Internet Cross Logo
Internet Cross your one stop web tutorial website
Your Ad Here
Search Internet Cross Shop:

Pro WPF with VB 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5

List Price: $54.99
Our Price: $17.95
Your Save:$ 37.04 ( 67% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Apress Average Customer Rating: Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5Average rating of 4.5/5

Buy it now at Amazon.com!

Back to previous page




Pro WPF with VB 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5

Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.365
EAN: 9781590599624
ISBN: 1590599624
Label: Apress
Manufacturer: Apress
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 1000
Publication Date: 2008-03-24
Publisher: Apress
Studio: Apress
Related Items
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Good, detailed information
Comment: Upon first glance I would have expected this to be a simple "C#->VB.NET" translation of MacDonald's earlier offering, but even if that is the case it has been very well tailored to suit the VB.NET coder's standards and tastes. MacDonald goes into great detail with all of his examples and tends never to leave an errant XAML tag or line of VB.NET code unexplained. He points out various intricacies of the new features of the 3.5 framework, but despite all of this manages to keep things simple and engaging.

For the average WinForms coder, XAML and the other related technologies that made their début in .NET 3.0/3.5 can seem very daunting and often times totally unnecessary. MacDonald does a great job of explaining not only how to use the new technologies, but why they came about in the first place, Microsoft's motivation for creating (and pushing) them, and their benefits. In doing so he manages to - dare I say it - glamorise the new platform by extolling its virtues which served to make me as a reader and coder really want to start using XAML instead of WinForms. Without it, any initial efforts by me tended to be abortive and resulted in me resorting to using the much more familiar WinForms toolset.

I would recommend this to any VB.NET coder who is eager to make the transition from WinForms but has no idea how or where to start. MacDonald walks you through the basics and gives you the confidence you need to really get your teeth into that killer WPF app you've been meaning to write.

My only problems with the book are the occasional grammatical errors. Given that it was supposed to be an update to a prior book MacDonald wrote, you might expect the non-sensical sentences and grammatical errors to have been picked up by proof readers prior to publishing. In this case I started to notice them within the first two or three chapters and they made regular appearances throughout, which admittedly shook my confidence in the value of the book slightly, but the technical information it provides really has been invaluably helpful so far.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: At Last! A WPF Book for VB Developers.
Comment: At last, someone has published a WPF book aimed at those of us who prefer to use Visual Basic for the code behind.

This is another well-written and comprehensive piece of work from a widely respected author.

Unsurprisingly, large chunks of content have been ported directly from his earlier WPF book, which was based on .NET 3.0 and has C# as the code behind. This makes complete sense as it is only the code behind aspects that need the different approach.

Because this is based on WPF 3.5 though, there are some additional items, such as binding to a LINQ expression in Chapter 16. There is also a completely new additional Chapter 26, which deals with the topics of Multithreading and Add-Ins.

I don't think Apress have the full chapter listing on their site yet (or at least I couldn't see it if they did). However, rest assured that the whole gamut of WPF topics is covered in this book, from Layout to Dependency Properties, Routed Events to Navigation - in fact everything from Animation to Z-Index.

The author has a very useful list of links that you can simply click on to save you (mis)typing them yourself from the book. They are available from his site at www.prosetech.com. Downloadable samples are available from there also.

In my opinion, you should buy this book for two reasons.

First, it is an excellent, wide ranging, clear description of what you will need to know in order to get fully to grips with this exciting (but not always intuitive) technology.

Second, there have been at least five WPF books published in the past year that have C# as the code behind. Publishers are in the business of selling books and they couldn't care less about whether C# or VB are "better". So I guess it's obvious that their stats show that they will sell more C# books. If you want to keep VB as a viable language, fully supported by authors and publishers, then the only way to ensure this is to make it worth their while to publish VB based books.

So for either or both these reasons, I rate this book as one of the most worthwhile investments you can make if you are a VB developer (or student) and you want to fully embrace all the tempting offerings available in Windows Presentation Foundation.

 
Editorial Reviews:

Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building applications and high–quality user experiences in Windows Vista. WPF blends application user interface, documents, and media content to provide richer control, design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs.

Author Matthew MacDonald shows you how WPF really works. His no–nonsense, practical advice will get you building high–quality WPF applications quickly and easily. MacDonald will take you through a thorough investigation of the more advanced aspects of WPF, and its relation to other elements of the WinFX stack and the .NET Framework 3.5, to complete your understanding of WPF and VB 2008.

WPF’s functionality extends to support for Tablet PCs and other forms of input device, and provides a more modern imaging and printing pipeline, accessibility and UI automation infrastructure, data–driven UI and visualization, as well as the integration points for weaving the application experience into the Windows shell.

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 is this book for?

Developers encountering WPF and .NET 3.5 for the first time in their professional lives.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.
Buy it now at Amazon.com!