Programming Windows Presentation Foundation [Paperback]

Chris Sells (Author), Ian Griffiths (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programming | Publication Date: September 19, 2005

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) (formerly known by its code name "Avalon") is a brand-new presentation framework for Windows XP and Windows Vista, the next version of the Windows client operating system. For developers, WPF is a cornucopia of new technologies, including a new graphics engine that supports 3-D graphics, animation, and more; an XML-based markup language (XAML) for declaring the structure of your Windows UI; and a radical new model for controls.

Programming Windows Presentation Foundation, authored by Microsoft Software Legend Chris Sells and WPF guru Ian Griffiths, is the book you need to get up to speed on WPF. By page two, you'll have written your first WPF application, and by the end of Chapter 1, "Hello WPF," you'll have completed a rapid tour of the framework and its major elements. These include the XAML markup language and the mapping of XAML markup to WinFX code; the WPF content model; layout; controls, styles, and templates; graphics and animation; and, finally, deployment.

Programming Windows Presentation Foundation features:

• Scores of C# and XAML examples that show you what it takes to get a WPF application up and running, from a simple "Hello, Avalon" program to a tic-tac-toe game
• Insightful discussions of the powerful new programming styles that WPF brings to Windows development, especially its new model for controls
• A color insert to better illustrate WPF support for 3-D, color, and other graphics effects
• A tutorial on XAML, the new HTML-like markup language for declaring Windows UI
• An explanation and comparison of the features that support interoperability with Windows Forms and other Windows legacy applications

The next generation of Windows applications is going to blaze a trail into the unknown. WPF represents the best of the control-based Windows world and the content-based web world; it's an engine just itching to be taken for a spin. Inside, you'll find the keys to the ignition.

Updated samples and change notes for the move from the February CTP to Beta 2 are now available from the example site: http://www.sellsbrothers.com/writing/​avbook/

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Chris Sells is a Program Manager for the Connected Systems Division. He's written several books, including Programming Avalon, Windows Forms Programming in C# and ATL Internals. In his free time, Chris hosts various conferences and makes a pest of himself on Microsoft internal product team discussion lists. More information about Chris, and his various projects, is available at http://www.sellsbrothers.com

Ian Griffiths is an independent consultant, developer, speaker, and author. He has written books on the Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Forms, and Visual Studio. He lives in London but can often be found on various developer mailing lists and newsgroups, where a popular sport is to see who can get him to write the longest email in reply to the shortest possible question. More information about what Ian is up to can be found on his blog at http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/iangblog/

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (September 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101139
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101138
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,170,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ignore the 2 and 3 star reviews, April 25, 2008

By 

Jason Goemaat (Des Moines, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming WPF (Paperback)

I say to ignore those reviews because they do not refer to this book. This is the second edition published August 28, 2007 with 863 pages. Those reviews are based off of the first edition published nearly two years before (September 12, 2005) and with only 447 pages.

Using Amazon's 'Search inside this book' takes you to the 2005 edition also. That shows only 10 chapters while this edition has 17. Most of the negative comments from the 2 and 3 star reviewers seem to have been resolved.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn To Use WPF & XAML, October 21, 2005

By 

Daniel McKinnon "Dan" (Tewksbury, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (Paperback)

Wow things sure have changed since the early days of Windows programming!! The first thing that hits you as you open up '
Programming Windows Presentation Foundation' by Chris Sells and begin to learn how to program Windows for the future is how different things are compared to where they were just a few years ago when MFC was still the norm.

Gone are the confusing syntax of MFC and deciding whether to put things in the Document or View part of your application. Gone is the hard to follow API and gone are the basic graphics and simple controls that you once had!! As I went through this book I was truly astounded at how different programming in Windows will be for Vista... while daunting in HOW different this is from the past, I love that fact that Microsoft has worked to try and simplify things in that each "page" is like an application in itself. Since everything is class-based in .NET, each XAML page has its very own class associated with it that can be used to easy talk and populate the Vista page in question that you are coding.

It's quite clear that with the next generation of Windows, one of the main focus points was the graphical side of things. With WPF, there are a myriad of graphics APIs built in, and it's very easy to create shapes, animations, effects, etc. with a very simple set of code.

This is an important work, important because it is getting a taste of Avalon out to the public very early and will allow programmers to start getting familiar with it right away. The writing style is easy to follow and examples are present throughout to give the reader plenty of opportunity to see the next generation of Windows in all its glory. I was happily surprised to turn to the middle of an O'Reilly book and see COLOR pages to emphasize the kind of graphical abilities that are built in = nice touch!!

No doubt with this being a beta book that things will change as we get closer to the Vista release date, but this is a required read for anyone that will be programming on the newest generation of Windows in the future.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

45 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Out Of Date, April 27, 2006

By 

Jason Jackson "Jason Jackson" (Rapid City, SD, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (Paperback)

While Avalon aka Windows Presentation Framework is still in beta, I had hoped that the code examples and references in this book would not be far out of date. I am finding that they are dramatically out of date (writing this review 04/27/2006). This is not to criticize the quality of the book or of the content; it appears to be well written. However, it was written in September 2005, and there has been at least 3 new beta releases of the framework since then. About 1/2 of the examples I have tried will not even compile, or have bad runtime errors.

The "big concepts" are mostly unchanged. However, I cannot recommend this book to anyone. Programmer to programmer, you will be better off reading examples from online sources like msdn.microsoft.com and downloading new WPF tools like "Expression". This book will find you confused with broken examples fast. I look forward to an updated version when Avalon solidifies.