Alvin Ashcraft's Morning Dew » books

The Dew Review – Silverlight 4 in Action by Pete Brown

Alvin Ashcraft — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 20:22:29 +0000

So, I am finally getting around to writing some long-overdue reviews. First up is a great new Silverlight book from Manning Publications – Silverlight 4 in Action, authored by Pete Brown. This is a revised (and expanded and totally revamped) edition of Silverlight 2 in Action by Chad Campbell and John Stockton.

(Full disclosure: I was given a free copy of the eBook for review. However, I had already purchased the MEAP (Manning Early Access Preview) and pre-ordered the print edition of the book earlier this year.)

In short, I absolutely recommend this book. It makes a great introduction to Silverlight and the ultimate reference for experienced developers, all in one book.

I will spare you a rehashing of the table of contents, but the content of book really flows nicely from introductory material to some more advanced topics. There aren’t many parts of the book I would consider optional for serious Silverlight developers. Sometimes when I am reading a tech book, I will feel compelled to skip a section or even an entire chapter because I don’t feel it is relevant to my own practices. Here I think I skimmed a few pages in Chapter 19 – Printing, but that is about it.

If you are a Silverlight developer, looking to move into that space or even have a casual interest in the technology, you will find Silverlight 4 in Action an indispensable guide.

Silverlight 4 in Action by Pete Brown

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Take a quick survey for The Lounge

Alvin Ashcraft — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:16:01 +0000

The advertising network, The Lounge, is conducting a survey of the readers of blogs and podcasts that host their ads. Two random survey participants will win copies of all of Manning’s In Action books (41 of them). If you would like to take the survey, it is available here.

Thanks!

Alvin

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Morning Dew Quick Review – ‘Data-Driven Services with Silverlight 2’ by John Papa

Alvin Ashcraft — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:17:01 +0000

If you are looking to build a business-focused application with Silverlight, chances are you are going to need to access data of some sort. This is the best book I have found to address this aspect of Silverlight development.

Virtually every method of data access currently available in Silverlight is covered here: LINQ, REST, WCF and more.

I read the book cover-to-cover, but I think it will serve best as a reference guide while developing line-of-business apps with Silverlight. Most of what you see written about Silverlight focuses on shiny UIs. This book gives you what you really need to build RIAs for real business requirements.

Definitely recommended.

Data-Driven Services with Silverlight 2: John Papa: Books

Technorati Tags: silverlight,rest,json,linq to xml,linq to json,asmx,web services,wcf

50% off All Manning Books for DZone Members

Alvin Ashcraft — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:17:43 +0000

Get all the details here.

Enjoy!

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Free eBook – Data Structures and Algorithms: Annotated Reference with Examples

Alvin Ashcraft — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:53:13 +0000

Granville Barnett has just announced that his free eBook, Data Structures and Algorithms: Annotated Reference with Examples, has been updated and is now available for free download here.

Read Granville’s post about the release for more details. The book is a fantastic resource, and it is awesome that he has made it available to the developer community at no cost. Happy holidays!

Technorati Tags: data structures,algorithms,freebies,ebooks