5 comments about Mastering ASP.Net with Visual C#.

1. This is the best asp.net with c# book for beginner and experienced web developer among the 4 similar books I bought 4 momths ago, this is the only one I read trough and do it from first to last chapter. Thanks, Russell.



2. I have 3 other Mastering books and they are all great. This one is not in that category. Mastering C#, Mastering VB.NET and Mastering Cool Fusion 5.0 are all very good books. This author seems like a real C#/ASP.NET Guru but has no ability to convey that knowledge in a clear concise way. It seems to me like everything is just dumped on the pages instead of being built up step by step. This book might be good if you are already very good at ASP.NET and want to gleam some more insight into some of the deeper workings of ASP.NET, but definitely NOT as a beginner/intermediate book. I consider ASP.NET Unleashed a masterpiece compared to this book. After chapter 6, I just gave up and am going to purchase another ASP.NET C# book to meet my needs.



3. I've been trying to use this book as my primary reference for ASP.NET for a couple of months now, and I'm to the point where I'm going to go out and buy another book.

   This book could be dramatically improved if it had been under the kind eye of rigorous editor, one that would have pulled all the spurious soapboxing and helped refocus the book on addressing topics the author is not favorable towards.

   A couple of examples:

   1) Paragraphs of prose dedicated to a lengthy explanation as to why usernames and passwords are obsolete, bordering on arrogance. Finally, begrudgingly, getting to the meat of what I need to know: how to do authenticated login. I wouldn't mind so much if the author was providing relevant insight into the directions that the industry is taking, but his proposition that smart cards and biometrics will overtake passwords is the same old rhetoric expounded over the last decade... which has not come to pass.

   2) An attitude of MS Access = Bad. Yes, SQL is one of the stonger solutions for the back end, and sure, you should use MSDE if you can't do SQL, but I have a client that needs it to be MS Access. To completely short-change Access is to write yourself out of a very real segement of the market.

   In essence, I think this book suffers by actively distancing itself from real-world issues. A more pragmatic, non-preaching approach would have been better, one that focussed on what *I* need, not what the author feels compelled to tell me about.

   Ignoring the soapboxes, the rest of the book is pretty good. The author obviously knows his ASP.NET. I'll keep this book around as a secondary reference, but I'm out hunting for a new primary reference.

   I generally dislike writing reviews like this, but I dropped ... this book (a local Borders) and I would really have liked to have seen a review like this before I made that decision.




4. This book tends to become scattered, and the author seems to ramble at times. I was expecting more simple explanation by example, but what examples there were seemed to contain large amounts of code that belonged in an entirely different topic. I tended to notice alot of "I'm showing you this, but I'm not going to say anything about it in this book."...

   This is not to say that there is no useful information in this book, but it is difficult and tiring to get to. The content seems to drift towards generalized advice in many areas, rather than actual instruction.

   I would say that this book would be worth owning only if you have a good core of ASP.net knowledge, and want a book that will increase the dsetail of your knowledge in a wandering manner.




5. After many tries, I've officially given up reading this book at Chapter 17 of this 23 chapter book. This book definetely doesn't belong in the "mastering" series of sybex. I've followed along many books of this series, from SQL, to VB to Server 2003, etc, but this one just doesn't measure up to the quality of the others. Here are the problems with this book:

   1. Too many samples, but not enough explanations. I'll be happy if the author presents complicated topics, as long as he explains them thouroughly. But not here, all you get, is one long-winded code after another, but only a sentense or two to explain what the heck is going on in the code. So usually as I read a chapter, I would counsult another book, so I can have some clue what was just covered. Not an ideal learning experience.
   2. Too boring. The author doesn't inject one iota of humor, or any kind of real world examples, or applications for his codes. The explanations are terse and dry, and felt as if, the author doesn't really care, or care to know, that at the other end, there's another person reading this.

5 comments about Beginning DotNetNuke 4.0 Website Creation in C# 2005 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional).

