Customer Reviews

Building Tablet PC Applications (Pro-Developer)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an excellent book for everyone who wants to start programming Tablet PC applications using C#. (Or even any other .NET language as the examples really aren't that hard to translate...). The book is well organized and readable and guides the reader through all the aspects of writing the typical Tablet PC application.

Of course, this whole subject is extensive, and the book can not discuss it all. For advanced topics such as writing ink recognizers from scratch, you will have to find another source. But I really wouldn't expect a book like this to cover all the advanced topics.

Note that this book does NOT cover COM-based or non-managed (non .NET) APIs. If you want to write your Tablet PC app with VB6, you will get some good fundamental information here, but no specifics. Again, I wouldn't hold this against the author, but it is good to know.

The most frustrating part about this book is that I got it two months ago, and I won't get my Tablet PC until next week (this week if I'm REALLY lucky). This book makes programming the Tablet PC so clear and simple, I'm eager to get started. (The book does note that you can use the Tablet PC SDK with a regular Window XP machine and a range of digitizing tablets, but warns that there will be things that don't work well. I'll wait.) The code examples are clear, readable, and easy to comprehend (if a bit repetitive, since they include code for creating and populating a WinForm every single time). Normally, I just skim over code examples, since they're usually wordy and cluttered, and the key points are usually summarized in the main text. Well, these examples ARE summarized in the main text, which is always good; but the examples are very simple to follow (especially if you skip the WinForm stuff).

There are only two things I wish this book had covered:

* Speech. A Tablet PC is supposed to be fully speech-enabled, but no one's talking about that right now (so to speak). (Sorry for the double pun.) The ink management itself is such a large topic, no one seems to have time for the speech features. And this book is no better. It's just too large as it is, so I understand; but I hope someone soon does a similar book about the Speech API.

* Custom Recognizers. Now for this oversight, I do fault the authors and MS Press. The authors claim this is a large, obscure topic, and they refer you to the SDK. Well, I agree that it's large; but I don't think it's obscure at all. Most of the Killer App ideas I have for the Tablet PC will require custom recognizers. (I can use the built-in recognizers, but the results won't be perfect in a couple of areas.)

But those are small quibbles. This book has been great fun to read, and I'm counting the days until I can apply it.

This text is well written and very approachable. Basically, it covers how to handle script input on the new Tablet PC platform. There are many examples of programs that accept script directly. There is little mention of the Tablet PC Input Panel and how to use it.

While overall the book is good, all of the example code is in C#. It would have been better to see the examples in straight C/C++ or even VB.

This is a fairly nice book to have read as it gives a good overview over the tablet pc as a concept and it's history. It then moves on to introducing the core concepts as Ink, Strokes, recognition and so on and so forth.

The problem with the book is however that it stops there, as the introductionary level. There is nothing here that you could not easily have found out by reading the documentation in the tablet SDK, and while some people (myself included) prefers reading a paper-based book instead of "on the screen" it still has to provide additional material and/or better explanations to make it worthwile to purchase. And as mentioned, this one doesn't.

Everything that is "advanced" about a tablet pc is skipped. Want to custom-draw your own ink? Well, it's covered, just don't expect it to be useful. Want to write your own recognizer, something that would be tremendously useful to a lot of applications? Forget it, it isn't event mentioned apart from pointing you in the direction of the SDK. Speech, that's supposed to be part of the tablet PC? Again, don't bother with this book as speech is only mentioned in passing in the introductionary chapter.

And then you find that that was it. The whole book. So it was a nice read as far as the introductory material goes, but I suspect (and have proof for the last couple of weeks) that this book will only be collecting dust on my shelves in the future. Not worth the money, borrow it from a friend or the local library instead.

Well, I can't say it's the only book on Tablet PC development, but it's by far the most thorough and well documented. Rob does a really great job on this one, and my only gripe about it is that it starts out kind of slow and can be a bit dry at times. However, that's more a function of the subject matter than any fault of the writer, and I would say this book is a definite 5, and a must have for any Tablet PC developer.

A lot of Tablet PC developement is identical to what one does on a traditional desktop app. The main difference being Ink. If you are buying a Tablet PC book, this is probably the main thing you are interested in and it does a great job of discussing it. It takes a few chapters for the rubber to start hitting the road as far as Inking, but I that would be the case in any book that covered Tab Development in depth.

And once the book gets going...the discussion and analysis is pure gold. I found it very relevant and by and large pretty interesting. It's technical content is as good as it gets. All the code samples worked, the samples got to the point and were well explained and nothing critical was left out in order to get the examples running.

This is the first 'real' book on Tablet Development that I've come across and it's never easy being the first to write on such a technology. I think the author shows a great deal of empathy toward the reader and definitely goes out of his way to help you along.

Sure, I had my little gripe that I mentioned above, but this book is unquestionably one of the finer computer books I've come across recently (and there are a lot of great ones these days) and the author is to be commended on the professional and quality job he did on it.

If you are going to write professional Tablet Apps, or if you are just developer looking at recreationally developing Tablet Apps, this book is a must have.

Very useful if you want to use microsoft.ink libraries or you are planning to develop Ink applications.
Good examples, code, etc.
There are some chapters at google books, but some important parts are missing.
I do recommend this book in order to you introduce to Microsoft.Ink and Tablet pc apps development.

I developed one of the Tablet PC power toys that shipped at launch and I wish I'd had this book a few months earlier. I spent many months figuring things out that are detailed in this book.

They cover a lot more detail than the SDK docs and do a great job providing examples and the answering the all important question: 'why?'. Since I was already familiar with the SDK, I found the book easy to follow - I can't speak for developers approaching Tablet PC development for the first time but I'm sure it would be fine. Granted, there aren't exactly a lot of titles to choose from at the moment but I can't imagine having a better reference for C# Tablet PC development.

This is an OK Book. Much of the stuff you see in this book is available in SDK docs too. There are not many good examples.

This book has not been ordered. Several months ago we received this same book when it had not been ordered. We returned the book and no charges were made. Now, I just received an email that the book has been sent again. I don't know what is happening. Please look into this situation. My phone number is 303.666.7011 I would like to straighten this out. Vivien Carter

This book is a waste of time and paper it is printed with. You might be better off reading the SDK docs as this is just a rehash of the info. Sending this back for credit