Pro WPF in VB 2010 [Paperback]

Matthew MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 30, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430272406 | ISBN-13: 978-1430272403 | Edition: 1

Microsoft’s Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) provides the foundation for building applications and high-quality user experiences for the Windows operating system. It blends the application user interface, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of your computer’s 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 user interface automation infrastructure, data-driven user interface and visualization, and 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 built a firm foundation, it goes on to explore more advanced aspects of WPF and how they relate to the others elements of the .NET 4.0 platform and associated technologies such as Silverlight.

What you’ll learn

• WPF basics: XAML, layout, control essentials, and data flow
• WPF applications: Navigation, commands, localization, and deployment
• Advanced controls: Custom controls, menus, toolbars, and trees
• WPF documents: Text layout, printing, and document packaging
• Graphics and multimedia: Drawing shapes, sound and video, animation, geometric transformations, and imaging

Who this book is for

This book is designed for developers encountering WPF for the first time in their professional lives. A working knowledge of Visual Basic (VB) and the basic architecture of .NET is helpful to follow the examples easily, but all concepts will be explained from the ground up.

Table of Contents

1. Introducing WPF
2. XAML
3. Layout
4. Dependency Properties
5. Routed Events
6. Controls
7. The Application
8. Element Binding
9. Commands
10. Resources
11. Styles and Behaviors
12. Shapes, Brushes, and Transforms
13. Geometries and Drawings
14. Effects and Visuals
15. Animation Basics
16. Advanced Animation
17. Control Templates
18. Custom Elements
19. Data Binding
20. Formatting Bound Data
21. Data Views
22. Lists, Trees, and Grids
23. Windows
24. Pages and Navigation
25. Menus, Toolbars, and Ribbons
26. Sound and Video
27. 3-D Drawing
28. Documents
29. Printing
30. Interacting with Windows Forms
31. Multithreading
32. The Add-in Model
33. ClickOnce Deployment

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: 1216 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (April 30, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430272406
• ISBN-13: 978-1430272403
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 2.4 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #698,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Introduction to WPF for Experienced VB Programmers December 16, 2010

By Recursive

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the few dotNet books these days with both a C# and VB version - which is nice to see especially on an important subject like WPF. I bought the dotNet 3 version before this but decided to get the update just so I would have a single source with current information and (if I'm remembering correctly) an additional 100 plus pages.

MacDonald writes in a very readable fashion and does a good job of comparing the WPF way with the WinForms way which is the source of much frustration for developers asking 'Why can't I just do even simple things the way I'm used to?' (well, okay, THIS developer keeps asking that!) It really targets, I think, people who are experienced programmers who want a solid introduction to the sometimes very different nuts and bolts of WPF.

The other thing he does is explain the 'why' of WPF and successfully instills the reader with his enthusiasm for the new technology. This is certainly the book that convinced me that all new development should be done with WPF.

Highly recommended.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pro WPF in VB 2010 September 21, 2010

By jcoz1968

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Excellent book. This is my 2nd read of Mr. MacDonald's and it is a must have for those vb.net programmers just getting started in WPF. It is also an excellent reference for people who have already done some WPF programming.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to WPF May 12, 2011

By Common Sense

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

There are only a few books written for VB programmers that genuinely cover their intended topic areas without assuming the reader is an idiot. This book is one of them. It serves as a great introduction for those without prior experience in WPF. Covering a bunch of different aspects of WPF, Matthew MacDonald examines the basics of each area thoroughly and provides URLs (or book suggestions) that examine the area more in depth. At 1095 pages long (not including the ToC or the index), not a single page is wasted with useless drivel or off topic musings. The author provides a firm foundation for each topic, and relates them to real-world examples or scenarios, showing you practical applications for what you just learned. Those who have had prior experience with WPF are not left out in the cold: the changes for latest version of WPF are clearly outlined at the beginning of each chapter. All in all a great book and a must-read for anyone interested in getting the most out of WPF with Visual Basic. The only gripe I have is that there is no CD included with the examples. I miss the days when books came with CDs which included source code and other tools/resources. I realize the internet is a much more efficient distribution medium, but including a CD would save me the time of having to go find the necessary downloads.