Customer Reviews

Foundations of WPF: An Introduction to Windows Presentation Foundation

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

 

 

This book suffers from the fact that it includes information on a beta product. The beta product not only has changed, but it has changed name. Microsoft Expression - Interactive Developer is now Expression Blend. If you don't know this, then you will be lost in several chapters. The book also references an example to show what WPF can do. This is a URL listed on page 11. Unfortunately, like the Expression stuff, this is was also a beta site and the URL now leads to a simple page that says "thanks but the beta is over".

So if you figure out the tool, then you see a great example in chapter 3. Unfortunately, the flow of steps is textual and goes on and on. The organization of presenting the steps you need to do could have been better. When you combine this with the changes that have occurred in the product, things get hard to follow.

The middle section of the book focuses on Visual Studio 2005 and the WPF add-ins. This information is more accurate, but the information isn't very deep. Info on controls, and a bit about things you can do with them, some information on graphics and more. The book then goes back to the Expression tool that as mentioned earlier, isn't quite the same as when the author wrote the book.

The end result - This book will be much, much better when it is updated to the current product. (( I put a more complete review on Codeguru ))

I didn't even know Laurence's book was released when I found it searching for WPF books. I ordered it and have been working with it for 4 days now. It's a definite keeper.

The book is 10 chapters long and 315 pages including indexes and tables. Chapter 1 does the obligatory "Introduction" to the technology. Nothing groundbreaking here.

Chapter 2 continues and provides a good intro and background.

Chapter 3 is where the rubber hits the road and it goes through building your first WPF application. It's a simple app but serves as a great intro application.

Chapter 4 covers "Building a Connected WPF Application". It's a superb discusson and again, although the app isn't overly complex, it gives you everything you need to build a complex 'real world' application. I've spent most of my time on CHapter 4, trying to come up with my own scenarios and using WCF to get my data.

Chapter 5 - Layout controls. This chapter is a lot more involved than many of the other ones but when you're through with it, you'll know layout inside and out.

Chapter 6 gets into XAML controls. This is the heart of WPF and it's explained in plenty of detail without overdoing it

Chapter 7 goes into graphics and media. To be honest, I haven't spent a lot of time on this chapter, just breezed through it so I don't have a lot to say about it.

Chapter 8 goes into animation and while related to the Chapter 7 content, animation is critical to making compelling WPF apps. I found this chapter particularly useful.

Chapter 9 goes into 3d graphics, again, a centerpiece to compelling UI's with WPF. Priceless.

Chapter 10 goes into distributing your WPF apps and well, it's a very nice touch. Few things are more frustrating than developing an app when you're learning and not being able to get it to deply correctly. I've done 3 apps so far and had 0 problems getting them deployed.

I've been a big fan of Moroney's books for a while now and this book doesn't disappoint.