basics of Silverlight 4 in a very straight forward and clear way this is a very good book to get started with.

(I found nothing confusing in this book, and I am only a beginner/intermediate level C# programmer. In my opinion the book is very clear, author gets right to the point without adding a lot of "mumbo-jumbo", no fluff, just what you need to know and how to do it. Very difficult to find such books these days.

If you want to learn Silverlight 4 in C# with Visual Studio 2010, this is the book that can help you learn it well. I tried almost all the code samples from the book in my application and all of them worked flawlessly. The author has paid attention to every detail and the explanation of each topic is concise and clear. I am a big fan of Robert Lair, who has authored several good technical books and this one is a gem.

Out of almost 400 pages of materials in this book, I only found one little missing string quote in the code sample on page 195 at line 4, the printed text is:

sw.Write ("Contents of the File);

it should be:

sw.Write ("Contents of the File");

Of course, Visual Studio will alert you with this syntax issue as well.

Overall, I am impressed with the book's quality and usefulness.

This is THE book to learn Silverlight with. I currently am doing Silverlight 100% at wrok, now, and it is thanks to this book. I have a pile of silverlight books, and this one, by far, is the best. Silverlight is very different from asp.net. Lair takes you step by step through the fundamentals and before yoiu know it, you are building great pages. I firmly beleive that without having bought this book, I never would ahve successfully made the jump to silverlight web programming.

I purchased this book because of the title. I am a beginner and I love what I read about Silverlight. I am also a devoted C# loyalist. I bought four books on Silverlight. I briefly scanned through all four books and sorted them out as to which I will start first, second, third, and fourth. "Beginning Silverlight 4 in C#- Robert Lair/APress" was slated for the second book to read. During the first book, I came into a clinch in Chapter 4. I sent an email to get answers. So, during the wait, I decided to start "Beginning Silverlight 4 in C#." Chapter one was great on getting the background of the technology. Chapter Two was great in describing the steps with plenty of screen shots. Chapter Three was less defining but if you had some past experience and with the screen shots you could figure it out. Chapter four the author made many assumptions of the readers' abilities. This chapter lacked clearly defined steps and required a lot of nonsense typing. I was so busy entering code I missed the whys and reasons for all the coding. It was like in college when you had an inferior teacher resulting in making your life more difficult because you had to teach yourself what little you learned. This is a big waste of time. I want to know why things are done and what the great features within Silverlight are. Chapter five, oh my God! As soon as I reached the section "The Columns Collection" on page 105 I decided that I was done! This book has really bad editing and the author was getting lazy on specific details and screen shots. I decided not to waste my time with such poor quality publishing. I quickly shelved this book and hope never to return. Beginners, beware of this book it is not worth the pain and misery.