REVIEW:While not completely atrocious, this volume is certainly not among my favorite IT books.To begin, it is written in very understandable english.However, this is misleading.Oftentimes, that simple english conceals details that are quite useful and downright necessary for the examples given.To quote page 178: "Write the code for the GetDocumentation method."Note that the book does not give you the complete code (unlike most tech books).All the reader gets is a screenshot of the VS.NET window.
Now, you might think that's not too bad.There's probably a CD or a website that you can download the source from, right?Wrong.The website listed on the back of the book and in the introduction is not a valid URL.I eventually tracked down the real publisher and downloaded the source code.Unfortunately, it's buggy and comes with a senseless installation application.
In essence, this book is a lot of flash and no substance.It doesn't clearly explain concepts nor does it adequately present the material.At times it acts as if the reader is already very experienced (not providing the full source) while at others it reads as if it were written for a CS 101 class (showing step by step which buttons to click to create a new app).
STRENGTHS: Very few and far between.The screenshots provided are useful for positioning of controls and overall appearance conformity.The book also does a decent job of introductory explanations such as "Introducing the .NET Initiative."Which, parenthetically you could also read for free about on Microsoft's site.These, however, do not outweight the glaring errors present though.
WEAKNESSES: Aside from the above complaints, a major issue that I had with the book is that it did not use standard Hungarian notation.Instead, the author used IDs such as "AdRotator1", "CalStart", "documentation", "picture", etc...Naming conventions like these simply scream "amateur" to me.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: If you still want to read it, I'd recommend that you already be familiar with VB.NET or C#.Also, an understanding of web technologies such as IIS and SQL Server are quite useful when the author neglects to tell you important information.
FOR SIMILAR/RELATED TOPICS, CONSIDER: I would recommend "ASP.NET by Example" (ISBN 0789725622) or "Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET in 21 Days" (ISBN 0672324458).Both are far better.
Product DescriptionDon't spend your time wading through manuals to learn ASP.NET. Spend it doing what you do best-creating Web pages! Begin with an introduction to the .NET initiative. Then work your way through the concepts of ASP.NET, Visual Basic .NET, and ADO.NET. By the time you finish, you'll be using ASP.NET to create custom applications. Combining easy-to-understand instructions with visual examples, Microsoft ASP.NET Fast & Easy Web Development offers a unique, hands-on approach to ASP.NET that you won't find anywhere else. Less time, less effort, more results!
About the AuthorNitin Pandey works as a consultant with NIIT. He has authored several books, including Commerce Server 2000 Configuration and Administration, Visual Studio .NET for Dummies, and C# Professional Projects.
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Microsoft ASP.NET Fast & Easy Web Development (Paperback)
I read Curt Simmons'Creating Active Directory Infrastructures book andbought this one as well. This book is very easy to read and covers AD in avisual way. The book crawls all over the AD tools and shows you how to andwhy to configure this or that. It also has info about design and planningas well as DNS, DHCP, and other networking services. It's kind of adifferent way to learn a high level topic, but I liked it, and it will be agreat reference book.
