First of all I’d like to say that there’s of course not a winning concept for everyone.

There are many technical books that become thicker and thicker and the pressure from the technical society is more and more to read them and remember many concepts described in them. But it’s so hard to do it.

How do you remember all that stuff? Lots of people use some cards with basic info so that they can remember the details when they look at it.

Sometimes I read a chapter, wait a while, and go back through the chapter with a highlighter. Then, if I ever have to go back in the book, I can just read the highlighted nuggets. But that’s just something you can do with your own books…

Generally, technical books come with lots of little example snippets of code or exercises. I always try (if there’s sufficient time) to do them. But after you’ve done them, think about where you can apply those concepts in code you’ve already written. Go back and refactor with those ideas in mind. Once you see how it can work in a real live project, it will be burned into your brain.

A really good coder once told me…If you read something in a technical book you don’t understand, do something with that concept 5 times in code.
Make 5 separate, little, non-related one-off projects. By the second time around you will probably understand it, and the other 3 are just to get your fingers used to typing it. Don’t proceed further in the book until you do.

If you do not practice it you will not learn it except you’re rain man but nobody is rain man except for rain man.

The learning by doing principle is good but my experience tells me that it is not enough. Moreover, remembering is no longer mandatory. Accessibility of resources is such that finding them is more important than learning them.

Today I’d like to recomment a book to you. It’s called XAML in a Nutshell (O’Reilly, 2006; ISBN: 0596526733) by Lori A. MacVittie.

For those of you who don’t know already XAML is a .NET technology. It’s a markup language that can be used to help create desktop applications, web pages, and printable documents.

It stands for Extensible Application Markup Language and is pronounced as zammel ([zæ:mɛl]).

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XAML generally follows XML syntax rules, just as any other XML-based markup language does. Each XAML element has a name and one or more attributes. Attributes correspond directly to object properties, and the name of the XAML element exactly matches the name of a CLR class definition.

XAML is pure markup, which means that while the names of event handlers are specified as attributes, you must implement the actual logic of the event handler in code. If you’re familiar with ASP.NET programming techniques, then you’ll be familiar with the term codebehind, which refers to the code “behind” a XAML interface element that is responsible for providing application logic such as event handlers.
It can be implemented in either C# or VB.NET. In both cases, the code can be placed inline in the XAML file, although this contradicts best practices in separating the presentation and application logic layers.

A XAML file can be compiled into a .baml (Binary XAML) file, which may be inserted as a resource into a .NET Framework assembly. At run-time, the framework engine extracts the .baml file from assembly resources, parses it, and creates a corresponding WPF visual tree or workflow.

When used in Windows Presentation Foundation, XAML is used to describe visual user interfaces. WPF allows for the definition of both 2D and 3D objects, rotations, animations, and a variety of other effects and features.

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Here’s an overview of what to expect:

• Introducing XAML
• Getting Started
• XAML Basics
• Layout and Positioning
• Resources
• Storyboards and Animations
• Elements
• Controls
• Shapes and Geometry
• Layout
• Animations and Transformations
• Events

Along with this, you get eight appendices covering the major parts of the XAML technology.

This excellent book gives the reader a quick reference to XAML with examples. In other words, this book provides documentation of all core components and presents detailed discussions on features such as animation, resources, and layout that will help you on your way to becoming a XAML developer.
Even if you’ve never before heard of XAML, this book will give a good starting point to begin your investigations into this new technology…

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The best comes last. You can get a preview online on google’s books: [link]

Many software products are released as so called OpenSource but how do the different kinds of OpenSource software licenses differ from each other?

For example Firefox is licensed under MPL/GPL and LGP. But what’s the Mozilla Foundation Licence? Often heart about that…

VLC media player makes it easy to me it’s just released under GPL which says something to me.

If you are the same way confused as me you might be interested in O’Reilly’s Openbook called “OpenSource & Free Software Licensing”

“This book will show you the licenses, explain how they can be used, and give you the information needed to make informed decisions. Knowing the details, the factual ones and not the FUD, will make you the ‘go to’ person when these type of questions arise.”
–Brian Turner, Free Software Magazine

Although a lot of questions I had got answered there are still serveral licences which are a mixture of others or explecit remoddeled.
A good example might be my beloved boost libraries which stand under a “Boost Software License”.

All links are to PDF documents:

• Chapter 1: Open Source Licensing, Contract, and Copyright Law

• Chapter 2: The MIT, BSD, Apache, and Academic Free Licenses

• Chapter 3: The GPL, LGPL, and Mozilla Licenses

• Chapter 4: Qt, Artistic, and Creative Commons Licenses

• Chapter 5: Non-Open Source Licenses

• Chapter 6: Legal Impacts of Open Source and Free Software Licensing

• Chapter 7: Software Development Using Open Source and Free Software Licenses

I hope it’s useful for your aims.