1. Not being terribly familiar with the Microsoft family of development technologies, I was completely unaware of what DotNetNuke was. My first guess would have been the latest virus du jour to hit Microsoft. But the book Beginning DotNetNuke 4.0 Website Creation in C# 2005 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express: From Novice to Professional by Nick Symmonds does an OK job of introducing the reader to the basics of what you're dealing with... an open-source portal framework for .Net development...
   
   Contents: The Basics; The Express and DotNetNuke Combination; Installation; Basic C#; Visual Web Developer; DotNetNuke Basics; Creating a DNN Module; Finishing the DotNetNuke Module; DNN Permissions and Portals; DNN Hosting; Creating a DNN Skin; JavaScript and Ajax; Next Steps and Suggestions; Index
   
   Symmonds tries to cover quite a bit of material in this book, any one of which could take an entire book on its own. You would best be served to have an understanding of C# before you begin, as this is really not a C# tutorial. He does create a "time card" application in C#, which then becomes the basis for a DNN module in the later chapters. There's material on how to install the express versions of the Microsoft development environments for web and C# coding, but again it's not a definitive reference. It's enough to get you up and running, and then you can launch off from there once you follow the directions for this particular exercise. The main thrust of the book is to show how DNN can help you development portal-like web sites using the open-source framework, and how a program written in a language such as C# can easily be ported over to run as a web-enabled module. I don't think I'd want this to be my first exposure to web development, nor is it a book that an expert would use on a daily basis. But for someone like me who had no previous reference to DNN, it served a purpose... good introduction to understand the capabilities, and enough material to take me through the basics. If I were to decide that this was an option I wanted to pursue, I'd "know what I don't know" and could find additional material that would take me deeper into the subject...
   
   Given the right mindset, the book is good for what it sets out to do. But if you've already done things with DNN, you might find it a bit too basic for your tastes... I personally liked it because I came away with knowledge I didn't know existed prior to this...



2. This book is a brief introduction into the world of DotNetNuke. It will get you started, but it will not lead you into advanced topics. This book is geared towards people curious and interested into DNN. This book is not for developers, unless DNN is completely new to you. The author is good about making steady progress throughout the book, not losing his audience. I must say, this book is for Novice to Competent User, not proffesional. Good Luck.



3. This is supposed to be a book on developing a web site. He promises that you do not need to know programming or useless information about .NET. Then he devotes half the book to doing a Windows form for entering hours work, explaining basic HTML tags, reviewing the history of ASP - ASP.Net and uses some complex C# examples in object oriented techniques which have nothing to do with DotNetNuke and are never implemented again. This is what someone does who is paid by the publisher per word! This is supposed to be a Web form book! This book does not take you from "Novice to Professional". Read the DotNetNuke documentation instead. I'm sorry I spent the money.



4. Basically the book is a collection of the most common information already provided on the DotNetNuke site. Module development was basically non-existent.



5. Average book. Had tons of trouble with understanding this book, especially when trying to download and install. Found some errors. Average. Might be so better books on Dot Net Nuke. If not it is decent.

5 comments about Programming MapPoint in .NET (Programming).

1. This is an excellent book on MapPoint that covers everything from architecture through advanced usage. The examples are solid, and the problems that the author chooses to solve are right on target. Not only does it give useful technical examples, it also provides inspiration for how you can use MapPoint throughout your product.
   
   This is a solid piece of work.



2. MapPoint by Microsoft (who else) is an outstanding tool to be able to use all types of geographic/demographic data in a myriad of different ways. Before the book 'Programming MapPoint in .NET' there weren't any good resources out there on the market for learning how to use this amazing bit of code, but now that has all changed. With this text you will quickly learn the ins and outs of MapPoint, from being able to generate maps in your own application to talking to MapPoint web services to be able to output driving directions, demographic data... whatever you can think of!!!
   
   It's quite clear that MapPoint is a tool that will be growing every day, and with the importance of up to date geographic data, it's a niche that Microsoft was smart to get into. My only "complaint" about this book is that it seems a little light in the source material (API calls, examples and such), but I don't think this is any fault of the author or the programmers. Simply MapPoint is still a fairly new tool and it will take time to document and create examples for all the cool stuff that this application can do. If you use MapPoint, you would be wise to pick up this book and read it cover to cover.
   
