Three weeks back, I wrote about the pending release of programming legend Charles Petzold’s most recent book, the 6th edition of the classic Programming Windows. Well, that day has finally arrived! And if you buy now, you can get in cheap. Really cheap.
Programming Windows Sixth Edition is available now in PDF, ePub, and MOBI formats. If you buy between now and May 31, 2012, the cost is an astonishing low $10. And the price goes up over time, so act fast: From June 1, 2012 until sometime in July, the cost will be $20. And then $30, and the eventually the book will reach its final and normal cost of $50.
The catch is that this is a book in progress. So the version you’re getting today is the so-called Consumer Preview version, and it covers 7 chapters over 294 pages (described below), focusing on C# and XAML technologies. Mr. Petzold will be updating the book over time, with a Release Preview version expected sometime in July and then the final version later in the year. Anyone who buys the book qualifies for free upgrades to future versions. So if you buy today, you’ll get the subsequent revisions as they are published.
In the current version of the book, you’ll find the following content:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Markup and Code
Chapter 2: XAML Syntax
Chapter 3: Basic Event Handling
Chapter 4: Presentation with Panels
Chapter 5: Control Interaction
Chapter 6: WinRT and MVVM
Chapter 7: Building an Application
If you’re looking to get into Windows 8 development, as I am, this offer is impossible to ignore. Seriously, it’s $10. This is a no-brainer. Do the right thing.
And while you’re doing the right thing, be sure to check out Petzold’s other free eBooks, Programming Windows Phone 7 (PDF) and .NET Book Zero: What the C or C++ Programmer Needs to Know about C# and the .NET Framework (PDF or XPS). Both are of course excellent.
Note: I used to read Programming Windows, 3rd Edition (for Windows 3.1) in the break room at work. Everyone thought I was nuts.
Related: Charles Petzold’s web site and Book Blog