Practical Silverlight/WPF books

Question

I am intending on learning WPF and Silverlight to the extent of its advanced details.

What book is good for taking a practical approach to Silverlight? IE one which walks the reader through creating sample apps. I am particularly keen on writing a graphing system as graphs are a common requirement throughout various projects. I am on .NET 3.5 and using Visual Studio 2008 Pro/Blend.

Thanks

Answer 1

There are two that I've used which are good. The first is good for an intro (obvious given the name), and the second is more in depth.

Introducing Silverlight

Pro Silverlight 2

Hope that helps.

Cheers

Answer 2

If you are looking for graphing functionality, you might want to check out the charting support in the Silverlight Toolkit

Answer 3

Before investing heavily in books, take a look at http://my.safaribooksonline.com/. A subscription here is less that a new book each month, and gives you access to thousands of technical books.

Also take a look at the video tutorials on http://silverlight.net/learn/default.aspx. IMHO these will get you up to speed far faster than any books can.

HTH, Mark

Answer 4

I have purchased Pro Silverlight 2 in C# 2008 and found it to be quite good. It covers the important areas very nicely. I was able to get a skeleton application up very quickly. My Silverlight application is built using the Composite Application Block for Silverlight, which the book does not cover, but it is still quite usefull.

I have previous experience with WPF, and this book also helped to understand the differences between Silverlight and WPF. Most chapters include mini-sections highlighting the differences, and additional details can be found throughout the text.

ib.