WPF Control Development Unleashed Book Review

WPF is a vast topic. This book does a great job of zeroing in on some of the most powerful functionality WPF has to offer and assembling it in a very concise format. The book starts out covering the WPF Design Philosophy which is a great for those who need an introduction to the overall context WPF offers the developer. I would recommend reading only to those who have some experience with WPF. This become evident right away. Chapter 2 ‘The Diverse Visual Class Structure’ does a great job of covering all the most important classes in WPF, and it fits them together like a puzzle providing a complete view of the WPF, but I can see the beginner being completely overwhelmed and lost throughout the chapter. This is not a ding to the book, it warns the book is for intermediate to advanced WPF programmers. The book continues to dig into some of the most advanced features WPF has to offer. The only thing about the book I would change is providing more printed code. The authors say they believe in only printing the most relevant code, which is fine, just not my personal preference. I like to be able to read a book without having to be on my computer to review the code. This is not a ding against the book either, since it is just a preference and the code download is great. It is very well organized and usable. Beyond the chapters on building controls with WPF the authors also offer guidance on achieving high performing code and the use of performance measuring tools. It is a short chapter but it gets you started. They also have a chapter of design tips. This chapter is not just WPF centric. The chapter includes a list of the well know design patterns for GUI development. They are not covered in detail, but they have a good summary about the pattern. The authors have a good writing style that makes the book enjoyable to read. The topics are all very cool topics and they really show off the advanced capabilities of WPF. I highly recommend all WPF developers read this book at some point along their learning path. It is not introductory, so I would suggest having a little experience first. No matter how advanced you are in your experience level, you will learn some new things from this book.