Customer Reviews

Silverlight 3 Programmer's Reference (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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
[...]

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.

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.

In July, I was offered the opportunity to review Wrox Publishing's newly released "Professional Silverlight 3", a massive full-color book covering nearly ever aspect of Silverlight 3. I've long been a Wrox fan and as a WPF developer with a web background I have a keen interest in all things Silverlight, so naturally I jumped at the chance to review this new book. Unfortunately, life did what it always does and prevented me from completing the review until now.

NOTE: I finalized this article while attending PDC09, where Scott Guthrie announced Silverlight 4. This release interval for Silverlight has been unprecedented: only three months after the official Silverlight 3 launch! I am confident though that you will still find this book timely and valuable.

As expected, Wrox does not disappoint. Authors J. Ambrose Little, Jason Beres, Grant Hinkson, Devin Rader, and Joseph Croney, all from Infragistics, have provided a wonderful edition that should capture the attention of both fledgling and experienced Silverlight developers. In fact, the introduction and first four chapters should be mandatory reading: they provide the perfect overview to this game changing technology all .Net professionals should understand whether or not their particular interests run towards Silverlight.

If you have never read a full color technical book, you'll quickly find this is wonderful addition. The numerous graphics and screen shots jump off the page, making the material easily consumable. In addition, all code and XAML samples are in full color as well, mimicking the default IntelliSense color scheme. This is perhaps the best part of having a .NET volume printed in full color because it allows us to read code on the page in the same manner in which we are used to reading it on screen. I've always found it a bit unpalatable to read code on the printed page, but this feature makes the code imminently more readable.

The book itself is very well written and easy to follow. The style of the authors reveals their mastery of the material without being overbearing. This is an extremely accessible book to those new to Silverlight but contains plenty of material for the more experienced developer. While the text is clear and concise, in no way is this a light read. Silverlight is a very large topic and any book that attempts to do it justice needs to be sized to the task. That being said, I would not attempt this book, or many like it, cover to cover. While none of the chapters is superfluous, if you are new to Silverlight or WPF, beyond the requisite 4 chapters mentioned above, I would begin with chapters 7, 8, 12 and 14. I would tackle the rest of the chapters on an as needed basis.

Another item I really appreciated in this book was the frequent inclusion of Microsoft Expression Blend. Blend is an invaluable tool for developing WPF and Silverlight applications and yet I find it frequently passed over in technical publications. Going forward, the more complex XAML based applications become, the more imperative it is going to be for developers to learn Blend, so it is nice to see a Silverlight book give Blend the attention it deserves.

On a scale of 1-5, I give this book 4.5 stars. This book is exactly what it needs to be, a great reference aimed at professional developers. I know that as I get more serious about my Silverlight development efforts, I will be reaching for this book frequently.

This was a great book. I learned a lot from it and its enough to get started and build applications that compete with flex and flash. It has great insight from start to end and its a great reference book. This book does a great job being enthusiastic about the techonology and it has a broad approach using different tools to deploy a solution.

Being completely new to Silverlight programming and knowing some (aka little) about C#, I found this book to be an excellent book for those who have experience programming in an OOP model already. Knowing C# (or any other supported language) is important to the overall "behind the scenes" programming of Silverlight, this book does a great job of getting those who know OOP up to speed on what Silverlight is and why it will really be a force to observe in years to come (seriously, the more I learn about Silverlight, the more I realize that this is not a competitor for Flash, but competes with what the WebPages paradigm overall). It is NOT important that you understand Silverlight 2 or 1 as there were many big changes for Silverlight 3. This book, however, is NOT a "cookbook" and while will give you great examples on how to manage data and work with the program, it will not teach this to you by having you work through each chapter creating a part of a master project. This book, while discussing the many fun and glitzy features of Silverlight (which are really amazing to be honest), it focuses on creating data rich applications and knowing how to use Silverlight as, essentially, a method of WPF programming on the web--with or without the fancy styling.

This book does go into Expression Blend 3 which is an important part of the Silverlight programming package (this is a pseudo WYSIWYG for XAML--the design code necessary for Silverlight). It does not focus 100% on the environment however. But if you're debating on whether or not to purchase an Expression Blend 3 book, my advice would be to purchase this book only first and see if it gives you enough exposure to make you comfortable in Blend. If you need more focus or ideas, you can use the web for that. But if you're completely lost, then get a separate book on Blend 3.

