Windows Vista Sidebar: Your visual blueprint for developing cool gadgets for the Windows OS

List Price: $29.99 Discount Price: $1.90

Customer Reviews:

Very simple, not too useful [Posted on 2007-12-20]
I am a long time programmer, and familiar with procedural languages and JavaScript. I've written Yahoo widgets thus I am familiar with the concepts, so how hard could the extra HTML, DHTML, XML, CSS, AJAX be?
Answer? Immensely, and this book does not help. There are a number of examples, one on every page. They are simplistic, not extendable, and frequently useless. There is no summary of extensions, commands, events (the usual stuff one needs in a reference) and no discussion worth a hoot of the g:Image, g:Background etc objects provided by Microsoft.

If you are not already an experienced web page programmer, DO NOT get this book as it is incomplete.
If you are a web page programmer, DO NOT get this book as it is too simplistic.

There is, unfortunately, not too much out there yet, but I don't think this will be the answer you seek.

Getting started with Gadgets [Posted on 2008-08-04]
In the interest of full disclosure -- I wrote the book. So I really can't give an objective review :)

I can say that the book is intended for folks who want to get going quickly creating Sidebar gadgets. Your skill-set doesn't need to go beyond familiarity with HTML or JavaScript to use this book. It was not targeted at hard-core web developers who can handle XMLHttpRequest objects in their sleep. It was written for the superuser who wants to make gadgets.

The Visual Blueprint series provides a series of self contained tasks in each book. Unlike some books that follow a linear set of lessons, this book is designed so that you can pick it up, flip to a page, and do whatever the task is. That format does lead to a bit of repetition in tasks. But overall it's a great way for superusers to jump right into developing gadgets for their desktop.

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