Programming WCF Services, 2nd Edition

Forewords

From the moment that Samuel Morse demonstrated his first telegraph message on May 24, 1844 until now, communications have been changing our world. The information age has revolutionized our planet in ways that were unimaginable to our ancestors, and here in the early years of the 21st century we realize that the revolution in many respects has only begun.

Web services have emerged as the primary way for applications to communicate, and if you are writing applications on the Microsoft .NET platform, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) is the way you should write them. This rich platform for web services is powerful and broad, capable of supporting many different communication patterns and protocols as well as being extensible in almost any way you can imagine.

As you explore this vast platform for communications, you will need a guide who knows the terrain, and there are few people alive today who know WCF as well as Juval Löwy. The best testament to this is to wander the halls of building 42 in Redmond (where the WCF team works); in many of the offices you will see Programming WCF Services on the shelf. I've had the privilege of knowing Juval since 2001 when I reviewed one of his earlier books, and have always been impressed with his grasp of technology and his dogged pursuit of detail in his drive to plumb the depths.

If you choose to learn WCF, you've chosen well. If you choose to learn with the resource and guidance of Juval Löwy, you've done even better. My well-worn ...