   **** RECOMMENDED



3. As a mapppoint developer , I spend most time to programming the function of the application. The book does give some samplese , but most of them are over complexed, and the if you read the source code , you will found that the Author , Cthota, didn't put all the dataset in the download zip file , which is a major regret.



4. OK, that's relatively easy to say since there aren't a whole lot of them. So why did I give Chandu Thota's book five stars?
   
   Because of both what is included and what isn't:
   
   - Breadth of coverage. The author manages to cover every single Microsoft mapping technology (of interest to the programmer), including the CD-based MapPoint 2004, the Location Server, the Web Service, and the new Virtual Earth control, and do so well.
   
   - Concise code snippets. They are plentiful, well explained, and never longer than a page or so. All of those I tried _did_ work.
   
   - No marketing fluff. Although Chandu Thota works for Microsoft, we don't see any of the "product brochure" type of language that maybe convinces execs but fails to impress developers.
   
   - Focus. The author assumes that we can program, know C#, and have at least a basic grasp of maps and such things as lat/lon, and spares us lengthy introductions on these subjects.



5. Do you want to develop a location-based application? If you do, then this book is for you! Author Chandu Thota, has done an outstanding job of writing a book that provides an integrated set of products, servers, and services that helps enterprises improve their customers' experience by applying mapping and location.
   
   Thota, begins by introducing the MapPoint suite of products and technologies, setting the stage by discussing the basics of each technology and usage scenarios. Then, the author covers programming with the MapPoint 2004 ActiveX control and MapPoint 2004 object model for rendering maps, finding places and addresses, and calculating routes. Next, he covers dealing with business data, rendering data maps, and adding thematic shapes using geographic data. The author then covers integration with GPS for obtaining real-time location and extending MapPoint capabilities by writing add-ins. He continues by introducing the basics of programming with MapPoint Web Service. Then, the author shows you how to create applications using the Find APIs of the MapPoint Web Service, including techniques for finding places, addresses, and nearby points of interest. Next, he covers programming with the Route APIs, such as calculating routes and getting driving directions. The author then covers programming with the Render APIs available with MapPoint Web Service, including rendering maps, routes, LineDrive maps, and polygons. He continues by covering the basics of programming with Microsoft Location Server and deployment scenarios. Finally, he covers programming with the Location Server Web Service to get real-time location using mobile phones.
   
   This most excellent book provides a jump-start for working with the preceding technologies, with in-depth discussions about the core concepts and sample code provided in C#. More importantly, this book covers the most common application development scenarios with the MapPoint platform.

No comments about Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in VB 2005, Special Edition (Pro).

5 comments about Visual Basic 2005 Express: Now Playing (Book and CD edition).

1. Well written, understandable for all of us "non-geeks", and even amusing. Thanks Mr Wang for a big boost!!



2. This book answered all my questions about how to build functions, procedures and modules.



3. It appears to be written for a non-current version of VB Express 2005. Much of the code will not work with the version that you download today from Microsoft. (It might work with the version on the CD, but who wants to be stuck with an old program?) Some of the programs from the CD will give you "build errors" if you try to run them,
   
   This is a common problems with publishers trying to have the first available book for a program. But they usually work off of a beta, not the finished product. In this case, it's a real pain for the unwary student.



4. Although this book is written for absolute beginner and some of the explanation of concepts can be skipped, I like the way Wallace Wang introduced how to use the ToolBox items with simple example without having to type a lot or spend too much time on changing the property of toolbox item. It is simple, yet powerful to get a grasp of new VB2005 and its upgraded user interface. The CD ROM may be a little too much for me, but maybe would do for an absolute beginner who had never used the VS series. If you know VB or other programming language, you can finish this book in 1-2 days and be really familiar with VB2005.
   I liked the hint of jokes that he included in the example.. It would have been a lot more fun if he could write more expressively as he did in Beginning Programming For Dummies (Beginning Programming for Dummies)



5. Visual Basic 2005 Express: Now Playing (Book and CD edition)I have been learning visual basic now for 1-1/2 years spent alot of money on expensive books that are written for people who have probably 5 years experience. I highly recommend this book for beginneers the author makes it very easy to understand codeing, i learnn't more in the first 30 pages than i did with $150.00 worth of the other books.
   Great Book and thanks

5 comments about Learn to Program with C#.

