Product Description

Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a key component of the .NET Framework 3.0, 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, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by .NET 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

· Features a chapter on 3D graphics by Daniel Lehenbauer, lead developer responsible for WPF 3D

· Delves into non-mainstream topics: speech, audio/video, documents, bitmap effects, and more

· Shows how to create popular UI elements, such as features introduced in the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Galleries, ScreenTips, custom control layouts, and more

· Demonstrates how to create sophisticated UI mechanisms, such as Visual Studio-like collapsible/dockable panes

· Explains how to develop and deploy all types of applications, including navigation-based applications, applications hosted in a Web browser, and applications with great-looking non-rectangular windows

· Explains how to create first-class custom controls for WPF

· Demonstrates how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies

· Explains how to exploit new Windows Vista features in WPF applications

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17781 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

From the Back Cover

Printed entirely in color, with helpful figures and syntax coloring to make code samples appear as they do in Visual Studio.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a key component of the .NET Framework 3.0, 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, rich document support, speech recognition, or more, WPF enables you to do so in a seamless, resolution-independent manner. Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers it all, in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by .NET 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

· Features a chapter on 3D graphics by Daniel Lehenbauer, lead developer responsible for WPF 3D

· Delves into non-mainstream topics: speech, audio/video, documents, bitmap effects, and more

· Shows how to create popular UI elements, such as features introduced in the 2007 Microsoft Office System: Galleries, ScreenTips, custom control layouts, and more

· Demonstrates how to create sophisticated UI mechanisms, such as Visual Studio-like collapsible/dockable panes

· Explains how to develop and deploy all types of applications, including navigation-based applications, applications hosted in a Web browser, and applications with great-looking non-rectangular windows

· Explains how to create first-class custom controls for WPF

· Demonstrates how to create hybrid WPF software that leverages Windows Forms, ActiveX, or other non-WPF technologies

· Explains how to exploit new Windows Vista features in WPF applications

About the Author
Adam Nathan is a senior software development engineer in Microsoft’s Developer Division. He is the author of the acclaimed .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 regularly speaks at development conferences and to groups within Microsoft about a variety of .NET Framework topics. Having started his career on Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime team in 1999, Adam has been at the core of .NET technologies since the very beginning. Adam is also the  creator of popular tools and websites for .NET developers, such as PINVOKE.NET, CLR SPY (and its Visual Studio add-in), and XAMLshare.com. You can find him online at www.adamnathan.net.

Daniel Lehenbauer is the lead software design engineer responsible for the 3D features in Windows Presentation Foundation. Prior to WPF, he worked on multiple graphics and UI technologies, including mobile controls for ASP.NET and Windows Forms. Daniel is active in the WPF community and blogs about 3D graphics using WPF at www.viewport3D.com.

Customer Reviews

One of the best WPF books out at the moment!!
I have read a fair few WPF books over the last month and can honestly say this book comes out top if you're looking for an introduction to WPF!

The full colour screen shots, and step-by-step approach to WPF made this book a pleasure to read. Especially useful were the 'common pitfalls in WPF' textboxes.

I would highly recommend this for early adopters looking for their first book on WPF.

Very good but could be better
I purchased this because it was the first post-RTM book on WPF to hit the market; so a lesson to all publishers out there. Before I start I have a confession: I am basing this review on the four chapters that I have actually read and the remaining chapters that I have merely skimmed. It should still be a fair summation though.

The good thing about this book is that it is written by someone who has been heavily involved in the development of .NET at Microsoft and co-authored by a man with similarly impressive credentials with WPF. So it passes the 3 C's (comprehensive, concise, and complete) easily. It is rather impressively (as it proudly advertises on the front cover) in full colour - which I have to say is a good thing for a book focusing on a *presentation* foundation.

The problem with this book is that is that it is (as the author states in the introduction) aimed at software developers. One would think this to be fortuitous, as developer is one of the many job titles that I go under - but it means that the structure of the book is such that having read it, developers will continue to work in the same way that they always have but with only a marginal paradigm shift. To put that in something resembling English: the problem that WPF has the potential to solve is the separation of user interface structure from user interface style (very much as HTML and CSS do on the web). This means developers could code whole application without wasting time on making it look pretty, choosing instead to leave that to designers.

Anyway, my gripe is that if this book were structured in a way that at least some of it would be useful to designers, as well as encouraging developers to remove style considerations from their field of vision; then it would be a much better volume.

To be fair, this is a well written introduction to WPF for developers - but it introduces too much complexity too soon (I glazed over by chapter 3) and doesn't lend itself well to involving designers in software development. The author does warn that learning WPF is a steep learning curve but unless you're pretty determined to start using WPF now, this book is just going to encourage procrastination. It appears to be the only up-to-date book out there though, so that alone makes it worth the (very reasonable) price.

Best WPF book so far
I really like this book.

It is by no means a definitive WPF bible (that's what the Internet is for) but it tells you how to do things in WPF.

It leans slightly towards the 'learner' than 'professional' side.

This book is almost revolutionary in its approach to colour.
I want to see all technical books from now on have full colour code samples like this one.

It's the best WPF book out there. Get it.

-- Lee