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586

answers:

4

I'm looking for an Expression Blend 2 book that includes

  • best-practices (Expression Blend 2/Visual Studio 2008)
  • designer perspective (Expression Blend 2)
  • programmer perspective (interoperability with Visual Studio 2008)
  • How-To-chapters for Windows Forms developers (how to solve the same problem with WPF)

Could you make a recommendation?

+1  A: 

If you're looking to learn WPF while you're at it, I recommend Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed. It's rather programmer oriented, so it won't help with Blend, but it's a quality book nonetheless. I've also got Expression Blend Unleashed, but having read the first four chapters, it falls way short of doing the job properly. Maybe it's because I'm not a designer, but to me the book feels poorly structured. I can't judge for content yet, as I haven't read the whole thing.

Rytmis
+2  A: 

I have not yet found a book that approaches WPF development from multiple perspectives like that. I have found a good article that at least talks about different things that designers and developers should consider when working together:

Project Rosetta - The New Iteration

YeahStu
+2  A: 

The best book currently out there for Expression Blend is Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed by Brennon Williams. I have been using Expression Blend and WPF for the past 1-1/2 years and found this to be the first decent to good book to discuss Expression Blend. There are in fact very few books that discuss Expression Blend at all.

I highly recommend you also get one or two good books that are strictly about WPF as you will need this for a deeper understanding. These are easier to find and there are several good ones.

eesh
A: 

I'm working through 'Foundation Silverlight 3 Animation', and it's great.

If you want to get a feel for the author before you buy, check out his presentation at MIX 2010.

Jim G.