jddp - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Mod article flamebait (Score 1) 181

by jddp on Saturday January 22, 2011 @10:58AM (#34964872) Attached to: Pro Silverlight 4 In VB

Why post this, here of all places? My guess would be about 70% of Slashdot visitors hate Silverlight and 85% hate VB.

Apparently you think that being exposed to diverse viewpoints is a bad thing. 70% of Fox News fans hate Barack Obama. Wouldn't it be nice if they did some genuinely "Fair and Balanced" reporting on him sometime?

Comment Re:Pro .Net (Score 1) 181

by jddp on Saturday January 22, 2011 @10:49AM (#34964826) Attached to: Pro Silverlight 4 In VB

VB.Net has single line parameters, C# has XML Literals, and they are continuing to become more and more similar functionally speaking. The only big difference left now is multi-line lambdas and that C# is case sensitive.

-Rick

Optional parameters have finally been added to C# in .NET 4. Another way C# is catching up with VB ;-)

The majority of difference between C# and VB at this point are due to there having been 2 teams at MS working on the VB.Net and C# editors for Visual Studio. Now, those teams have been merged.

-Rick

Interesting. Even though it's a language/compiler-specific behavior, my least favorite part of the C# editing environment - the problem with annoyingly persistent squigglies - has got MUCH better. (i.e. when you fix a compiler error you can tell its fixed without having to recompile the whole project).

Comment Re:Advance shill notice (Score 2) 181

by jddp on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @08:16PM (#34934492) Attached to: Pro Silverlight 4 In VB

Great proposal. Here's my disclaimer. I was given the book for free. I forked out $50 for its predecessor (SL3). I thought the old book was great, and I loved the additions to the new one too. The main problems with it are those I identified in the review. My first para was probably too gushy, and who reads beyon the first para? I have easier ways to earn $60 (spare me the jokes), and were I paid in cash I wouldn't have spent it on an update to a book I already owned. Said that in the review too.

Comment Re:MacDonald is a programmer's programmer, (Score 0) 181

by jddp on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @07:59PM (#34934316) Attached to: Pro Silverlight 4 In VB

Perhaps if you understood the difference between grammar/syntax and meaning/semantics you might make a decent programmer - in VB or any other language.

Comment Re:a programmer's programmer using VB (Score 0) 181

by jddp on Wednesday January 19, 2011 @07:54PM (#34934258) Attached to: Pro Silverlight 4 In VB

...or perhaps a snob's snob finding a reason to be civil? No, that seems to be too much of a stretch judging from the evidence here. MM wrote this for C# also, and some of us are lucky enough to program in both languages. (Is that like mixing with the hoi polloi? Shame on me!).

Submission + - Pro Silverlight 4: the way tech books should be

Submitted by jddp on Wednesday January 12, 2011 @03:35PM

jddp writes: A review of Matthew MacDonald's "Pro Silverlight 4 in VB"
ISBN-13: 978-1-4302-3548-4 | Published by Apress. Dec 2010

http://apress.com/book/view/1430235489

MacDonald is a programmer's programmer, and this is a model of what a programmer's guide should be. He explains a mass of technical information in considerable detail without losing the big-picture. His clear and concise exposition of concepts and functionality is never confusing or needlessly repetitive. The book's organization is logical, yet the chapters can be read in isolation, as the need or interest arises.

One thing this book doesn't provide is an overview of the subject for a novice trying to get the big-picture. After the briefest of introductions (10 pages), the author leaps right into building applications. Nor does it provide every technical detail you will need to complete your application. (That's why we have the web). However, if you want a book that can take you from having a rough map of the territory to being a self-sufficient Silverlight developer, I highly recommend this one.

Starting from the fundamentals of Silverlight such as XAML, Layout and Elements, McDonald rarely puts a step wrong as he winds through the technical details, progressing to specific functional areas such as such as Animation, Data Binding and Web services. Each chapter provides a brief overview of the functionality addressed before stepping through the programming details. His code examples are concise, but also convey the significance and use of the features very clearly. The examples do not sprawl across pages and pages, as in weaker tutorials, but they do build upon one another when necessary. Working code implementing the examples from the text is available at MacDonald’s personal site for anyone to download — but apparently only in C# (as far as I could see. The VB version may be coming later, just as the VB book lagged the C# version). Due to the intelligent choice, structuring and clear implementation of his examples, I have found them a useful jumping-off point for "real-life" applications on several occasions. The author has gone beyond the scope of the book in at least one case, implemented an “advanced” capability (support for large file up/downloads via a Web Service) that I was specifically interested in.

As mentioned, the book does not contain an extensive technology overview and this is reflected by the absence of many of the buzzwords associated with Silverlight from the index. You will find no mention of RIA services. MVVM is only touched upon in the context of the new SL 4 support for the Command pattern. (Even so, his brief explanation is a great example of MacDonald's lucid and economical expository style. You could trawl the web for a long time without finding such a straightforward explanation.) However, while MacDonald does not attempt to convey any over-arching architectural vision, he is perfectly capable of clarifying some abstract design concepts. In Chapter 4 of the book he is already tackling the intimidating-sounding topics of Dependency Properties, Attached Properties and Routed Events. By the time you’ve read a few pages you’re wondering what all the fuss was about. After less than six pages, MacDonald is working through a meaningful application of attached properties (a custom layout panel). Most of the chapter is devoted a detailed explanation and illustration of Mouse and Keyboard event handling, and to the new Commanding support in SL 4.

A final caveat: This is not a book for someone wanting to catch up on what's new in Silverlight 4. The information is there, but it is dispersed among the relevant sections of the old book, and there is no helpful index. Contrary to the impression given by the back-cover, the very occasional "What's New" boxes don't help much in homing in on new features. In fact, the organization of the material and most of the content is unchanged from the SL 3 edition, so I wouldn't buy this if you already have that book.

While reading this book, I sometimes wished for a wider view: discussions of the merits of different architectures; comparisons to design patterns used in other technologies, and so forth. This book will not be much help in defining the architecture for your next mega-app. This is a book to seize on when you need to get a handle on programming specific Silverlight features fast. You won't learn about every possible shortcut or dead-end on the trail, but you will never have to wonder where the heck you are.

In summary, while this book it isn’t all things to all developers, it is hard to overstate its consistent intelligence and clarity, or its sheer usefulness (to programmers). Programmers just aren’t supposed to be so articulate – are they?

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