Essential Silverlight 3 (Paperback)

“The book you are holding contains the keys to writing great Silverlight 3 applications. Use them well!”

–From the Foreword by Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president, Microsoft Developer Division

Microsoft Silverlight is a leading cross-platform, Rich Internet Application (RIA) technology that allows you to create more compelling and interactive Web experiences than are possible with simple HTML browser pages. Silverlight 3 includes significant improvements over previous versions, including “out-of-browser” operation, H.264 video, 3D graphics, and real-time effects.

Essential Silverlight 3 is the definitive reference and insider’s guide. It not only covers all the key features of the Silverlight 3 runtime and how to use them but, in Under the Hood sections, explains why each feature was developed and how each one works. These “insider” explanations often lead to concise, practical performance tips that can help you speed up your own Silverlight applications.

Author Ashraf Michail is uniquely qualified to explain Silverlight 3. He is a Microsoft Silverlight architect who has guided Silverlight from its beginnings through the current version. In this book, he shows how to 

• Integrate the principles and components of a Silverlight application, including XAP, XAML, and .NET code
• Use Silverlight vector graphics, bitmap images, and animation
• Display predictable and readable text across platforms and animate text elements
• Obtain mouse and keyboard input, including mouse wheel events
• Implement smooth animations to improve your user interface and make your application more pleasing to the user
• Use the Canvas, StackPanel, Grid, and Border elements to lay out your application and define custom layout elements
• Play high-quality, live, and on-demand video and audio
• Customize the built-in and toolkit controls and develop new custom Silverlight controls
• Connect to and synchronize with data using Silverlight Data Binding
• Use built-in real-time effects and define custom HLSL pixel shaders
• Enable GPU-accelerated rendering 

If you are a developer who is getting started with Silverlight or an expert Silverlight developer who is interested in understanding the inner workings of the Silverlight runtime, this book is for you.

「你手中的這本書包含了撰寫優秀 Silverlight 3 應用程式的關鍵。好好運用它們吧！」- Microsoft 開發部門企業副總裁 Scott Guthrie 在前言中的話。

Microsoft Silverlight 是一個領先的跨平台、豐富網際網路應用程式（RIA）技術，比起簡單的 HTML 瀏覽器頁面，它能讓你創建更引人入勝且互動性更強的網頁體驗。Silverlight 3 在之前版本的基礎上有顯著的改進，包括「離線」操作、H.264 影片、3D 圖形和即時效果。

《Essential Silverlight 3》是權威的參考書和內幕指南。它不僅涵蓋了 Silverlight 3 執行時的所有關鍵功能以及如何使用它們，還在「底層解析」部分解釋了每個功能的開發原因和工作原理。這些「內幕」解釋通常會提供簡潔實用的性能技巧，可以幫助你加快自己的 Silverlight 應用程式速度。

作者 Ashraf Michail 是一位獨具資格的 Silverlight 3 解說者，他是一位 Microsoft Silverlight 架構師，從 Silverlight 的起步到現在的版本都有參與。在這本書中，他展示了如何：

- 整合 Silverlight 應用程式的原則和組件，包括 XAP、XAML 和 .NET 程式碼
- 使用 Silverlight 向量圖形、點陣圖和動畫
- 在各個平台上顯示可預測且易讀的文字，並對文字元素進行動畫處理
- 獲取滑鼠和鍵盤輸入，包括滑鼠滾輪事件
- 實現平滑動畫以改善使用者界面，使應用程式更具吸引力
- 使用 Canvas、StackPanel、Grid 和 Border 元素來佈局應用程式並定義自定義佈局元素
- 播放高品質的實時和點播視頻和音頻
- 自定義內建和工具箱控制項，並開發新的自定義 Silverlight 控制項
- 使用 Silverlight 數據繫結連接和同步數據
- 使用內建的即時效果和定義自定義 HLSL 像素着色器
- 啟用 GPU 加速渲染

如果你是剛開始使用 Silverlight 的開發者，或者是對 Silverlight 執行時的內部運作有興趣的專家開發者，這本書適合你。