In what may be a first (at least for me) I've secured agreement with the very generous folks I work for here and at O'Reilly to loosely join the tutorials and the chapters of our forthcoming book Programming Silverlight (co-authored by Tim Heuer, O'Reilly 2008) to create an enhanced approach to learning tool.
Let me be clear: the goal is to provide more for less; it is not the goal to push you to buy the book; and you have my word that the tutorials will not be limited, constrained or curtailed in service to making the book somehow more worthwhile.
My hope is that the book will have additional value, but the tutorials, like the videos will stand on their own. If we do it right, together they will supplement one another.
Here's how it will work.
Phase 1 – Tutorials and Draft Chapters
During Phase 1 I will continue to publish tutorials on Silverlight.NET as well as the first drafts of chapters from Programming Silverlight for those who are curious or who would like to provide feedback (more on providing feedback to come).
Note that these chapters will not have gone through technical edit nor copyedit, and will be quite rough; the final chapters will be updated for Silverlight RTW (Release To Web, as opposed to Beta), numerous rounds of technical edit, development edit and copyedit.
Phase 2 – Publication and Beyond
In Phase 2, the 1st Edition of the book will be published, ideally providing cohesion, depth and detail that is simply not possible in the tutorials. It is my plan that the tutorials will continue, supplementing the material already on line, drawing on and extending the book as Silverlight evolves, and serving as both a supplement to the existing edition and a preview of future editions.
Schedule
It is important to understand that the writing schedule for this book does not in any way reflect my knowledge of the timing on the release of Silverlight Beta 2 nor subsequent releases of Silverlight. Further, the current schedule is subject to change and will change. It always does. The Table of Contents will change as well. I'll post both within a week or so.
