Programming Windows: Writing Windows 8 Apps With C# and XAML (Developer Reference)

Reimagined for full-screen and touch-optimized apps, Windows 8 provides a platform for reaching new users in new ways. In response, programming legend Charles Petzold is rewriting his classic Programming Windows - one of the most popular programming books of all time - to show developers how to use existing skills and tools to build Windows 8 apps. Cover 1 Copyright page 2 Contents at a Glance 3 Table of Contents 5 Introduction 15 The Versions of Windows 8 15 The Focus of This Book 17 The Approach 19 Source Code 20 My Setup 20 The Programming Windows Heritage 21 More in the Future 24 Behind the Scenes 25 Errata & Book Support 25 We Want to Hear from You 26 Stay in Touch 26 Part I: Elementals 27 Chapter 1: Markup and Code 29 The First Project 29 Graphical Greetings 35 Variations in Text 39 Media As Well 48 The Code Alternatives 49 Images in Code 53 Not Even a Page 55 Chapter 2: XAML Syntax 57 The Gradient Brush in Code 57 Property-Element Syntax 60 Content Properties 63 The TextBlock Content Property 67 Sharing Brushes (and Other Resources) 69 Resources Are Shared 73 Exploring Vector Graphics 74 Stretching with Viewbox 84 Styles 86 A Taste of Data Binding 92 Chapter 3: Basic Event Handling 95 The Tapped Event 95 Routed Event Handling 98 Overriding the Handled Setting 104 Input, Alignment, and Backgrounds 106 Size and Orientation Changes 109 Bindings to Run? 113 Timers and Animation 115 Chapter 4: Presentation with Panels 123 The Border Element 123 Rectangle and Ellipse 127 The StackPanel 129 Horizontal Stacks 132 WhatSize with Bindings (and a Converter) 134 The ScrollViewer Solution 138 Layout Weirdness or Normalcy? 144 Making an E-Book 145 Fancier StackPanel Items 148 Deriving from UserControl 150 Creating Windows Runtime Libraries 153 The Wrap Alternative 156 The Canvas and Attached Properties 158 The Z-Index 162 Canvas Weirdness 163 Chapter 5: Control Interaction 165 The Control Difference 165 The Slider for Ranges 167 The Grid 172 Orientation and Aspect Ratios 178 Slider and the Formatted String Converter 180 Tooltips and Conversions 180 Sketching with Sliders 183 The Varieties of Button Experience 185 Defining Dependency Properties 193 RadioButton Tags 203 Keyboard Input and TextBox 210 Touch and Thumb 213 Chapter 6: WinRT and MVVM 219 MVVM (Brief and Simplified) 219 Data Binding Notifications 220 A View Model for ColorScroll 222 Syntactic Shortcuts 227 The DataContext Property 230 Bindings and TextBox 232 Buttons and MVVM 238 The DelegateCommand Class 239 Chapter 7: Asynchronicity 247 Threads and the User Interface 247 Working with MessageDialog 248 Callbacks as Lambda Functions 254 The Amazing await Operator 255 Cancelling an Asynchronous Operation 257 Approaches to File I/O 259 Application Local Storage 260 File Pickers 260 Bulk Access 261 File Pickers and File I/O 261 Handling Exceptions 266 Consolidating Async Calls 267 Streamlined File I/O 269 Application Lifecycle Issues 271 Your Own Asynchronous Methods 276 Chapter 8: App Bars and Popups 287 Implementing Context Menus 287 The Popup Dialog 291 Application Bars 294 The Application Bar Button Style 297 Inside the Segoe UI Symbol Font 302 App Bar CheckBox and RadioButton 309 An App Bar for a Note Pad 312 Introducing XamlCruncher 319 Application Settings and View Models 334 The XamlCruncher Page 337 Parsing the XAML 342 XAML Files In and Out 344 The Settings Dialog 348 Beyond the Windows Runtime 353 Chapter 9: Animation 355 The Windows.UI.Xaml.Media.Animation Namespace 355 Animation Basics 356 Animation Variation Appreciation 360 Other Double Animations 366 Animating Attached Properties 373 The Easing Functions 376 All-XAML Animations 385 Animating Custom Classes 390 Key Frame Animations 393 The Object Animation 397 Predefined Animations and Transitions 399 Chapter 10: Transforms 403 A Brief Overview 403 Rotation (Manual and Animated) 406 Visual Feedback 412 Translation 414 Transform Groups 417 The Scale Transform 422 Building an Analog Clock 426 Skew 432 Making an Entrance 435 Transform Mathematics 436 The Composite Transform 444 Geometry Transforms 447 Brush Transforms 448 Dude, Where鈥檚 My Element? 