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Written by Barkga about 2 years ago.Examples and text were based on the beta version of Blend 3. A lot has been changed since then so it is hard to follow. And one of the most important feature is Behavior and the author only mentioned it using 1 line on page 15. Very disappointing!
I agree with the other comment that the book should at least mentioned that it is based on a Beta version of Blend so people can decide whether it is worth to buy it.
Rating: 2 / 5 -
Written by Robert S. Hellestrae about 2 years ago.
Excellent book on Silverlight 3-based web design and development, using Blend 3 and Visual Studio 2008. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced-level web designers and developers will learn new techiques to facilitate great user experiences with XAML-based interfaces. The Blend 3 IDE is covered in detail, with implementation of new features in lab exercises. The “take one step further” challenges at the end of lab exercises is a fantastic method to absorb the material. Chapter 13 gives an in-depth overview of SketchFlow prototying in Blend 3 – experimentation with UI, and communication of design intent.
Rating: 5 / 5 -
Written by M. Palmer about 2 years ago.
What I was hoping for in this book was a deep dive into the capabilities of Blend3. There are some good examples in the book, but look elsewhere if you want to really understand what is happening under the hood or how to craft something truly custom.
This book is an ‘Ok’ start to blend 3, but frankly it is too short for the topics that it tries to cover – and it tries to cover ALOT of ground. One glaring problem with books (as with books of this type) are that it tells you where to click in sequence to do various things, but its doesn’t tell you the ‘why’ nor does it explain many of the underlying principles behind ‘why’ you would want to do things a certain way…
If you are going to buy this book, you should do some prep. First, get a book on C#.
Head First C# would be my first choice if you do not know C# yet (Head First C#)Then get a book on Silverlight that focuses on code behind. The reason is that the authors attempt at explaining C# principles is poor, and frankly I’d rather use Matthew MacDonalds book on C# and Silverlight2 for a good set of lessons on some core ideas behind C# and the use of Silverlight (Pro Silverlight 2 in C# 2008 (Windows.Net)– even though the version of Silverlight covered is older many of the core principles apply)
Finally, get this book and skip the pages on Object-Oriented Programming that the author tries (poorly) to cover.
Rating: 3 / 5 -
Written by S. Ciszewski about 2 years ago.
This book is meant for less experienced programmers and designers who need to learn the basics. It’s not intended for experienced LOB programmers. My comments are:
1. There are multiple pages of source code, which don’t fit well in a book format. The code should have been left users to get online, and pseudo code or snippets inserted to make the point. The code should also have had more comments.
2. The chapters should have been arranged so that all the basic programming techniques (OOP, etc) appeared in one section.
3. It should have given much more coverage to the new LOB controls (e.g text boxes, drop downs, etc). Data binding would have been nice.
4. The reader should have been lead through a series of programming tasks that build on each other and leave the reader with a small working application.
This last item is not a criticism, but food for thought. I haven’t seen anything that tells me why I would choose SL over asp.net and Ajax. What’s the upside? I understand the upside if you are doing multimedia development or even game development, but not general development. The tools to do SL seem less polished than the general web development tools — and they crash quite often.
Peace out.
Rating: 1 / 5 -
Written by Snapfisher about 2 years ago.
NB that the examples and text were developed from a beta version of Blend 3. This is not indicated anywhere in the book, or on this page. You’ll notice when you start to go through chapter 1.
Rating: 3 / 5
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