1. I am taking a series of classes from "someplace" with the intention of making a carreer change. "Someplace" offered to get me from being a non-programmer to an MCSD in 8 months using Microsoft official curriculum (MOC). An ambitious undertaking to be sure.
   
   I have found the MOC to be of very limited help. Wow, that's an understatement.
   
   Anyway, I have been using other resources to supplement the training and this book has been the best.
   
   The book starts with understanding the requirements of a program. From there the author walks us through the process of building a program and incorporates a lot of very practical and useful concepts. In general, the book has followed the progression of the MOC "Programming with C#". Whether by design or not, this has been very helpful.
   
   The book is written in narrative or as a story unfolding. The reader is included in a small class learning to program. The other students in the class ask questions to the instructor (John Smiley) and in general greatly facilitate the learning process. This narrative makes it a lot easier to follow and the simple program turns out to be full of lots of very useful training opportunities.
   
   At first, I was underwhelmed that the author had chosen to use Notepad and the SDK to create the programs. However, having finished the book and being halfway through the MOC course (which uses Visual Studio) I am glad that he does. Visual Studio tends to be expensive to get your hands on, and while it does have some VERY helpful functionality in terms of writing code, for the beginner, a lot of the stuff it does seems like it is overwhelming for the "newbie" (at least it was to me.)
   
   Many times, I would complete similar exercises using the notpad/SDK method in 1/3rd or 1/4 the time it would take me to do it in Visual Studio. For the most part, this was because of all of the "helpful" stuff that Visual Studio was doing. Don't get me wrong, it is a great IDE, but for a newbie like me, I think Smiley's approach was better.
   
   I have bought many other C# books and I will be doing reviews on them as I read them to supplement the material. I've also been taking video lessons from LearnVisualStudio.net.
   
   I hope John Smiley will create a book on Visual Studio and Intermediate and Advanced C#. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it HIGHLY to anyone just getting started.



2. This is a great book for C# beginners like me. The book is very well written as it simulates the real class environment and answers every possible question that the beginner might have. I went to a 5-day C# training and I learned less there than I learned after reading this book. The author is a talented instructor, and I wish all computer science professors were like him. I am looking forward to an intermidiate C# book by John Smiley! Thank you, John.



3. This is an excellent book. I have completely read this book. I recommend this book for every student learning C#.



4. Have you ever thought you wanted to learn how to program, and bought a book on programming that didn't teach you anything? Or maybe you took a class that had a required textbook that was worthless? Did you get discouraged, and think programming just wasn't "for you"? That maybe you just didn't "get it" like those other people that seemed to have no problems learning to program? If so, then this book is for you. If more computer programming books were written like this, I KNOW there'd be a lot more programmers in the world. It's not about intelligence, it's about LEARNING STYLES. This book is more narrative than just lines of code to interpret. John Smiley talks TO the reader, not AT him. He puts you in a classroom setting where people ask questions, even DUMB questions that you yourself may have wanted to ask. And guess what? He ANSWERS the questions. If you've been stymied in one way or another from reaching a point of confidence with programming then this book is for you. I give it 5 stars because that's the most that Amazon's system will let me give it. If you don't believe me, hit the library. Then buy the book to put food on this man's table, and have this awesome book in your personal library.



5. This book is the perfect starting point for a beginner. I started with a limited amount of programming experience. By the time I finished, I felt extremely comfortable with all of the concepts presented.
   
   It's important to set realistic goals. You're not going to finish this book and start writing real world applications. Instead, this book builds the foundation needed to tackle more advanced concepts and programs found in other books.

No comments about C# 3.0: A Beginner's Guide (Beginner's Guide (Osborne Mcgraw Hill)).

5 comments about Unit Test Frameworks.

1. I have put off writing a review of this book because I had very mixed feelings. On the plus side, it is a very clear concise guide to unit testing - a great introduction.
   
