Customer Reviews

Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Chris has always impressed me with his talent to explain even the hardest bits of WPF in an approachable fashion - I guess many Channel 9 and other dev-related sites visitors would agree with me. Therefore, I started reading Essential WPF with high expectations...

There is nothing wrong with the book itself, but the marketing is completely and utterly false. Chris himself emphasizes that he would like to talk about the "why-s" of the platform and this is the very reason why I bought his book - only to find out that nothing like that happens. Quite honestly, any technical author could write this book after reading Windows 3.0 SDK documentation thoroughly - there is very little added value or insight. There are moments when Chris writes "this may be confusing..." and in this very moment, you would expect "... but it was necessary because of this and that" but that almost never happens. You are left with doubts about the quality of WPF which is probably the worst thing an author can do.

Don't be confused as I was: this book is not about "why-s", it is not about reasoning, it is not about in-depth discussion of some decisions made. It is an extensive walkthrough through the WPF features, it is a description of the framework but nothing more. Of course you will find some insights in this book but they are definitely not in proportion to Chris's role in the WPF team and his otherwise great skills.

I, personally, started reading this book as a big fan of WPF and was left with doubts if all the complexity is really necessary (and some things are pretty complex compared to Flex which is my current development environment). Actually, I think that I enjoyed reading the WPF introductory articles in the Windows SDK 3.0 documentation more and honestly, I thought that this could never happen when comparing docs and a book.

Anyway, if you really need great WPF book, don't waste money on this one - go buy Adam Nathan's WPF Unleashed. I'm on page 130 now and my enthusiasm for WPF is back. That book provides exactly what I wanted - deep discussion, great insight, practical tips, well thought-out structure and trust that the sub-optimal things in the current version are known issues likely to be fixed in WPF vNext.

My intention is not to criticise this book but to provide a bit of balance to the other "superlative" filled reviews. I had already read Adam Nathan's book before this and had high expectations of this one after reading the other reviews. After finishing the book I can't really understand why the reviews were so glowing. There are definitely some design insights and Chapter 7 (Actions) covered the important Command pattern in good detail, but I'm struggling to think of any advantages over the WPF Unleashed book.

I would definitely recommend WPF unleashed over this and the bottom line is I'll be looking to sell my copy of Essential WPF as I don't see the value of having both.

I thought no one could top Adam Nathan's WPF book, and this one doesn't top it - no what it does it match it but does so without tediously repeating the same material and approach. Chris Anderson's book is the one to read if you want to know the Why's and not just the What's - this is not just because Chris was one of the chief architects but because he explains it all so clearly. The book's organisation is wonderful, WPF has a huge surface area but Chris's presentation of it is effortless, enlightening and entertaining. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book.

Overall, I was not impressed with this book. I kept getting the sense that I was about to learn something interesting when - poof! - the book moved on to another topic.

So, if you're looking for an introduction to the concepts of WPF, this might be for you but do not expect any in depth coverage of any topic. I was hoping for (consider the author's background) a lot more detail.

To put this review in perspective: I have been working with WPF for quite some time and have already been through other books on WPF (including Petzold's and Adam Nathan's - the later being my personal favorite to date).

I bought all available WPF, so at the beginning i wondered: "What else can another book say new about WPF?". Well, this book has a lot of interesting details missing on others, probably because it has been written with an "inside" view, i knew a lot of architectural decisions reading it.
It has a good mix of xaml and code, it has pictures (!) and its a pleasant reading. Recommended to people migrating from Windows Forms to WPF world.

If you're an experienced programmer and looking for a primer on WPF, Anderson has written a succinct overview that will definitely get you going in the right direction without wasting your time. It will give you not only the basics but provide an insight into what is going on and how you can go further in exploring WPF. Although it lacks in-depth examples (and source code) this book provides a readable reference covering all aspects of WPF- what it is, what it can do, and what makes WPF different.

Essential Windows Presentation Foundation is precisely what the title says it is. What more can you ask for in a book? There are already several books on the RTM of WPF, and there are bound to be more. The unique value this one has is that it is written by Chris Anderson, who as most know, was an instrumental architect in designing WPF, and this (along with his direct connection to the others who worked on it) gives him insight that you just otherwise can't get.

In particular, I like that he often provides the thinking that went into particular design decisions. He readily admits in several places that the design of this or that was hotly debated, and one can only imagine that they would be. Having worked at a few commercial software vendors myself, I know how difficult it can be to know the best way to design a thing, and it can only be more challenging as your audience widens.

After this, the main thing that makes the book valuable is that it is deeply conceptual. The point of the book is not to be a reference, a recipie book, or a smattering of tutorials. Rather, the book provides, in a coherent form, the key principles underlying the different aspects of WPF. And by elaborating these principles, Chris establishes a strong sense that the Foundation was designed in a similarly coherent manner.

My favorite chapters were the one on Data, the one on Actions, and the Appendix. For a solutions architect and developer, these I think provide the most interesting meat. Of course, these types will likely want to delve into the first three chapters as well. In fact, the only one that I'd suggest you can probably get away with skipping is the one on Visuals; I found this one pretty dry and hard to push through. Designers and those more interested in graphics per se will likely enjoy these.

The chapter on Styles took me by surprise, but then, that's because the concept of styles in WPF is a tad surprising. Being the language-oriented person that I am, I am a bit bothered by the choice of Style to encompass everything that you can do with styles in WPF. Needless to say, it's not just UI goodness--devs will need to be pretty familiar with this stuff.

Other than that, my only contention is with the assertion that apps today are all about data. This won't come as a surprise to those who've read my articles or talked to me about architecture much, but despite my philosophical objection, when it comes to UI, I'll admit that LOB apps are in fact largely about the data, i.e., largely about displaying and manipulating data since thus far, we seem to have mainly used computers to help with data storage and retrieval. In any case, it is certainly important to have good data binding mechanisms in the UI, and I have to say, WPF nails this better than any UI tech I've bumped into thus far.

But I digress. The book is good; I recommend it as a starting point or to complement other WPF learning resources. It is the essentials with which you can start effectively creating WPF applications. You'll need the docs and/or other more comprehensive books to really figure it all out, but you should read this one regardless.

This book is great if you want to understand the why behind WPF.

I have found that a lot of people are turned off by some the abstract teaching found in some of the Essential Series from Addison-Wesley. They feel the level of learning is too deep and doesn't show or relate to real world examples. That is not true with this book. Chris does an excellent job of digging deep while at the same time keeping the content in the real world.

This book is a definite complement of Adam Nathan's WPF book. No there is no color, but I didn't really think about it until I was writing this review.

The structure of the book's content is great, very well organized, and very thorough.

This is definitely a book you want at your side if you are programming WPF.

This book provides a good introduction to the overall architecture of WPF. However, it lacks the depth necessary to feel comfortable performing the more advanced programming activities that you will be tasked with on a real WPF project. This is really a beginners book which does not even advance to the intermediate level. The Programming WPF book by Chris Sells provides more in depth coverage of WPF and is therefore a better buy. Therefore, read this book just to get started but expect to read another to really make some headway into understanding WPF.

This book is all about the philosophy behind the WPF design and architecture. It delivers a simple but comprehensive understanding about WPF features - given this simple "big picture" it will be easier to learn the details - they will just fit in nicely and effortlessly. The book is an essense of everything that you should know to become a professional WPF developer - everything else is in IntelliSense/online help. Given this knowledge, you'll easily learn how to use any WPF topic.