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Silverlight is a lightweight but powerful plug-in for multiple web browsers on multiple operating systems that makes it easier than ever to create rich web-based content, applications, and controls. With support for vector graphics, animations, full-screen high-definition video, and more, Silverlight gives you the ability to create more compelling content than you dreamed possible for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. Silverlight provides much of the power of Windows Presentation Foundation, but with less overhead and easy integration with HTML and AJAX-style applications. Silverlight 1.0 Unleashed is the authoritative book that covers the technology in a practical and approachable fashion, authored by Silverlight guru and Microsoft developer Adam Nathan.

• Covers everything you need to know about Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) in Silverlight

• Examines the Silverlight feature areas in depth: graphics, text, audio, video, animation, ink, events, and more

• Demonstrates how to create reusable controls and perform common tasks (such as drag-and-drop) using basic building blocks

• Explains how to download assets asynchronously to maximize your user experience

• Demonstrates how to create hybrid applications that mix Silverlight content with HTML or Flash content

• Highlights features scheduled for future versions of Silverlight while showing how to achieve your desired results with the current version

Introduction 1

Part I          Fundamentals

1      Getting Started 9

2      XAML 39

Part II        Creating Static Content

3      Shapes, Lines, and Curves 61

4      Text 83

5      Brushes and Images 99

6      Positioning and Transforming Elements 117

Part III      Making Your Content Come to Life

7      Responding to Input Events 143

8      Downloading Content on Demand 179

9      Animation 191

10    Audio and Video 219

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 8 Ratings

The best book on the subject - 2007-12-09
Reviewer Rating:
As a person who has read all the official documentation cover to cover and other Silverlight books cover to cover I can say that this is the best book on the subject.

Even though I had already read over 500 pages on the subject I was still able to find over a hundred things that I had not encountered anywhere else. One example is animation. He explains how you can set animated "to" in Javascript and you don't need a "from". A animation problem that previously had me stuck for a week was solved with 10 lines of code.

The examples are small and easy to follow. The coding is first rate. The "side bars" all contain priceless information. There is no fluff, if he wrote it down it's important. He also has all the code from the book online (http://www.adamnathan.net/silverlight/code/) where you can alter the examples in your web browser and see the results.

I also read his Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF) (Unleashed) and that is the best book on that subject so it is not surprising that he was able to nail this one perfectly.

Wait until 2.0 - 2008-01-14
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this hoping to learn SL. It only contains information on 1.0 which is very buggy. Granted that the author points out all these issues, but after reading the first few chapters it became apparent that even SL 1.1 is probably significantly improved. I didn't think it was worth the time to learn all the tricks to get around 1.0 issues. The author even states that when 1.0 was released, 1.1 was already in beta. I returned and decided to wait until SL 2.0, which should be in April 2008 or so.

Good book - 2007-12-14
Reviewer Rating:
This is a good book for an introduction to silverlight, but the argument are not treated so deeply. This book contains an overview of the silverlight engine with a good amount of basic example, it is a good book for everyone that does not know anything about silverlight and want to read the first book on the argument

Great Book - 2008-04-18
Reviewer Rating:
Great book to get you started on silverlight. Once I got past Part 1, the book does a great job showing examples on how to use the silverlight elements.

Best Alternative ATM - 2007-11-13
Reviewer Rating:
This is a very clear, concise, and fun to read book. The tips are extremely useful, the code works and the author does not get hang up on "tools" or ASP.NET. You WILL learn Silverlight and XAML.

Worth every penny as it is a fast read and will save you many hours of reading the online documentation. Authors, pay attention, more books should be like this one!

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