by Charles Petzold
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Product Description
In this book, Windows programming legend Charles Petzold covers in parallel the two interfaces that make up the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). From the outset, the reader can shift focus seamlessly between Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) and C# to see them as flip sides of the same processes. Beginning in the first chapter, Petzold presents the general syntax of the XAML and corresponding programming code with numerous illuminating examples on how the two correspond and interrelate. The book builds on this base, providing the classic Petzold Windows user interface (UI) treatment, to show Windows developers how to create next-generation interfaces for their applications.
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Average Customer Review:
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Don't waste your time, 2008-12-15
1. The book has no pictures. Not one lousy image graces the inside of this book. For a book on XAML which lives and breath's graphics, this is a fatal flaw.
2. Chapter 20 is obtuse enough to make you want to rip out your hair. The chapter is supposed to be about properties and attributes. So what does the chapter talk about for the first 20 pages or so? Some lousy XAML cruncher. Only the last page of the chapter has a useful summary, that really should have been at the beginning.
3. It is long on tutorials code, and explaining the code, and short on explaining the principles that the chapters claim to talk about.
4. He will go out of his way to show you (pages and pages) of odd and useless syntax, that does nothing but confuse and strain the patience of the reader.
Don't buy this book.
Petzold was good once, not anymore.
He should retire to Florida and save us all some grief.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent book on windows based graphics, 2008-11-30
I am still on chapter one, going through the book while coding the examples and learning from them. It is a good thorough description of what you can do with wpf. I'll add to this when I am finished.
Leon
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 Disappointing Title from an Amazing Author, 2008-09-09
Over the last decade I've been reading books by Charles Petzold; until this one I enjoyed them all. I consider Petzold to be one of the best Windows development authors out there. He's been writing about it since Windows was became Windows. Most of his titles offer well thought out and presented material. This book did not.
Twice I attempted to read this book as my introduction to the Windows Presentation Foundation. Both times I failed to advance my mark more than a few hundred pages. There are absolutely no illustrations, screenshots or pictures of any kind. This fact forces the reader to type up his numerous code samples to see their output. While I enjoy having many samples in a book about programming, I don't always need to type up the program myself to understand its meaning. Call it teaching to all the senses, but I like more visuals.
My other complaint with the book is that while reading it I constantly feel I'm not moving anywhere. Most other programming books I've read I felt like I could go out and use the tool, even if it was only a fraction of its functionality. With this book I constantly felt like I had to wait until the 2nd half, the XAML discussion, to really use WPF. Yes, I could write a GUI by programmatically instantiating all the elements, but that isn't the way the technology was meant to be used. I would have enjoyed a brief introduction to XAML and its use throughout; only waiting until the end for diving into its deepest intricacies.
In the end, I couldn't finish this book and purchased a different title.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
 The WPF Book I was waiting for, 2008-07-30
Every book I had read so far on WPF sidestepped the basic premise behind WPF -- that it was a brand new platform and a new programming paradigm, which will eventually replace WinForms. How did they do that? By glorifying XAML and everything that it could do for you, turning Windows programming into that trash called HTML, which most Windows programmers stay away from. When I read Nathan Adams' highly touted book, I couldn't get past that 3rd chapter. Chris Sells? About the same. The problem was always the same -- each of the aforesaid authors unnecessarily burden you with XAML when you are already trying to get your head around the WPF, thereby glossing over some very, very important concepts!
Charlie Petzold is that seasoned veteran that started doing Windows ever since Windows came into existence. He takes a truly novel approach in teaching you about WPF. He starts off by first telling you about WPF in the language you are most familiar with -- C#. He explains all the concepts, all the ideas, all the tenets. All in C#. And then, when you get familiar with all of that, bam! He hits you with XAML. He then starts showing you how you can do all of the things that he showed you in C# -- in XAML. But by this time, you are no longer struggling with the concepts of WPF. You already know what DependencyProperties and RoutedEvents are. You are already aware of virtual trees and logical trees. So now, when you see them represented in XAML, it makes so much more sense. And it's all easier to comprehend.
The simplest analogy I can give is this: remember the time when you started learning calculus in high school? That was a new enough concept, right? Now imagine if you had to learn that in German (or your non-native tongue)! But once you learn all the concepts in English, you could very well proceed in a language you weren't quite as familiar with.
To me this is the only way I could have learned WPF. And XAML. I was pushing off WPF all these days only because XAML was getting in the way of my learning. While a lot of Web-programmers will be happy for XAML, the fact is, declarative programming is not something Windows programmers are used to. To them, the only way to approach the subject is to first teach them WPF and then show them how XAML comes in the picture.
Having said that, there are a two extremely irritating aspects to the book that start rearing their annoying heads by the time you get to the second chapter:
1. There are no graphics showing outputs from the code. Granted you are expected to run the code samples (which can be downloaded from the MS Press support site), but I shouldn't have to run every single code sample. Moreover, there are times when I'm reading the book on a crowded train, when I can't really run the program on my laptop -- there's barely room to open the book as it is.
2. Every program is a Console app. So after you hit the F5 key, the annoying console window gets in the way of viewing the main Window. You have to minimize the window, or move it in order to see the Window (Form). According to Petzold, it's convenient for him to hit Ctrl-C on the Console window to terminate the program. Note to Petzold: Chuck, have you tried hitting Shift-F5 on your IDE? I find this so debilitating that I had a utility converting every single csproj file in the folder tree from a console to a Windows application.
Aside from that, the code samples run perfectly. I'm on Chapter 11, and so far every single code sample works.
If you are a seasoned Windows/C# programmer facing similar mind blocks against XAML, this is the book for you. If you are a Web programmer for whom C# is subservient to VBScript, or JavaScript, and are comfortable with HTML, this may not be the right entry point for you (as evidenced by some of the low ratings that this book got). You may need to get in via XAML, and a book that overly emphasizes its importance (such as Adams or Sells) might be the way to go.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
If you don't have this book then you don't know WPF!, 2008-07-17
This book is ESSENTIAL for any WPF engineer. There are so many topics covered in this book that will allow you to take your WPF applications to the next level. Charles' style of writing is fantastic and easy to understand. I wouldn't neccessarily recommend this to be the book to learn WPF fro but consider it an essential source for advanced topics.
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