Robert A. Vignato Jr. said
This book is great but you need the code to really understand whats going on... The site that has the code makes you enter a password to get it and you have to beg the author, or someone else thats not very nice. 50/50 on this book.
Jesse Liberty said
I have an iron-clad rule that I do not evaluate technical books; I don't think it is fair to the other authors as sooner or later we'll write competing books and I doubt my own objectivity.
I violate this rule about once a year when someone writes such a truly terrific book it stands as an object lesson in what technical writing should be. Two that come to mind immediately are Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds and Programming Windows Presentation Foundation by Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths. The newest addition to my pantheon of great technical writing -- books that transcend the subject matter and yet have enormous practical value -- is Foundation Silverlight Animation by Jeff Paries.
There is much to say about why this is a truly canonical book; but begin with the fact that I found myself learning something useful on every page. There was nothing I wanted to skip; no fluff, no wasted time, no throw away words. Blaise Pascal is said to have ended one correspondence with "The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter." He, like Paries understood that great writing does not waste words, but like all great technical writers, neither does Jeff leave you wondering, confused or lost.
A second very strong factor in this book is Paries' commitment to going beyond the material you can find in the documentation, and even the material you can dig up on various web sites, to advanced material you would not, initially have thought yourself capable of, or in need of, and then demonstrating both the benefits and the ease with which you can conquer the material. This is especially true in his sections on creating animation procedurally (in code, as opposed to declaratively in Xaml).
My complaints about his book are the same as about my own: the code could be set off a bit more and line numbering would be terrific, but since I have the same problem I can't say more than that it would be nice.
Key to the success of this book is that it is obvious the author spent as much time thinking through how to present the material and who his potential audience is, as he did writing it. This is an extremely well organized, well written and valuable book that I find I keep close at hand.
Jesse Liberty
Senior Program Manager
"Silverlight Geek"
Microsoft
[These opinions are mine alone, and do not necessarily represent those of Microsoft, O'Reilly or any other organizaiton. I have met Jeff though we are neither personal friends nor have we ever worked together, though I hope we will do so soon. In any case, my admiration for this book was formed well before I met the author]
D. Campbell said
With over 200 programming projects and step-by-step tutorial-style writing, this is a fantastic book if you're wanting to do animation in Silverlight.
As the other reviewers have noted, Jeff doesn't scrimp on the topics, yet even the difficult concepts are presented in a very readable and usable format.
As someone who writes and speaks about Silverlight, this book is on my short list of books you need to have and read if you're going to seriously develop in Silverlight.
You will NOT be disappointed, kudos Jeff!
Maciej Misztal said
This book is easily worth ten times the money. I haven't seen a better book about animation in silverlight yet. Great job on kinematics - if there's ever gonna be a follow up on SL3 I'm definitely getting it.
Robin T. Wernick said
I have now purchased four books while trying to master Silverlight. Animation is the part of Silverlight that needs a book of its own to show just how well it can perform on screen. Silverlight is not just WPF in web format. And this is the book that can do an excellent job of telling how to design these amazing displays.
The book is divided into three sections: Getting Started in Silverlight, Basic Animations, and Advanced Animation. In Getting Started the basic tools and layout terms for Silverlight are described. Basic Animations introduces the animation process and covers a wide range of animation types. This book has the best discussion of Storyboards that I have read. Now I understand how to use them and how to attach the four basic animation properties. Next Keyframes are introduced and how to use Visual Studio and Expression Blend to apply Keyframes in Silverlight. The core material on animation is reserved for the last section. Animation technology is introduced that will teach the reader to use trigonometry, coordinated, 3D simulation, simulation of physical systems and imaginary custom objects. I could even say that everything you need to know about Silverlight animation is contained in this book. I have answers to all the remaining questions from the other three Silverlight books that I purchased.
Downloading and running the book's software allows one to see exactly what the examples in the book accomplish and allow experimentation to produce mastery of animation. Once you see how the XAML and codebehind are relate together to produce the animations, you can use Expression Blend or Visual Studio to produce the same effects.
My best reviews are reserved for books that teach the material well and completely. This is the best of the books on Silverlight that I've purchased. It rates five stars in my world.
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