Professional WinFX Beta - Ebook Detail

Windows development is about to dramatically change! WinFX is an object-oriented API that will allow you to create applications that take advantage of the exciting features in Windows(r) Vista (previously known as `Longhorn`) while remaining compatible with Windows(r)XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. Written by a team of Microsoft experts, this book introduces you to the pillars of this next-generation operating system, guiding you through the Windows Presentation Foundation (previously known as `Avalon`) and the Windows Communication Foundation (previously known as `Indigo`).

You'll first learn how to use the new Windows Presentation Foundation to create effective forms, use the XAML markup language, work with 2D and 3D graphics, and see how XAML interoperates with existing Windows Forms technology. Then you'll discover how to build Web Services and improve communication capabilities with the Windows Communication Foundation and architecture. You'll learn how to migrate existing DCOM and .NET remoting applications to Windows Communication Foundation or to make them interoperate with Windows Communication Foundation. Finally you'll work with integrating Microsoft ADO.NET and ASP.NET with Windows Presentation Foundation forms and data in the WinFX framework.

What you will learn from this book Techniques for creating and deploying WinFX applications from scratch and upgrading your current Windows .NET applications to incorporate WinFX How to use XAML to build a variety of forms, from simple to complex implementations Best practices for working with the Windows Presentation Foundation's themes, controls, annotation, and 3D features To implement secure, reliable messaging and transactions with Windows Communication Foundation and Microsoft Message Queueing To work with WinFX on any supported platform: Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Vista How to develop and implement Web Services using the Windows Communication Foundation

Who this book is for

This book is for the experienced Windows .NET programmer who wants to learn how to develop complex applications using the innovative features of Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft's WinFX beta 1 framework, the Windows Presentation Foundation, and the Windows Communication Foundation.

Wrox Professional guides are planned and written by working programmers to meet the real-world needs of programmers, developers, and IT professionals. Focused and relevant, they address the issues technology professionals face every day. They provide examples, practical solutions, and expert education in new technologies, all designed to help programmers do a better job.

User review
Nice but not what I expect
Very simple and clear intro into the new Microsoft technologies as WCF and WPF but the book lacks deeper description of internal mechanisms on which those technologies are built. I'd rather call this book not `professional winfx` but rather `introduction to winfx` of `beginning winfx`.

User review
Better than Nothing
While there is practically nothing else available on WinFX, this book is a worthwhile purchase. It is difficult to escape the impression though, that the authors did not want to put much effort into it, because it is a beta product and book would be worthless when the final product is released. It would have made more sense to create a good reference that only needs tweaking for the final product.

At best, the book is skimpy. At worst, it is full of holes, such as references to ?the configuration file? without specifying which configuration file. The reader is left to try to fathom whether it is the client application's config file, the server application's, the web.config file, the machine.config file or one or more new ones dedicated to Indigo.

The style of the book is just sufficiently strange to make reading it slow and difficult. Mostly, it is not difficult to understand (though I did find one sentence that nobody could decipher, not even in context), but phrasing is just different enough to make you pause and check that it is saying what you thought it was.

For example, program language elements and function names are almost universally in a different type face to regular text, but then one finds, ?A double type valued property,,.? that is all in the regular type face. What is this? I assume it is, ?A property with a type of 'double'?, but one has to pause to check that there are no other reasonable meanings.

There is no background information in the book. For example, there is no explanation or speculation on why Microsoft might have chosen to create a new layout markup language (XAML) when there are other good standards in existence.

There are some really weird features that are not explained, not well described and not even acknowledged to be weird. An example is ?dependency properties?. There is no explanation of why these exist or why conventional properties would not do. The description says they are 'static' methods, but all the examples show them being referenced as 'instance' methods and there is no explanation of this anomaly. There is a variety called, ?attached dependency properties? that are ?attached? to a container, just as a normal property would be, but is referenced by contained items, again, as a normal public property could be.

If an item, such as a button, is placed in a container, such as a canvas, one does not specify the position of the button relative the container's boundaries using the buttons position properties, as one would logically expect and as one would with the major, standard markup languages. Instead one specifies the button's position at the button level, but using the container's position properties. Strangely, this does not change the position of the container (canvas), but of the button. Furthermore, one can place another button in the container and specify its position using the same container's position properties as before and neither the container, nor the previous button changes position.

This approach also introduces the annoying effect of not being able to move a button from one type of container to another without also having to change its position specification. Overall, this approach is counter-intuitive and apparently a step backwards. It may be that Microsoft has uncovered some flaw that has eluded the rest of the world, but the book is totally silent on this.

One can learn from this book, but I don't feel I really understand WinFX or that I could comfortably deploy a WinFX application after reading it.