Pro WPF in C# 2010 [Paperback]

Matthew MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430272058 | ISBN-13: 978-1430272052 | Publication Date: December 23, 2009 | Edition: 1

Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building applications and high quality user experiences for the Windows operating system. Blending together the application user interface, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer operating system.

Its functionality extends to the support for Tablet PCs and other forms of input device, and provides a more modern imaging and printing pipeline, accessibility and UI automation infrastructure, data driven UI and visualization, as well as the integration points for weaving the application experience into the Windows shell.

This book shows you how WPF really works. It provides you with the no-nonsense, practical advice that you need in order to build high-quality WPF applications quickly and easily. Having build a firm foundation it also explores the more advance aspects of WPF and how they relates to the others elements of the .NET 4.0 Platform and its associated technologies such as Silverlight.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he's the author of several books about programming with .NET, including User Interfaces in VB .NET: Windows Forms and Custom Controls, The Book of VB .NET, and .NET Distributed Applications. In a dimly- remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (December 23, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430272058
• ISBN-13: 978-1430272052
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 2.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,475 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #34 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > C#
  • #56 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > C & C++ Windows Programming

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have Book for Developing WPF 4.0, April 11, 2010

By 

T. Anderson (PA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro WPF in C# 2010 (Paperback)

I have the first and second edition of this book (Pro WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.0, Pro WPF in C# 2008), so I was hesitant in buying this version. I had not destroyed the Pro WPF in C# 2008 book, like I did Pro WPF: Windows Presentation Foundation in .NET 3.0, so I didn't really need a new copy of the book. I am glad that I did buy it because there are plenty of new features covered in this version making it worth the purchase, at least to me. This version of the book has also been reorganized. Chapters have been moved and renamed to fit new functionality.

Here is what is new in this release:
--New DataGrid, Calendar, WebBrowser, Ribbon (separate download), and DatePicker controls
--Visual State Manager
--Easing Functions
--Cached Composition (Bitmap caching)
--Windows 7 taskbar and multitouch support

Matthew has added content for all the topics listed above,

Some of the highlights of the book I like:
--The coverage of animation easing.
--The new Windows 7 taskbar coverage.
--His in-depth coverage of printing.
--His Custom Elements chapter.
--The new chapter on Application Add-Ins.
--The chapter on using ClickOnce with WPF.
--Everything is gone into in depth. This is not a brush over the topic book.
--The usability of the code makes the book all that much more valuable.

The book focuses on WPF only. It has a few pages on LINQ, but that i s about it as far as the rest of the .NET 3.5 framework goes. In other words, the book does not cover how to best use WPF in relationship to WCF, WF, or LINQ. This does not take anything away from the book because Matthew does not claim that the book does this. I only mention it because his ASP.NET 3.5 book does go into LINQ application integration.

The downloadable code is very well organized and is very usable.

I highly recommend this book to anyone getting into WPF with .NET 4.0.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Resource for Learning and Navigating in WPF, May 20, 2010

By 

Nikos "Nikos" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro WPF in C# 2010 (Paperback)

This is a highly impressive book for getting one up to speed on anything and everything one needs to know about developing in WPF. If you are a WPF developer or aspiring developer, you are most likely at a disservice if this isn't on your desk.

One of the most important things is that time after time, difficult or complex subjects were excellently elucidated. I have Matthew's books for Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls, and Pro ASP.NET 3.5, but despite my appreciation of these works (and how much he taught me from them), I thought there were a number of times that he failed to simply and quickly elucidate a subject. Important points were buried in pages of code (please note: not a judgment on those whole books, just parts of them). For the bulk of this book that I have examined and read, this is NOT the case. I was sort of expecting, for a bulky book like this (size wise), that the quality would be less than excellent. NOT so! You're understanding will be thoroughly enriched. No work is perfect by any stretch, but to have as many goodies as there are in this book, all in one book, it's a must have.

Bests:
The index is perhaps the largest index I have ever seen for a book like this, at a whopping 81 (large) pages. It almost invalidates the need for computer searching of the text. This makes it a TERRIFIC resource, coupled with the fact that Matthew covered almost everything there is to cover (at least in a small manner).

Chapters on Resources - ch 10: you've gotta thoroughly understand resources as the foundation for Styles and Templates; another book on WPF that I appreciate much, didn't even talk about ResourceDictionaries, dissapointingly. Styles (ch 11), Templates (ch 17), and then Custom Controls (ch 18) (all of these flow into one another) were what I needed to understand much better, and this really took me to the next level. He even illustrates advanced concepts like overriding the measuring and arrangement of a panel.

An excellent resource for WPF development.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jin, May 20, 2010

By 

Jin Hu (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro WPF in C# 2010 (Paperback)

I'd like to say that it is a super book on latest WPF techniques for both tutorial and reference. It may be the most comprehensive book that readers can read from cover to cover, or refer any topic randomly.

The only suggestion I'd like to say is: Since the book is titled as "Pro", should it include some design patterns specific to WPF, such as MVP, MVVM, etc?

I recommend this book for any developers who are serious about WPF programming.