Help Trying To Learn Prism

Question

I need to learn prism (for evaluation to use at my work).

I am confused on the version I should be using to learn with. I see from the site that there is a version 4.0 that is having active drops. I also see that the previous version is 2.2.

Which version should I learn on? I don't want to learn 2.2 if 4.0 is a drastic change. However, most of the videos and blog posts are about 2.2, so, if I should start with 4.0 then where can I go to get an intro to the product and the basics of how to use it?

Also, I would appreciate any good tutorials or links (except to the codeplex site of course :)

Note: I will be using Visual Studio 2010 and C# 4.0.

Answer 1

It's really up to you.

Version 2.2 is the latest actual release. 4.0 is being actively developed. There are advantages to both.

Using Version 2.2 has some significant advantages:

• The documentation is correct
• There are many tutorials, videos, etc. related to 2.2
• There are many people familiar with 2.2

However, 2.2 was designed around .NET 3.5, and not the new features in .NET 4. 4.0 is being designed with the new framework feature set in mind. For example, in 2.2, everything was built around Unity, but in 4.0, you have the option of using the Managed Extensibility Framework (which is part of the BCL in 4.0) instead. Personally, I feel that some of the newer changes make the library easier to use and cleaner overall. 4.0 also does a much better job of supporting things such as MVVM (which is possible in 2.2, but not as "natural" feeling.) 4.0 is also much better in its Silverlight support, in my opinion.

That being said, using 4.0 is working against a moving target, since it's still in development. Most of the concepts are core design are the same, however, so you really can learn either and apply the knowledge to both. The discussions on CodePlex are very active, and can really get you through most hurdles if you use them.

I, personally, am comfortable just jumping into the code and seeing how it works, so I'd probably, in your shoes, download the latest 4.0 drop and just go for it by looking at the samples. There really is no wrong answer, though - studying the library and guidance will help your development overall.

Answer 2

I would go for version 4.0. I am busy learning it at the moment and very happy with the concepts.

I would strongly recommend looking at Mike Taulty's series of posts on Prism at http://channel9.msdn.com/blogs/mtaulty/prism--silverlight-part-1-taking-sketched-code-towards-unity

Although version 4 is slightly different - the core concepts are great and you will be up and running in no time.

Cheers