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It’s a wrap! I’ve completed writing Silverlight 5 in Action

Pete Brown - 17 November 2011

Well, I've completed the initial writing anyway. Anyone who has written a book understands the, umm, pleasure of the multiple editing cycles which shall follow. I have my normal development editor review Thursday afternoon, and then it's turned over for tech review the following week. Tom is really going to have his hands full with the 1191 pages this book came in at before editing and production (which always reduces the page count by making images smaller etc.)

The last chapters I turned in were the two 3d chapters. I'm really pleased with how they came out. It was a struggle to fit all that 3d awesomeness in the 64 pages it took, but considering I had budgeted only 25 pages total for 3d coverage, I can't really make too much of a stink over that :)

For those of you who remember the Commodore Amiga, you'll get a kick out of the demo app we build across those two chapters:

image

Yep. It's not a 100% reproduction (no sound or good simulated physics), but it shows off modeling, texturing, cameras, matrices, the rendering system, multiple ways of dealing with vertices and triangles, and my own little keyframe animation system. Really cool stuff, and tons of fun too.

Here's the background of the original Amiga boing ball demo

The making of the Amiga Boing Ball demo

Thank you to everyone who has already purchased Silverlight 5 in Action. If you have yet picked up a copy, the Manning Early Access Program (MEAP) still allows you to get the work-in-progress chapters until the book is out in print. Go order it now and support my electronics junkie habits :)

Here's a taste (pre-editing) of what you can expect to find in the second 3d chapter:

image

         
posted by Pete Brown on Thursday, November 17, 2011
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19 comments for “It’s a wrap! I’ve completed writing Silverlight 5 in Action”

  1. Andy Lockersays:
    Congrats Pete on a great book. Turns out that the special code still works :) Anything to help out a fellow electonics junkie! Now if I can just convince the higher ups that Silverlight is still a viable investment all will be good!
  2. Scottsays:
    Congratulations Pete! Enjoyed the previous version and the MEAP of this one. Question: any plans for moving the source code for the C64 emulator forward to this version? Thanks.
  3. Petesays:
    @Scott

    Thanks. Yes, I do plan to move it over. Wrapping up this book took every last minute of my time, so I had to put everything else on hold. Now I can get back to my backlog :)

    @Paul

    Much to my publisher's relief, the initial Windows 8 book should be considerably smaller than the Silverlight 5 book. ETA is sometime in later 2012, with a MEAP starting in the first half of the year. The MEAP is a good deal, as you get ebook copies of the chapters as I write them.

    I will use some content from the SL5 book, but only if the concept is identical. If you want to learn Silverlight, grab the SL5 book. If you want to learn WinRT XAML, wait for the Win8 book and sign up for the MEAP once I announce it :)

    Pete
  4. Petesays:
    @Ravi

    Your book, I assume? Or just similar email address?

    For the most part, I try not to read other Silverlight books lest I incorporate some of their stuff without realizing it. It's better for keeping the IP clean that way. Well that, and I know Silverlight fairly well ;)

    Either way, it looks like an interesting book.

    I'm surprised a publisher would put out a Silverlight 4 book right now, though. That said, SL5 simply builds on SL4, so most of the content would still be valid.

    Pete
  5. Zachsays:
    Now it's time to consider writing a book about Silverlight 6. I need one or two chapters on how it seamlessly runs on Linux and tablets as well as Windows and Mac. :D Cmon Pete, we need productivity and fun, neither of which comes with HTML5/JavaScript.
  6. Milansays:
    Not even close to what Denise and Paula could do ;)

    Anyway, if there's a piece of Amiga in there, that's good reason to order the book straight away.

    Thanks Pete for incredible work!

    --- Milan

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