   On the negative side, I figured that any decent programmer already knows what's covered here. Even those who don't write unit tests (bad programmer, bad) knows what they are and how to do it.
   
   Then I was stuck on how to unit test in a particular case and the author email me - look on page 37. And there it was.
   
   So, if you are learning to program - GET THIS BOOK. No one will hire you unless you know this. If you're an experienced programmer, it can still teach you a thing or two.
   
   - dave thielen
   
   ps - the author is a friend of mine and that did cause me to round up my 4.5 rating.



2. This is a very solid, no-nonsense introduction to unit test framework.
   
   For a 200 page book, this one is packed with carefully chosen information, detailed enough for new comers to start unit testing, useful enough for a frequently-visited reference, and at the same time concise enough for anyone to get an overview of the unit test landscape.



3. I have been using JUnit for unit testing on Java for quite a while and I have also been exposed to other testing frameworks, but had never looked under the hood is such detail as Paul does in this book.
   
   He starts with a good overview of what a unit test framework and then takes us to a very nice tutorial on building your own unit test framework from scratch. This exercise is very well documented and you learn the basic principles behind a unit test framework while building a simple application and the unit tests required to test it.
   
   After laying out the foundation, he goes on to explain in more detail how to write unit tests, how to use assertions, how to deal and test exceptions and expected errors, how to test protected behavior, how to organize your project for testing and using more advanced techniques like mock objects and performance testing.
   
   He also includes a chapter that deals with testing GUIs (Graphical User Interfaces) which is a challenging task, but he offers good ideas for doing test driven development for a GUI to the application that we have been building during the previous chapters.
   
   After all the basic concepts have been covered, the next chapters are dedicated to the most important (or more popular) unit test frameworks which are JUnit for Java, CppUnit for C++, NUnit for C# on .NET, PyUnit for Python and XMLUnit for XML documents. It is interesting to note that throughout the book the author uses the same application for the example code, so that we can compare the actual implementation of the tests using the different frameworks.
   
   In the appendices, there is a C++ version of the simple Java framework that was built on chapter 2 and there are also summaries of the class reference documentation for JUnit and CppUnit.
   
   Overall I think it is a very solid book with good examples and very concise content. Even though it doesn't cover all the unit test frameworks that exist today, I think it covers the most important ones, but the real gem is on the in-depth analysis of what makes a unit test framework.
   
   If you are already familiar with one or more unit test frameworks, this book will give you a deeper understanding of them, and if you are still programming without writing unit tests... shame on you ;-)... buy this book and learn how simple it is to have a very good unit testing framework, no matter what language you use.



4. I had used JUnit for several years before picking up this book and I like to think that I know the tool pretty well. So why did I decide to read this book? I read this book because I thought that might help me venture a bit outside my familiar JUnit turf and into doing test-first programming with languages other than Java. The short version? A very nice introduction to all the included xUnit ports. The long version? Read on.
   
   The first four chapters are general introduction to the topic of unit testing (and to some degree, test-driven development). I was prepared to do a quick scan through them all but ended up reading chapters 3 (xUnit architecture) and 4 (writing unit tests) almost word to word-the topic was mostly familiar but the authors solid writing kind of kept me going.
   
   The first two chapters didn't pique my interest that much, perhaps because I had already seen people develop a unit test framework from scratch as an introduction to the domain.
   
   The real meat of the book that I was looking forward to was in chapters 7 through 9, the introductions to CppUnit, NUnit, PyUnit-which were mostly new to me although I had done very little fooling around with them before. I wasn't disappointed. The author managed to put together a pretty good set of tutorials for these frameworks. Obviously the same information is available online but I still prefer reading a treekiller rather than a printout of a web page.
   
   The not so bright spots in the book, in my opinion, were the chapters on unit testing a Swing GUI and on XMLUnit. Not that they were in anyway badly written. I just felt like they didn't belong. I would've personally swapped in a couple of additional xUnit ports instead (Ruby and PHP, for example).
   
   This is definitely not a book you'll carry with you from project to project. There's approximately 100 pages of substance split among half a dozen topics so none of them gets covered in detail. The rest, almost 100 pages of the book is what I'd classify as "nice to have"-I don't mind having that material in the book but I also wouldn't have minded if they'd left them out.
   
