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Review
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Reviewed: May, 2010 |
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Reviewer: Michael Duncan |
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I have to begin by discussing the readability of this book. This is the
first full color programming reference book I have read. As WPF is focused
on user interface development, the full color print was certainly the right
choice. Of course, this required a different grade of paper than I’ve
experienced in other books and initially when I began reading the book, I
found myself often double checking that I had not flipped two pages instead
of one. After a couple of chapters, I was used to the phenomenon and no
longer felt the need to double check the page number often.
The chapters are short, averaging 20 pages, but cover
each titled topic. This made for easy reading as I could choose to read one,
two or even more chapters depending upon how much time I had available. With
many other professional books I have read, the chapters are usually much
longer and I often had to stop reading in the middle of a chapter, losing
any context, which meant backtracking a few pages when I had the chance to
resume reading.
While the chapters cover a lot of material, many seemed
to lack the in depth detail I’ve come to expect from professional reference
books. Initially, I was disappointed, particularly in topics I wanted to
learn more about and prompted my interest in this book in the first place.
However, I soon realized that the chapters were providing me the basic
conceptual knowledge and the correct terminology.
And then I discovered the appendices, all sixteen of
them. For these alone, this book will remain within reach from or on my desk
as long as I am developing applications using WPF.
Since the details are usually lists of properties in
large tables, which are difficult to read (also known as “sleeping aides”),
I thought the idea of separating them from the topical discussions in the
chapters a refreshing idea. It shows how the organization of the material
presented in the book is well thought out. Not only do the chapters start
with foundation concepts and increase in difficulty as you progress through
the book, but they also presents topics in an order that build upon
themselves. For example, once past the introductory chapter, tools are
discussed, followed by basic controls, followed by methods for styling
controls and so forth.
Your level of experience will dictate how you read this
book. A beginner will read it from cover to cover, while a more experienced
developer will probably skim the initial chapters until they reach concepts
they are not familiar with. This is what I did, and even as a developer with
years of experience, including having already developed several WPF
applications, I still found myself slowing down and reading some of the
initial chapters with care. And in the later chapters, I found
understandable explanations on topics that I had previously struggled
through hours of Google searches, trials & errors, and failed attempts.
I wish I had had access to this book about a year ago!
Even while reading this book, I found myself returning to those WPF
applications I had previously built and refactoring them. Only slightly. I
promise! Yeah, right… (rolls eyes.) |
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