jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Wed Dec 22 08:07:08 CST 2010
ATM my main book for studying the WCF is WCF Step By Step. I am having an issue with the fact that the book was written for VS 2005 and I am using VS 2008 and will likely move to 2010 soon. The biggest difference is the XML config tool is apparently different. In 2005 it was a tree which somewhat directly models the XML file itself. In 2008 it is a wizard which does not. Very different, completely disconnects the mind from the XML behind the scenes. And boy is WCF dense! The nice thing is that it is pretty high abstraction level and the code is mostly written. Basically you are just configuring existing classes utilizing either XML config files or directly programmatically by setting properties. What this means is that you really can concentrate on your own classes - AFTER you learn what all of the WCF classes are and what their properties do. I learned long ago that I need to read something three times to "get it". So I am facing 15 chapters X 3 to "get" WCF, but the up side is that WCF appears to be a really powerful paradigm. Chapter 2 intimated that my service class could directly create communications channels via HTTPS (no IIS required) and ended by creating a service that starts when windows starts and provides the service to the application (though using named pipes). Pretty cool! Miles to go before I sleep. And I am looking for a highly recommended (preferably by someone on this list?) book about WCF but written using VS 2008 or even 2010. -- John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com