   To summarize, if you'd like to get an idea of how the unit testing frameworks on different platforms/languages differ and what they have in common, this is as good an introduction to them as any and well written in all dimensions. However, you might be disappointed if you're looking for a more long-lasting companion.



5. [reviewed by XPSD member Paul Hamill]
   
   Unit testing and test-driven development (TDD) is a skill that has been desperately lacking on many of the projects I have been involved with over the last few years. I have tried reading books by Kent Beck and others on this subject, but I have always had trouble getting to the next level of applying the skills to "real" problems. This book does not take the approach of claiming to teach you how to be a great test-driven developer, instead it is a survey of the unit test tools available for many environments today and along the way explains the fundamentals of unit testing and TDD.
   
   If you have read other books on TDD, you may find much of this book a review, however there are many explanations of how some of these tools would be used in actual projects which I found valuable. The discussion of mock objects is a good one which explained some details about how to use mock objects in practice that I didn't understand in reading other sources on the subject. In addition, several tools I was unaware of were discussed that I am interested in looking into for making TDD easier to do. For example, XMLUnit and NUnitForms are 2 tools that would seem to make testing a data-driven GUI application much more manageable.
   
   I would recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in unit testing or test driven development and wants to know what tools are available to do this. Also, this book would be invaluable if you intend to write your own xUnit framework for a language.

2 comments about Microsoft Visual C# 2008: An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming.

1. This book almost mirrors the Second Edition with the major difference manifesting itself as the addition of a Chapter 14 which explains how to access data in a C# program using LINQ within Visual Studio 2008's C# IDE. It reviews the fundamentals of relational databases and database structures, concentrating on how to create SQL queries.
   
   Not nearly as well written as Professional Software Testing with Visual Studio 2005 Team System by tom Arnold, Dominic Hopton, Andy Leonard, & Mike Frost, which had email contacts for the authors who would reply to email questions or concerns about how something was written in the book. Joyce Farrell's book has no such offering.



2. Although the blurb and even the title mention C# 2008, my impression is that the book is based on C# v1, and some of the additional features of v2 and v3 were added, but those without much depth.
   
   For example, astonishingly, the book does not even mention generics, one of the most important features of C# v2. The book should have included a chapter on the DotNet framework and CLI, another gaping omission.
   Other aspects that should have at least been mentioned include threading, partial classes, reflection, and perhaps more on the role of XML.
   
   This is unfortunate, as what is there holds much promise.

5 comments about Essential .NET, Volume I: The Common Language Runtime (Microsoft .NET Development Series).

1. In my POV this is a masterpiece!

   I read both (Don Box's book and Stutz's Book)!

   Stutz's book has an "inside-out POV" to expose the CLR features,
   Don Box's book has an "outside-in POV" to expose the CLR features.

   These two books are really cool... Any review less than 3 stars must be ignored!




2. There are like a zillion CLR books out there and overall, it's not the type of subject that normally keeps you glued to it. When I got Jeffrey Richther's Microsoft .NET Framework book, I was convinced no one was going to outdo him. Well, it's a close call, but I think they are both Superb books by excellent authors. I've purchased Don's stuff before and really liked it. This book lived up to its expectations.

   I think his ability to communicate some of the more obscure areas of the CLR in a very clear matter is what makes this book shine. This book can be understood by anyone because of the writer's gift for writing...but that's not to say it's a novice's book. Wherever you are in the .NET learning curve, there's something for you in this book.

   If you really want to learn the CLR, this is a great place to start.




3. This is not the book to dive into first if you want to really get .NET. It's actually a fairly interesting mixture of what I now consider obvious and what I never stopped to consider. If you are just starting out, I would begin with Richter's book, and then digest this one quickly afterwards. There is a significant amount of overlap, but your final understanding will be very balanced.



4. only for advanced readers. If you are a beginner, you may get lost. I had to read a couple of times to get 100%. Excellent. Some concepts are pretty difficult to understand.



5. If you havn't read this book, Buy it! I really enjoyed the style, flow, and great insight into the CLR.