Reviews for Pro WPF in C# 2008: Windows Presentation Foundation with .NET 3.5, 2nd Edition

1. A good introduction and a good reference

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2008

   I work with WPF on a daily basis and used this book to get up to speed from pretty much nothing. It provides a good grounding in all aspects of WPF, gives more advanced information that you can note and come back to later, and serves as a good desktop reference while coding. The level is good for someone familiar with C#, the tone is professional and the writing style is pleasant to read and flowing.
   
   Highly recommended.

2. NEW EDITION OUT -- Pro WPF in C# 2010

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2010

   Unless you particularly want to buy an older version referencing VS 2008, there is a newer version of this available: - "Pro WPF in C# 2010", by the same author.

3. Nearly threw it in the bin, but glad I didn't

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2010

   As one of the other reviewers said, it seems to take ages to get going.
   The stuff on XAML (chapter 2) right up to Events (chapter 6) went on and on, without apparent reference to the goal of learning WPF. I nearly lost the will to continue.
   Be patient, however, as all this early stuff becomes clearer as you work through the book. I kept referencing back to chapters 2-6 and now it seems to have all fallen into place.
   I'm glad I persisted, it's a good book.
   
   
   
   
   

4. Depends what you are looking for.

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   I feel most potential purchasers here will be looking to get up-to-speed with WPF but sadly this book doesn't really fit the bill. Well, not quick enough anyway. The author talks in mind-numbing detail about issues that frankly I don't really care about and don't sit with what I was expecting. For example in chapter 3 which talks about the 'application', he rambles on about how WPF doesn't yet support Single-Instance Applications and then proceeds to outline a workaround which involves wrapping up the WPF application in a Windows Form application which references classes in the Microsoft.VisualBasic.Application namespace. Exactly what you needed to know in your attempts to learn WPF! All this before the book has even introduced the basic UI controls. No, you have to get through 179 pages before you get to those. I didn't fancy reading through nearly 500 pages of pointless trivia before I actually got to something worthwhile and relevent, such as Data Binding, so I'm going to consign this book to the 'Reference Section' of my collection and proceed with the Manning Publication's 'WPF In Action' instead, which already seems far more informative.

5. Excellent - no risk here

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2009

   Having read most every book on WPF of late, this would be my desert island WPF (sad, eh?). It's big but then nothing about WPF is small. This will carry any novice straight through - and with WPF, you're better off being a novice - nothing to unlearn.
   There's ample coverage of really useful stuff like data templates, data binding, control templates and styling. It's well written and shows that the authors have lived with this tech from its infancy.
   It isn't a student text book - too big, too expensive - but then at this level books become less useful. Take Murach's C# 2008 (Training & Reference) for instance - it's about the only undergraduate book I could recommend (and it does a little WPF!). Excellent pedagogically but only useful for beginners.

6. Excellent reading and extremely useful

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2008

   I have read it like a novel. The author's writing style and the book graphic presentation are very, very pleasant. As a complete novice in WPF (even not very familiar with Windows Forms), I've got a broad picture of what WPF is, what it can do and WHAT IT CANNOT DO (the last thing is really rare in similar books, though IMHO the most important one when starting with a new technology). Almost any question that I could imagine while reading was answered by the author somewhere in the following text. I didn't start yet developing in WPF seriously, but I am sure that this book will be as great as reference as it was as the introduction to WPF. Thi is a must for anyone starting with WPF!