If you want a book on how to make your pages or programs look "pretty", this is not the book to get. But if you want a good primer into the toolset that Silverlight does have and are willing to put in time and energy to "learn by doing", this is a great book. Like the book states, this is a reference for programmers--don't expect to read any discussions on what methods are and how to code the c# background (or VB , JavaScript, Ruby, or any other language).

In America there is a growing trend to take your date to the prom in a limousine with all the pomp and lavishness and it works (I've heard stories anyway). The same can be said for books. Technical books that deal with certain subjects, CSS, Silverlight etc. are noticeably enhanced when they are printed in full color and Silverlight 3 Programmers Reference is no exception. It helps to clearly demonstrate what the author(s) are portraying.

This book covers both the bases of those new to Silverlight programming and those looking to upgrade their skill sets from Silverlight 2. Silverlight 3 has introduced many enhancements in many areas of the product and the authors have done a good job explaining this. It gently eases you like a pair of well worn slippers into the world of Silverlight programming and captures you with the possibilities that this technology can achieve.

Some chapters of the book are better than others, for example the chapter on styling is the best I've read on Silverlight styling but other chapters, although they get the subject matter across appear to leave out some information and sometimes come across as overviews rather than in-depth tutorials.

The authors have slipped up in a couple of places and you can certainly tell that this book isn't a complete re-write but rather an update of their book on Silverlight 2 as they have forgotten to update the text. This should not put you off however as Silverlight 3 is backwards compatible so what might apply to Silverlight 2 equally applies to Silverlight 3.

I would say that this book is aimed mainly at the newcomer to the Silverlight world and it gives you enough knowledge to more than get started with the technology. Those that are already familiar with Silverlight 2 will learn what is new in Silverlight 3 however the book does not point these things out in an obvious manner which is perhaps one of it's downfalls. The other downfall is you are left with a feeling that some things should have been explained in more depth. It certainly gives you a good introduction to certain things, some things it does cover well and in-depth but this is not consistent throughout the book.

Some things in this world are exquisite, the minute attention to every detail in a Da Vinci, the song of a Ferrari engine. Some things are good but but lack that something that makes them great and most things fall into the category of Mediocre/Useable. This book I would place in the good category if you are new to Silverlight programming. If you are already proficient in Silverlight 2 and looking to learn what's new in Silverlight 3 then perhaps this book is not for you as you really have to dig to find that information.

Thanks to all those guys who has spent their crucial time in writing this wonderful book. Another main thing about this book is the way it is laid out and user friendly that increases the interest of the reader.

Thanks

The print format of this book is better than before, pages are smooth and
print stands out against bright white backgroung making each page easier to
read. Illustration are in full color, making comparing an illustration to a
screen display better.
Each chapter brings detailed information as to why, with code for comparing
what it looks like as well as useful for starting points when working with
silverlight projects. This book was contributed to by five different
authors, and as such you get a good view of ways to build Silverlight 3
applications with the 2 primary tools, Visual Studio 2008 and Expression
Blend. One feature which is a plus is the Appendices covering the libraries
used in Silverlight development. Many of the entries not only give basic
information, but illustration of the concept and code samples to assist in
the understanding of the reference. Silverlight 3 is a vehicle for creating
user interfaces that are more visually appealing, and the format,
illustration and samples chosen for this book reflects well on that point.
I had hoped to see more on .Net RIA Services for use with Silverlight 3, but
I suppose the book was printed before that part of the technology was ready.

Over all a good book for a ASP.Net developers to use to build your
Silverlight 3 knowledge.

Wow my first book I ever read in color! This book is great for developers the book covers the UI glitz in a fundamental level that most devs need. The book obviously focuses in Silverlight 3 it starts off with an introduction and provides an overview of Silverlight 3 and how to get started with it. The second part covers the presentation core of Silverlight which is more or less the new stuff in Silverlight that most .NET developers will have to learn. The third part is the real meat of the book the chapters are more or less in terms of how you should think about building applications starting with architectural cross-cutting concerns and moving through the other concerns in a manner that would make sense to a developer building a real application on this platform. The fourth part just contains references for your information. Overall the book is great and would recommend it for starters and pro's.