Applications = Code Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation (Pro - Developer) - Ebook Detail

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.

User review
Mr. Petzold writes the best books.
There is one rule on buying books that is sure bet. If it's written by Charles Petzold then it probably the best book on that subject. He is smart, clear, vivid, and even scatters a bit of fun in there too. I have never Mr. Petzold and but have met many of his books. Buy his books as he about the best technical author you will ever find. If you are a college wanting to choose books ALWAYS pick his if you want the competitive advance and high student satisfaction. Whenever I use his books in my classes they get raved reviews. He really keeps your attention and turns your curiosity into enthusiasm.

User review
`Read & Do IT` helps to reach WPF summit
All who wants to master WPF shall go for this hard trip via the book and at the end you will really reach the WPF summit. He leads you to the summit; but no one will feel comfortable before reach the top to enjoy the view under your feet.

User review
Excellent guide through the WPF thicket
When Petzold's original book `Programming Windows` was first published in the mid-80s, THE computer book of the time was `The C Programming Language` by Kernighan and Ritchie. The teaching model of that book was incremental learning through example, always making sure that the reader was not overwhelmed by excessive detail at any particular stage of the learning process. This was the model adopted by Petzold for `Programming Windows` and it was as successful for Windows as it was for popularizing the C language. It is the model that Petzold has continued to follow in subsequent books. I have found this approach, when used by talented writers, to be very effective at producing a good understanding of a complex programming topic. Petzold's book on WPF is no exception.

This is not a book one reads in the living room. Like `The C Programming Language` and Petzold's other books, this is an extended tutorial to be read while sitting at the computer. That's why there are no screen shots in the book: they're on your monitor because that's where you are when you're reading it, at least during the initial reading.

One need only look at the disagreement among reviewers of this book to realize that it's a very different book from the endless mediocre titles offered by computer book publishers. Readers with a long background in software are also likely to realize that the variance in ratings almost certainly occurs because readers approach it with different backgrounds and different expectations.

Any of Petzold's books takes time to go through. That's simply a requirement of a book which teaches by incremental learning through example. Petzold is a very good writer and his explanations are clear, but demonstrating fine distinctions frequently means a topic must be developed at length. My opinion is that most people will take months to fully absorb this book and, therefore, this is not the book you want if your boss just gave you a WPF project and wants to see something on the monitor by the end of next week. There are other books that can help you do that much more quickly but those books, at least the ones I've looked at, will not bring you to the level of expertise that this one will.

This book will not be suitable for someone whose background consists of applications whose interface can be constructed by dropping controls on forms - a Petzold book is not intended for that kind of audience. For those who need to learn something quickly about WPF, Adam Nathan's book is quick reading: I went through a third of it in a couple of weeks before switching to Petzold's book. Although I haven't looked at them, someone under severe time pressure might want to check the instruction videos on Microsoft's web site to see if they can be useful.

The bottom line, for me, is this: WPF is a complex subject with a lot of detail and with architectural concepts very different from traditional GUI frameworks. It can easily overwhelm someone trying to learn it, even someone with decades of experience. It takes an enormous amount of intelligence to be able to take such a subject and break it down into incremental steps to make it understandable the way Petzold has done here. If you need a deep understanding of WPF and you are willing to spend the time that this book requires, this is the one you should get.


User review
Don't waste your time
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.

User review
Excellent book on windows based graphics
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