I’ve recently been learning WPF. This is a huge topic that is uncontainable by any single book, tutorial, or web-site. The complexity and breadth of this framework is nearly oppressive, but the results are incredible. Or rather, I should say, potentially incredible.

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From everything I’ve read, people who have suffered through the WPF learning curve have this to say, more or less:

yeah, it was really tough going for a few months. But now I can create awesome apps in a fraction of the time it would take with older technologies.

So with that in mind, I really do want to learn WPF. I have a number of C# references, weighty tomes that bend my shelves, but the main book I use is Programming WPFby Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths. I really like this book—it goes in deep. However, I realized that reading through it cover to cover and doing all the sample apps wasn’t going to work—it gets boring, no matter how good the book is. So here is my recommendation on how to learn WPF (and it probably applies to any programming technology):

1. Start reading the book, do the code, type stuff in, copy it, tweak it. Do this for as long as you can.
2. Once step 1 becomes boring, STOP. It is not productive to force yourself through the whole thing like this.
3. Find a sample project in your target technology. I used Family.Show. There are plenty out there.
4. Think of a project YOU find interesting that would be good in [WPF|other]. Start doing this. Even if you don’t know where to start at all.
5. While getting started, every step will be a challenge. Figure it out step-by-step, going back to the book and online resources.

You might be tempted to skip steps 1-2. I think this is a bad idea. You need at least some foundational understanding. Only when you can’t take it any more and you’re in danger of quitting, move on.

This has worked well for me in learning WPF. I decided to implement a game (if it ever gets into a polished state, I’ll share it).

Don’t underestimate the challenges in step 4, though. I had to think about how to even start, going back to the book numerous times, reading large sections. I looked up articles online about patterns and WPF, user controls, and more. Many seemingly-small steps in just displaying windows took hours to figure out. Figuring out data binding (really figuring it out in the context of my app) took hours. The point of doing your own project isn’t because it’s easier than following the book—it’s because it’s fun and you have more motivation to learn.