Book or other reference recommendations needed [modified]
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peterchen wrote:
using the future search term will give Gary a huge adoption advantage
Yeah, but by release they'll change every single function signature, and drop all the useful features...
You guys are frightening me.
Software Zen:
delete this;
Fold With Us![^] -
I need recommendations for a couple of books or other references (including training classes). My Windows development background is exclusively native development, with and without MFC. Our next major product will be using WPF controls supplied by another group withing the company. This means that at least part of the product will be written in C# under .NET. Here's what I'm looking for: - A good introduction to WPF. I've read a number of articles on CP, and I think I'm ready for something in a little more depth. - An introduction to .NET and C#. The thing I'm looking for here is a guide to 'best practices' so that I get started out right. A 'transition' book, something like ".NET programming for MFC dinosaurs" :-O would probably be the right thing. I've googled and Amazoned, and there seems to be an awful lot of stuff out there. It's a little difficult to judge the quality, and if I can cut out some of the time required to wade through the dross, it would be great.
Software Zen:
delete this;modified on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 9:49 AM
How about this one[^] from our own Nish and Tom. I never found it locally, and Amazon doesn't seem to carry it anymore, but I'll bet you could find a copy somewhere. Heck, maybe Nish has an autographed edition he'll sell you. I got great reviews, both online and from CP members who were lucky enough to find it.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
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I need recommendations for a couple of books or other references (including training classes). My Windows development background is exclusively native development, with and without MFC. Our next major product will be using WPF controls supplied by another group withing the company. This means that at least part of the product will be written in C# under .NET. Here's what I'm looking for: - A good introduction to WPF. I've read a number of articles on CP, and I think I'm ready for something in a little more depth. - An introduction to .NET and C#. The thing I'm looking for here is a guide to 'best practices' so that I get started out right. A 'transition' book, something like ".NET programming for MFC dinosaurs" :-O would probably be the right thing. I've googled and Amazoned, and there seems to be an awful lot of stuff out there. It's a little difficult to judge the quality, and if I can cut out some of the time required to wade through the dross, it would be great.
Software Zen:
delete this;modified on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 9:49 AM
Hi Gary, Chris Sells' "Windows Forms Programming 2.0" (Addison-Wesley) is an example of a book at least in part aimed at the native/MFC programmer moving into .NET, imho. (disclaimer : I have never been a native/MFC programmer, but did work as a paid technical reviewer on this book) http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Forms-Programming-Microsoft-Development/dp/0321267966/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218606460&sr=8-2 I personally find Jesse Liberty's writing style and "technical chops" enlightening. Check out Jesse Liberty's latest edition of "Programming C#" (O'Reilly) : http://www.amazon.com/Programming-C-3-0-Jesse-Liberty/dp/0596527438/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218606846&sr=1-1 I am a "WPF Virgin" so can't speak from experience in that arena, but I do hear that Jesse Liberty is working on a new book on WPF. For WPF I would think you would want to take a look at the many articles here on CP by one of our resident geniuses, Marc Clifton. Books that I have really enjoyed and learned from include Liberty's "C# : A Developer's Notebook" (O'Reilly) and Matthew MacDonald's "Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#" (APress). Hopefully some of our "real WPF gurus" will weigh in here with some more contemporary, WPF specific, recommendations. .And I'm keen to hear those, also. best, Bill
"The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis
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Hi Gary, Chris Sells' "Windows Forms Programming 2.0" (Addison-Wesley) is an example of a book at least in part aimed at the native/MFC programmer moving into .NET, imho. (disclaimer : I have never been a native/MFC programmer, but did work as a paid technical reviewer on this book) http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Forms-Programming-Microsoft-Development/dp/0321267966/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218606460&sr=8-2 I personally find Jesse Liberty's writing style and "technical chops" enlightening. Check out Jesse Liberty's latest edition of "Programming C#" (O'Reilly) : http://www.amazon.com/Programming-C-3-0-Jesse-Liberty/dp/0596527438/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218606846&sr=1-1 I am a "WPF Virgin" so can't speak from experience in that arena, but I do hear that Jesse Liberty is working on a new book on WPF. For WPF I would think you would want to take a look at the many articles here on CP by one of our resident geniuses, Marc Clifton. Books that I have really enjoyed and learned from include Liberty's "C# : A Developer's Notebook" (O'Reilly) and Matthew MacDonald's "Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#" (APress). Hopefully some of our "real WPF gurus" will weigh in here with some more contemporary, WPF specific, recommendations. .And I'm keen to hear those, also. best, Bill
"The greater the social and cultural distances between people, the more magical the light that can spring from their contact." Milan Kundera in Testaments Trahis
Thanks for the incredibly kind words, but nope, not writing a book on WPF. Did release a book called Programming .NET 3.5 which does something very different TOC here[^]. For me, the best WPF book has to be Sells and Griffiths -- that is truly one of the best language/frameworks books I've read. Programming C# was my pride and joy but I let myself down with the latest edition; live and learn. I'm convinced Programming Silverlight[^]will be incredible if I ever finish it (which is what I should be doing, rather than writing this!) The key thing, I think, is that while there are some books that are clearly bad, what makes a book good for one person may be precisely what makes it bad for another. The attributes I hear about most are relative terseness, assumptions about what the reader already knows, how well each chapter stands on its own, number and complexity of examples given, and that most subjective attribute: style. I often tell the story of my second year writing (1897 I think it was) when I received two letters. The first said (more or less) "You saved my life. Never before could anyone explain pointers in a way I could understand..." The second one said (verbatim!) "I don't know what it is you do for a living, but it sure as hell isn't programming or writing, because you are incompetent at both." I had them up on my wall for years. -jesse Jesse Liberty