Does the book Programming WPF has insufficient XAML coverage?

Question

I am about to buy Programming WPF, but am undecided after reading this. Can anyone who has read this book tell me if it has insufficient XAML coverage.

In fact one of the reviewers at Amazon mentioned that the following topics are not covered.

• dynamic data binding
  
• how to create an app start to finish using expression and all of the tools available to you for wpf
  
• how to validate data
  
• how to use the navigation service and pages
  
• how to use page functions
  
• how to use property bags
  

Any truth to this? If yes then I might end up buying MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-502): Microsoft® .NET Framework 3.5 Windows® Presentation Foundation (Hardcover)

Answer 1

I have read a few WPF books (including Programming WPF) but this book is by far the best. http://www.amazon.com/Pro-WPF-2008-Presentation-Professionals/dp/1590599551/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235198224&sr=1-1

Matthew Macdonald's book is well written, comprehensive (covers all the topics you mentioned and more) and up to date.

Answer 2

I've gone through a fairly large number of WPF books in the past 18 months. I can't really recommend any of them - they tell you the mechanics of how to write some code for WPF, but that leaves you with dozens of ways of doing every possible task and little idea of which one to choose.

That said, for providing the technical information about the mechanics of WPF, Adam Nathan's WPF unleashed is the best out there.

Answer 3

If you goal is to understand XAML, as markup, then Charles Petzold's book Applications = Code + Markup is the best I have seen on the market: http://tinyurl.com/cp8o6h

It is a bit dated, so you won't get the latest WPF goodness, but it is a great book for learning XAML, as about half the book is XAML: Chapters 19 - 31.

Many of the WPF books are not heavy enough in XAML, but I am not sure this is a bad thing, as understanding the objects is the key to programming WPF user interfaces. But each of us think differently, so it might be more important to you. If I were buying a book today, I would pick up Chris Anderson's book, as he is intimately aware of WPF, being an architect in the Connected Systems division (Don Box is more the back end guy, while Chris is the UI guy -- if you have never seen the two of them together, you should make an effort). My second choice would be Chris Sells' book, but I love O'Reilly books once you know a technology.

My favorite new book on this subject is WPF Recipes (http://tinyurl.com/chlhdc), but I am fond of cookbooks, as I am more ofthen searching technology for solutions, not to intimately learn every detail. ;-)

Answer 4

The review you cite refers to the first edition and does not reflect the current edition. For example the second edition has a whole chapter on navigation and page functions. (Admittedly not enough space to go deeply into the whole subject, but certainly enough to get the core concepts across.) Also if you are after learning XAML then you won't be too worried about lack of Expression coverage: the Blend XAML editor is poor and you will be wanting to use VS2008 or a third-party tool instead.

I think it's a good tutorial, and it's the book I usually recommend to people learning WPF -- it isn't as detailed as Petzold, or as deep as Adam Nathan, but it's clear and readable and reasonably comprehensive, and it was certainly a huge help to me in learning WPF -- though that was in its first edition, which was shorter and therefore easier to absorb...!

As for specific coverage of XAML, it uses XAML extensively for examples, and has an appendix devoted to the XAML language and markup extensions -- as far as I know the only one of the WPF books to actually cover "XAML as a language."

Answer 5

I like

Applications = Code + Markup

http://www.charlespetzold.com/wpf/

Answer 6

I am going to order Sams Teach Yourself WPF in 24 Hours!