The book begins with a short introduction to WPF and also
provides a sneak preview of the remaining chapters covered in the book. Chapter
2 discusses the concept of Application and Settings. Chapter 3 examines the
various kinds of layouts, such as StackPanel, WrapPanel, DockPanel, Grid and
Canvas. A key point to note is that each topic has been examined with the help
of a comprehensive explanation, complete source code in C# and screenshots.
The remaining chapters provide a detailed coverage of
Mouse/Keyboard events, Controls, Data Binding, Styles, Control Templates,
Windows and Dialogs. You will learn how to debug data binding including binding
to list data, Master-Detail binding, Hierarchical Bindings and Triggers.
Chapter 11 examines the usage of WPF in ASP.NET
applications. The book is written in a lucid style and I hope beginners will
find it easy to grasp the contents. The remaining chapters analyze the advanced
concepts such as Resources, Graphics, Text & Flow Documents, Printing and
XPS, Animation, Media and 3D Graphics. The book concludes with a detailed
coverage about the creation of custom controls.
From my point of view, the Table of Contents of the book
requires little modification as the authors have covered 2D Graphics in Chapter
13 and 3D in Chapter 17. I would suggest the authors swap Chapters 14 and 17 in
the next edition of the book so that readers can learn 3D Graphics immediately
after learning 2D concepts.
The book includes five appendixes which cover syntax of
XAML, Interoperability, Asynchronous and Multithreaded WPF programming. The
author has also examined the various base types of WPF in a detailed way with
the help of a flow diagram. The book ends with a detailed appendix on
Silverlight, which enables readers to learn the creation and deployment of a
basic Silverlight application. It is in no way an exhaustive reference, but I
hope it will set a foundation for you to explore the advanced concepts of
Silverlight easily at a later point of time. I feel that the book will be
useful for all level of developers as it contains wide range of content.
Some of the important concepts are given inside boxes to
gather the attention of readers. Moreover, the authors have provided colored
screenshots of some of the core features in the middle of the book including a
colorful 3D picture and Silverlight sample.
The complete contents
of the book and source code can be viewed and downloaded from the website
of the publisher.
