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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Another WROX Dissapointment, January 17, 2010
This review is from: Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)
As a technical trainer, I am able to obtain WROX titles for review at no charge, and I'm very happy that this one didn't cost me anything (other than my time).
As others have pointed out, for a reference, this book does not have any depth to it. It's very supperficial. There are a few reviewers praising this book as a great place to start with Silverlight, and perhaps it is, but to call this book "Programmer's Reference" is a complete misnomer.
First, the use of color in the book is a welcome new aspect. However, the publisher doesn't leverage this to be anything but pretty to look at. There were a few code examples where the code being taught was bolded to make it stand out, and that is what should be done whenever you are showing large amounts of code, but focusing on just a few particular lines within that.
The book just superficially rambles from topic to topic and I find myself thinking "I can't wait until they start tying this all together.". Unfortunately, that time never comes.
Probably the most annoying trait of the WROX series of books (which I am certainly not the first to comment on) is the use of multiple authors for one title. This allows Wiley (the publisher of WROX) to push more titles out the door quicker, but usually it is at the expense of continuity, flow, and increased redundancy. A general word to the wise for WROX purchasers: the books with less authors on the cover, tend to be written more comprensively, with less redundancy, and with a better continuity.
Second to multiple authors is a book on a new version of an existing product or technology. Instead of writing a new book for a new release, WROX recycles material from the predesessor book. Now, certainly one can understand why this is done and doing it isn't, in iteself, a bad thing. But, doing so requires an extra high level of scrutiny in the editorial process. There are numerous references to version 2 of Expression Blend and Silverlight 2, when the book is about version 3 of both. It's one thing to write a 2, when it should be a 3, but this is more serious than that because, in some cases, the XAML namespaces have changed between versions 2 and 3 and the reader is left wondering how much of the code is incorrect.
So, if you are looking for something to get you started with some Silverlight and XAML concepts, this might be the book for you. If you are looking for a true reference for programmers, this book isn't it.
Scott Marcus
[...]
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Plenty of Content for SIlverlight Developers, September 1, 2009
This review is from: Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)
There are several different "Kinds" of technical books, and a Programmer's Reference is a different animal from the rest of them. Instead of having progressive chapters on "how to build" XYZ with code examples, a Programmer's Reference tries to cover all the major areas of a platform or language, describing the different parts in a short, useful manner, and providing perhaps a small example in code. The idea is that this is a book that you can keep at your desk to be able to quickly look up something.
The book is broken down into three major sections, "Getting Started", "Using Silverlight 3 Essentials", and "Building Applications".
The first section of the book provides a decent general overview of Silverlight as a platform, basics of XAML, an architectural tour, and your developer Toolbox. Excellent for those who are new to Silverlight, and optional but good coverage for the more experienced.
The second section takes a deeper dive into Controls, Text, Layout, styling and use of Resources, Graphics, media and Services. Services are further broken down into communications, storage, and installation-updates.
The last section covers the Browser and the Server, security and cryptography, dealing with data, designing and styling the UX, creating custom controls, and more.
Finally, the book includes five Appendices with Base Class Library and System.Windows references, Media and Shapes references, and additional resources.
Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference is in full color; this makes the code samples and the graphical / photo illustrations really come alive. Updates and dowloadable source code are available at the Wrox (now Wiley) web site. While there are some minor grammatical errors and a small portion of the material appears to have not been 100% updated to Silverlight 3, these are minor issues and don't materially impact the otherwise excellent quality of the book.
One thing I know for sure: we, as developers, are paid to THINK. This book will definitely help you to do so. I'd recommend this book for both the beginner and more seasoned developer.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book if you have not done much silverlight, could be better in some places, September 1, 2009
This review is from: Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)
I read the Wrox Professional Silverlight 2 for ASP.NET Developers book about six months ago as my first in-depth introduction to the world of Silverlight, so was looking for a book that could get me up to speed quickly on the new features of Siverlight 3. Having read plenty of Wrox books in the past I looked for their latest and happily found Wrox Silverlight 3 Programmers Reference which looked like it could help me catch up with the latest release.
When the book arrived two things struck me immediately, one it was a bigger book that I was expecting (see more about this later) and two it was in FULL colour. Now you may be saying "full colour, so what?" but believe me, having all the code samples look exactly like they do in Visual Studio, and full colour screenshots of Blend make a massive difference. Every developer I have shown the book to has immediately been impressed by the change and I can only hope this is the future for all technical books.
The book is written by five authors, which to be honest is something I try and avoid if possible when choosing a book as there always seems to be some consistency issues. However, I can appreciate the world of Silverlight requires a lot of skills and finding one person who has all these would be a tough call. I was impressed, however, to see the authors are all developers at Infragistics and it's great to see such a high profile company committed to helping the developer community. I did notice a reasonable amount of what seems unnecessary repetition in different sections (for example two almost identical sections of Isolated Storage) but it's always good to have concepts reinforced in a book this big.
There are a few notable chapters in the book that try to widen the understanding of developers about the roles and processes involved in a typical Silverlight development team; especially how designers, developers and integrators work together. There is also a great section on paper prototyping of Silverlight applications including the initial evolution of the design. However, it was strange to see no mention of the new Sketchflow features in Blend 3 and I can only assume these were not known about at the time of writing. Hopefully any future editions will rectify this.
Of course there are a few things, as in every book, I'd think about changing. Firstly the title "Wrox Silverlight 3 Programmers Reference" personally I think the name implies a relatively short book that can be used to dip in and out of when required. Now, it is possible to use the book in that way but really it is a complete guide to Silverlight from the basics to example applications, for someone with existing .net / c# skills. The other feature that was disappointingly missing from the book was any highlighting of the new Siverlight Features. I was hoping to be able to flick through the book, brush up on a few things and read up on the new features but there is no visual highlighting and sometimes even no mention that particular features have been introduced in Silverlight 3.
Overall, this is a really solid book for learning Silverlight development in c# and some basic skills in Blend. There are a few parts of the book that could do with more editing to make a more consolidated read and a few missing features (like Sketchflow and highlight new Silverlight 3 features) that could be added in future versions but none of these change the fact that if you are looking to learn Silverlight this is a great book to start with.
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