Book review: WPF 4 Unleashed.

 

So, it seems I needed to learn some WPF.

It wasn't my favorite choice, but once I decided that WPF is the way to go - I had to learn it as fast as possible.

This part - the learning part - is the hardest part. You sit around, reading a book on your kindle, PC, or actually holding one in your hand. And it may be interesting (not all technincal books are interesting) - but you still have this nagging feeling that you're not actually doing anything. You're not working.

Well - that may be how you feel, but it's not true. In order to create any piece of software you have to work in steps, and if step 1 is: "learn WPF" - than sitting at home reading a book is the first step - and it is, indeed - a step. It gets you closer to your goal, and it's not any different from (for example) - step 2: "Design the menus".

So, I've decided to put all of my energy to learning WPF as quick as possible. Made some inquiries, and finally decided on WPF 4 Unleashed .

So, how was it? Good and bad.

The good:

It covers a LOT of basic WPF stuff, starting from xaml reading and writing, layout options and all the way to advanced controls and graphics. The book covers every subject to in length, and provides tips, warnings, and example code.

The bad:

It's too boring and not well written. It is obvious the writer, Adam Nathan, knows a lot about WPF and its internal working mechanisms. Too bad he uses that knowledge to make things more complicated then simple. Some of the chapters were too complex and puzzling, leaving you confused instead of enlightened.

The conclusion:

It's not a bad book. I wouldn't recommend it as a must-read, and definitly not for those starting out with WPF, but it's a good book to keep around as reference, since its code examples may be copy-pasted directly into your own projects.

3/5.

-Shay