453 Projection Transforms 456 Deriving a Matrix3D 463 Chapter 11: The Three Templates 475 Data in a Button 476 Making Decisions 486 Collection Controls and the Real Use of DataTemplate 489 Collections and Interfaces 500 Tapping and Selecting 501 Panels and Virtualizing Panels 507 Custom Panels 510 The Item Template Bar Chart 523 The FlipView Control 526 The Basic Control Template 528 The Visual State Manager 539 Using generic.xaml 546 Template Parts 547 Custom Controls 556 Templates and Item Containers 561 Chapter 12: Pages and Navigation 565 Screen Resolution Issues 565 Scaling Issues 571 Snap Views 575 Orientation Changes 580 Simple Page Navigation 583 The Back Stack 588 Navigation Events and Page Restoration 590 Saving and Restoring Application State 594 Navigational Accelerators and Mouse Buttons 598 Passing and Returning Data 601 Visual Studio Standard Templates 607 View Models and Collections 614 Grouping the Items 634 Part II: Specialties 639 Chapter 13: Touch, Etc. 641 A Pointer Roadmap 642 A First Dab at Finger Painting 645 Capturing the Pointer 648 Editing with a Popup Menu 656 Pressure Sensitivity 659 Smoothing the Tapers 663 How Do I Save My Drawings? 672 Real and Surreal Finger Painting 673 A Touch Piano 675 Manipulation, Fingers, and Elements 681 Working with Inertia 689 An XYSlider Control 693 Centered Scaling and Rotation 699 Single-Finger Rotation 702 Chapter 14: Bitmaps 709 Pixel Bits 710 Transparency and Premultiplied Alphas 717 A Radial Gradient Brush 722 Loading and Saving Image Files 729 Posterize and Monochromize 740 Saving Finger Paint Artwork 748 HSL Color Selection 773 Reverse Painting 784 Accessing the Pictures Library 789 Capturing Camera Photos 798 Chapter 15: Going Native 805 An Introduction to P/Invoke 806 Some Help 812 Time Zone Information 812 A Windows Runtime Component Wrapper for DirectX 834 DirectWrite and Fonts 835 Configurations and Platforms 847 Interpreting Font Metrics 850 Drawing on a SurfaceImageSource 857 Chapter 16: Rich Text 871 Private Fonts 873 A Taste of Glyphs 876 Font Files in Local Storage 878 Typographical Enhancements 882 RichTextBlock and Paragraphs 884 RichTextBlock Selection 888 RichTextBlock and Overflow 888 The Perils of Pagination 896 Rich Editing with RichEditBox 903 Your Own Text Input 913 Chapter 17: Share and Print 919 Settings and Popups 920 Sharing Through the Clipboard 924 The Share Charm 929 Basic Printing 930 Printable and Unprintable Margins 937 The Pagination Process 940 Custom Printing Properties 948 Printing a Monthly Planner 954 Printing a Range of Pages 963 Where to Do the Big Jobs? 974 Printing FingerPaint Art 974 Chapter 18: Sensors and GPS 979 Orientation and Orientation 979 Acceleration, Force, Gravity, and Vectors 984 Follow the Rolling Ball 995 The Two Norths 999 Inclinometer = Accelerometer + Compass 1002 OrientationSensor = Accelerometer + Compass 1006 Azimuth and Altitude 1012 Bing Maps and Bing Map Tiles 1025 Chapter 19: Pen (Also Known as Stylus) 1039 The InkManager Collections 1040 The Ink Drawing Attributes 1043 Erasing and Other Enhancements 1049 Selecting Strokes 1055 The Yellow Pad 1064 Index 1083 About the Author 1135 Survey page 1136 Reimagined for full-screen and touch-optimized apps, Windows 8 provides a platform for reaching new users in new ways. In response, programming legend Charles Petzold is rewriting his classic Programming Windows—one of the most popular programming books of all time—to show developers how to use existing skills and tools to build Windows 8 apps. Programming Windows, Sixth Edition focuses on creating Windows 8 apps accessing the Windows Runtime with XAML and C#. The book also provides C++ code samples. The Sixth Edition is organized in two parts: Part I, “Elementals,” begins with the interrelationship between code and XAML, basic event handling, dynamic layout, controls, templates, asynchronous processing, the application bar, control customization, and collections. You should emerge from Part I ready to create sophisticated page-oriented collection-based user interfaces using the powerful ListView and GridView controls. Part II, “Specialties,” explores topics you might not need for every program but are essential to a well-rounded education in Windows 8. These include multitouch, bitmap graphics, interfacing with share and search facilities, printing, working with the sensors (GPS and orientation), text, obtaining input from the stylus (including handwriting recognition), accessing web services, calling Win32 and DirectX functions, and bringing your application to the Windows 8 app store.