Microsoft Expression Blend Unleashed
Author: Brennon Williams
Publisher: SAMS, 2008
Pages: 600
ISBN: 978-0672329319
Rating: 3.5
Aimed at: A good question
Pros: Provides much need coverage of Expression Blend
Cons: Unfocused; misses the mark; has some very poor sections
Reviewed by: Dave Wheeler

One of the great problems with WPF is that the line between developer and designer is blurred and frequently misunderstood. Historically, the design tools in Visual Studio have been poor or non-existent, often resulting in many developers hand-crafting their XAML. Many developers have tried and spurned Expression Blend, due to the alien interface. Similarly, most WPF books focus on the deep technical aspects, making them opaque to designers. Consequently, I was looking forward to reading a book that, from its title at least, purported to pick apart Expression Blend and make it accessible to all. Which is why I was so disappointed with the result.

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This is not so much a book about Expression Blend, but is a scattergun approach to WPF, C# (Chapter 10 is a primer on the language), .NET and Blend. Frustratingly, the sections that actually cover Blend will be extremely useful to designers and developers actually wanting to use Blend. However, there’s anywhere from 30 - 50% of the book that you will almost certainly just want to ignore. Many of the coding practices shown are poor.
Williams starts with a good overview of WPF, Blend and the future of the smart client. He also picks out the importance of a new and critical role: that of a XAML Architect (often known as a “devigner”), a hybrid that understands the key touch points for integration between designer and developer.

Ultimately, would I recommend this book to a developer? The answer is a qualified yes. The book has a lot of practical guidance on how to use Blend, and these sections are great. However, a lot of the book will have no appeal to designers or developers. It is almost the perfect definition of a curate’s egg: good in parts, awful in others.


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SQL Server 2022 Query Performance Tuning (Apress)

Author: Grant Fritchey
Publisher: Apress
Pages: 745
ISBN:978-1484288900
Print:1484288904
Kindle:B0BLYD98SQ
Audience: DBAs & SQL Devs
Rating: 4.7
Reviewer: Ian Stirk 

A popular performance tuning book gets updated for SQL Server 2022, how does it fare?



Modern Fortran

Author: Milan Curcic
Publisher: Manning
Date: November 2020
Pages: 416
ISBN: 978-1617295287
Print: 1617295280
Audience: Fortran programmers
Rating: 5
Reviewer: Mike James
Not your parents' Fortran?


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Last Updated ( Saturday, 13 August 2011 )