Charles Petzold
Windows
®
Programming
SIXTH EDITION
Writing Windows 8 Apps
With C# and XAML
Release Preview eBook
PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
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Redmond, Washington 98052-6399
Copyright © 2012 Charles Petzold
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means without the written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-0-7356-7176-8
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Introduction ......................................................................................................... 9
The Versions of Windows 8 ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
The Focus of This Book ............................................................................................................................................................. 10
The Approach ............................................................................................................................................................................... 12
My Setup ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 13
The Programming Windows Heritage .................................................................................................................................. 13
Behind the Scenes ....................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Errata & Book Support .............................................................................................................................................................. 17
We Want to Hear from You ..................................................................................................................................................... 17
Stay in Touch ................................................................................................................................................................................ 17
Chapter 1: Markup and Code .......................................................................... 18
The First Project ........................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Graphical Greetings .................................................................................................................................................................... 24
Variations in Text ......................................................................................................................................................................... 28
Media As Well .............................................................................................................................................................................. 36
The Code Alternatives ............................................................................................................................................................... 37
Images in Code ............................................................................................................................................................................ 41
Not Even a Page .......................................................................................................................................................................... 43
Chapter 2: XAML Syntax .................................................................................. 45
The Gradient Brush in Code .................................................................................................................................................... 45
Property Element Syntax .......................................................................................................................................................... 48
Content Properties...................................................................................................................................................................... 51
The TextBlock Content Property............................................................................................................................................. 55
Sharing Brushes (and Other Resources) ............................................................................................................................... 57
Resources Are Shared ................................................................................................................................................................ 61
A Bit of Vector Graphics ............................................................................................................................................................ 62
Stretching with Viewbox ........................................................................................................................................................... 71
Styles ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 74
A Taste of Data Binding ............................................................................................................................................................ 80
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Chapter 3: Basic Event Handling .................................................................... 83
The Tapped Event ........................................................................................................................................................................ 83
Routed Event Handling ............................................................................................................................................................. 86
Overriding the Handled Setting ............................................................................................................................................. 92
Input, Alignment, and Backgrounds ..................................................................................................................................... 93
Size and Orientation Changes ................................................................................................................................................ 97
Bindings to Run? .......................................................................................................................................................................101
Timers and Animation .............................................................................................................................................................103
Chapter 4: The Border Element ..................................................................... 111
The Border Element ..................................................................................................................................................................111
Rectangle and Ellipse ...............................................................................................................................................................115
The StackPanel ...........................................................................................................................................................................117
Horizontal Stacks .......................................................................................................................................................................121
WhatSize with Bindings (and a Converter) .......................................................................................................................124
The ScrollViewer Solution .......................................................................................................................................................128
Layout Weirdness or Normalcy? ..........................................................................................................................................134
Making an E-Book ....................................................................................................................................................................135
Fancier StackPanel Items ........................................................................................................................................................138
Deriving from UserControl .....................................................................................................................................................141
Creating Windows Runtime Libraries .................................................................................................................................143
The Wrap Alternative ...............................................................................................................................................................146
The Canvas and Attached Properties .................................................................................................................................148
The Z-Index .................................................................................................................................................................................153
Canvas Weirdness .....................................................................................................................................................................153
Chapter 5: Control Interaction ...................................................................... 155
The Control Difference ............................................................................................................................................................155
The Slider for Ranges ...............................................................................................................................................................157
The Grid ........................................................................................................................................................................................161
Orientation and Aspect Ratios ..............................................................................................................................................168
Slider and the Formatted String Converter ......................................................................................................................171
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Tooltips and Conversions .......................................................................................................................................................171
Sketching with Sliders ..............................................................................................................................................................174
The Varieties of Button Experience .....................................................................................................................................176
Defining Dependency Properties .........................................................................................................................................184
RadioButton Tags ......................................................................................................................................................................194
Keyboard Input and TextBox .................................................................................................................................................200
Touch and Thumb .....................................................................................................................................................................204
Chapter 6: WinRT and MVVM ....................................................................... 211
MVVM (Brief and Simplified).................................................................................................................................................211
Data Binding Notifications .....................................................................................................................................................212
A View Model for ColorScroll ................................................................................................................................................214
Syntactic Shortcuts ...................................................................................................................................................................219
The DataContext Property .....................................................................................................................................................222
Bindings and TextBox ...............................................................................................................................................................224
Buttons and MVVM ..................................................................................................................................................................230
The DelegateCommand Class ................................................................................................................................................231
Chapter 7: Building an Application .............................................................. 238
Commands, Options, and Settings ......................................................................................................................................238
The Segoe UI Symbol Font.....................................................................................................................................................240
The Application Bar ..................................................................................................................................................................246
Popups and Dialogs .................................................................................................................................................................248
Windows Runtime File I/O .....................................................................................................................................................251
Await and Async ........................................................................................................................................................................258
Calling Your Own Async Methods .......................................................................................................................................260
Controls for XamlCruncher ....................................................................................................................................................263
Application Settings and Isolated Storage........................................................................................................................278
The XamlCruncher Page .........................................................................................................................................................282
Parsing the XAML......................................................................................................................................................................286
XAML Files In and Out .............................................................................................................................................................288
The Settings Dialog ..................................................................................................................................................................292
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