WPF 4 Unleashed [Paperback]

Adam Nathan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 14, 2010 | ISBN-10: 0672331195 | ISBN-13: 978-0672331190 | Edition: 1

The #1 WPF Book--Now Updated for WPF 4!

 

Full Color: Code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio!

 

Thorough, authoritative coverage, practical examples, clear writing, and full-color presentation make this one of the most widely acclaimed programming books of the last decade.

 

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is the recommended technology for creating Windows user interfaces, giving you the power to create richer and more compelling applications than you dreamed possible. Whether you want to develop traditional user interfaces or integrate 3D graphics, audio/video, animation, dynamic skinning, multi-touch, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner. WPF 4 Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by WPF guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan. 

• Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML)
• Examines the WPF feature areas in incredible depth: controls, layout, resources, data binding, styling, graphics, animation, and more
• Highlights the latest features, such as multi-touch, text rendering improvements, XAML language enhancements, new controls, the Visual State Manager, easing functions, and much more
• Delves into topics that aren’t covered by most books: 3D, speech, audio/video, documents, effects
• Shows how to create popular UI elements, such as Galleries, ScreenTips, and more
• Demonstrates how to create sophisticated UI mechanisms, such as Visual Studio-like collapsible/dockable panes
• Explains how to create first-class custom controls for WPF
• Demonstrates how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, DirectX, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies
• Explains how to exploit new Windows 7 features, such as Jump Lists and taskbar customizations

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Adam Nathan is a principal software development engineer for Microsoft Visual Studio, the latest version of which has been transformed into a first-class WPF application. Adam was previously the founding developer and architect for Popfly, Microsoft’s first product built on Silverlight, named one of the 25 most innovative products of 2007 by PCWorld Magazine. Having started his career on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime team, Adam has been at the core of .NET and WPF technologies since the very beginning.

 

Adam’s books have been considered required reading by many inside Microsoft and throughout the industry. He is the author of the best-selling WPF Unleashed (Sams, 2006) that was nominated for a 2008 Jolt Award, Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed (Sams, 2008), and .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (Sams, 2002); a coauthor of ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials, and Code (Sams, 2001); and a contributor to books including .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2 (Addison-Wesley, 2005) and Windows Developer Power Tools (O’Reilly, 2006). Adam is also the creator of PINVOKE.NET and its Visual Studio add-in. You can find him online at www.adamnathan.net, or @adamnathan on Twitter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 848 pages
• Publisher: Sams Publishing; 1 edition (June 14, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672331195
• ISBN-13: 978-0672331190
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 1.5 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Computers & Technology > Networking > Network Programming

More About the Author

Adam Nathan is a principal software architect for Microsoft in the Startup Business Group. Adam was prevously the founding developer and architect for Popfly, Microsoft's first product built on Silverlight, named one of the 25 most innovative products of 2007 by PCWorld Magazine. Having started his career on Microsoft's Common Language Runtime team, Adam has been at the core of .NET and XAML technologies since the very beginning.

Adam's books have been considered required reading by many inside Microsoft and throughout the industry. He is the author of the best-selling WPF 4 Unleashed (Sams, 2010) and WPF Unleashed (Sams, 2006) that was nominated for 2008 Jolt Award, 101 Windows Phone 7 Apps (Sams, 2011), Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed (Sams, 2008), .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (Sams, 2002), a coauthor of ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials, and Code (Sams, 2001), and a contributor to books such as .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Vol. 2 (Addison-Wesley, 2005) and Windows Developer Power Tools (O'Reilly, 2006). Adam is also the creator of popular tools and websites for .NET developers, such as PINVOKE.NET and its Visual Studio add-in. You can find him online at www.adamnathan.net.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good use of color, very readable, sufficient depth November 14, 2010

By Techie Evan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This book, along with Matthew MacDonald's Pro WPF in C# 2010, are my two favorite introductory books on Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation 4 technology. Both are very readable and cover all the important bread and butter topics such as XAML (the declarative language used in WPF and other Microsoft technologies such as Workflow Foundation); how to style, use, and customize various controls including the latest available for Windows 7 (such as jumplists); how to handle Layout, Input, Focus, and Events (LIFE); how to build custom controls, and how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, DirectX, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies.

Nathan's book makes good use of color to illustrate many concepts, and provides very good tutorials on XAML, 3D graphics, and how to work with audio, video, and speech. In terms of comprehensiveness of coverage and technical depth, however, I think MacDonald's book has a slight edge over it.

Nathan's book, for example, does not cover XML Paper Specification (XPS) Documents at all, which is unfortunate because XPS is a technology that Microsoft is positioning as an alternative to Adobe's PDF, so there are readers out there who would have welcomed the coverage.

A more serious deficiency, however, is the very limited coverage of multithreading (e.g., few code samples, no mention at all of BackgroundWorker, etc), a topic that's important to learning how to build responsive WPF applications.

Overall, however, I thought the book is very well done and merits consideration.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book... Watch out for chapter 2! June 22, 2011

By Jonathan J. Bachelor

Format:Paperback

WPF 4 Unleashed is an excellent reference book to keep around once you've already got some WPF experience. For someone just starting out with WPF, you can certainly use this book and it will get you going... But in my opinion, a beginner would be better off with a book that provided examples and exercises to gain hands-on experience. This book will explain concepts to you, which is why it's great to keep around once you've got some experience under your belt. Starting off with it might not be the best choice though. In particular, chapter 2, titled "XAML Demystified" is brutal. As I was reading the book, I actually had already been working a fair amount with WPF, and so I thought I'd be speeding through the early chapters with no problem at all. Contrary to the chapter title, I have never been *more* mystified by XAML than when reading this chapter. I hate to say it, but I think this chapter needs to be thrown out and re-done... and/or moved much later in the book... and/or renamed something like, "XAML Deep Dive... Hang On Tight". After I got through that chapter, I had no idea what was important and what wasn't, what was useful and what was just extra trivia, and I had an overall feeling of terror about WPF which made me scream out, "WINFORMS!!!!".

That being said, the remainder of the book really is quite good... But I personally prefer books with hands-on exercises, introducing common stumbling blocks and helping you through the right way to tackle them as you go. I can't emphasize enough, however, this is a great reference book to keep around as you work on your WPF app.

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Update of Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed June 16, 2010

By David Roh

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is now the number 1 book for learning WPF 4 - it is a significant update of "Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed" which was the best book for learning WPF. The book looks like it is twice as thick as the previous book; however, it is exactly the same style with material that looks just like the previous book - many of the same samples. The code is downloadable and uses Visual Studio 2010 solutions.

Very highly recommended.