Rating: 
Summary: Made me see .NET clearly
Review: I've bought several .NET programming books since the first WROX edition of the WROX PROFESSIONAL ASP.NET book came out,
so I wasn't sure I needed a book that was a survey (FCL, Winforms, web forms, web controls, ADO.NET, multithreading, Remoting, Security, XML Web Services, et al.), but I took a leap based on the author's previous books. Mr. Prosise has crafted such an amazing book that I now feel like I see the big picture of programming .NET for the first time. This book covers a lot of ground in 800 pages, and while there are things that he could have covered more deeply, in the end I didn't care a lick because he tied all pieces together perfectly so that it wasn't a mess anymore--a MAJOR achievement. I wish more computer book authors wrote half so beautifully. A great book!!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Writing
Review: In short - a really readable converage of .NET ; emphasizes asp and c#. I'd also recommend Francesco Balena's Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Accurate, but Too Broad
Review: Jeff Prosise has been around the Microsoft world for a long time. If you've been around awhile, you might recognize him as the author of Programming Windows with MFC or from several of his other books. This book, as expected, is very well-written and a technically accurate book. Unfortunately, it only musters a rating of three stars because it tries to cover too much. If you want a broad overview of .NET, then this is an excellent book for you. My problem with the book is that its first three chapters on .NET fundamentals don't cover the basics as deeply as I think developers should know them. The single chapter on Windows Forms that follows next is, frankly, completely useless. The next seven chapters (Part 2 of the book) do a very decent job of covering ASP.NET. If anything, this is a badly named book. It should be called Programming Microsoft ASP.NET. Part 2 is followed by a single chapter on ADO.NET. I recommend Mike Gunderloy's book for ADO.NET. Next are single chapters on XML, multithreading, and remoting. All in all, it's a good overview and a decent ASP.NET book (you'll still need another book or two on the topic).
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful (for me, anyway)
Review: On the book: This book was great. It starts out with an overview of some of the most important classes in the .NET framework. Then it provides an excelent introduction to ASP.NET. At the end, it goes into some other cool stuff and how it is implemented in .NET (ADO.NET, XML, remoting, and multithreding).
On the author: Jeff Prosise is an excellent writer. He provides background on many things. For instance, in the section on ASP.NET, he starts out by giving information on different aspects of the internet, such as the HTTP protocol and different dynamic web page tecnologies, leading up to ASP and ASP.NET.
Disclaimers: If you are a computer, programming, C# or even .NET newbie, this book isn't for you. You should get some background on these subjects before you read this book. For people who are new to .NET, I would reccommend Microsoft's "Introduction to .NET" (or whatever it's called).\
More disclamers: This book has a LOT to do with ASP.NET. In fact, it is over 1/3 of the book. One thing to remember is that the .NET initiative is about the internet ("Anywhere, on any device," as Bill so put it). If you couldn't care less about the internet, you might be spending a lot of money for a lot of stuff you don't need.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference book for serious programmers
Review: Prosise tells us in the introduction, "Microsoft .NET is many things, but first and foremost it's a better way to write software in an Internet-centric world". No single volume could begin to be a comprehensive reference on .NET due to the shear number of classes that make up its framework. Jeff does deliver on his promise of teaching us how the pieces work together to allow us to write powerful, sophisticated applications. Overall, I consider this book to be a valuable reference, one that is worthy of the designation of, "Core Reference", by Microsoft Press.This book is not a tutorial; it is part of the Microsoft Core Reference series and goes into too much detail for the beginner. It is however, an excellent reference book for serious programmers, and provides a look at the breadth and depth of the .NET Framework. Author Jeff Prosise divided the book into three parts, Part 1 covers the Essential Concepts, Part 2 covers ASP.NET, and Part 3 covers what he calls "The Cutting Edge". The Essential Concepts span the first four chapters. In the first chapter he introduces the reader to .NET and covers such topics as the Common Language Runtime (CLR), the Framework Class Library (FCL), the Common Intermediate Language (CIL), and the Managed Code languages with special attention given to C#. Jeff also talks about the ILDASM utility tool that permits us to examine the manifest of an Assembly, as well as to disassemble the CIL into assembly language instructions. In the second chapter he discusses classes, structs, interfaces, enumerations, and delegates. He introduces the concept of value types and reference types, and the use of boxing and unboxing to convert between them. He covers fundamental .NET software development concepts such as multi-file assemblies, garbage collection, the global assembly cache and exception handling. In chapter 3 Prosise provides an overview of the Framework Class Library with emphasis on the organization of the members in the library. He examines a selected few of the objects therein to give the reader a flavor for the FCL. In chapter 4 he gets into the rich support provided by the FCL for developing Windows applications. He also introduces Visual Studio.NET. Part 2 focuses on ASP.NET, and spans seven chapters. The emphasis on ASP.NET is indicative of the purpose of the whole .NET environment. Jeff introduces Web Forms in chapter 5, and he explores Web Form Controls in chapter 6. He explains many of these controls in depth, and uses examples to illustrate their operation. In the next two chapters he reveals the intricacies of User Controls and Custom Controls. In chapter 9 he goes into detail about the structure of ASP.NET applications and in chapter 10 he discusses ASP.NET security. Jeff completes this section with an introduction to Web Services. He stresses the importance of Web Services in the future of Information Technology and provides examples of Web Services. Jeff supports the concepts introduced in this section with both code snippets and working examples written in C#. Part 3 completes the book with four chapters on ADO.NET, XML, Multithreading, and Remoting. I am not sure why Prosise chose to name this section, "The Cutting Edge". It seems to me that all of .NET is the cutting edge, but I suppose "Miscellaneous" is not a very good name either. ADO.NET was introduced in the examples in the previous section, but in chapter 12 Jeff goes into detail about the classes provided in the FCL to facilitate working with databases. He leads into the next chapter by mentioning that one of ADO.NET's most touted features is its seamless support for XML. In chapter 13, Jeff provides an overview of XML, its importance in the conduct of Web commerce, and the powerful support for XML provided by the Framework Class Library. Chapter 14 changes the subject to Multithreading by discussing the advantages as well as the pitfalls. Once again he describes how the FCL comes to the rescue with classes that shield the programmer from those pitfalls. Jeff completes the book by changing the subject once again, this time to Remoting. Here he provides an example, the NetDraw application to illustrate the power of Remoting. He predicts the use of Remoting along with Windows Forms will return to the rich client interface we enjoyed before so many user interfaces became browser based. Jeff concludes by warning us that Microsoft .NET is a whole new ball game. He also points out that although it is revolutionary and provides powerful tools today, .NET is not standing still and we can expect more features to be added to it in the future. --Reviewed by Jack D.
Rating:
Summary: wide breadth of material & plenty of practical code examples
Review: The book is divided into 3 sections: 1. Essential Concepts: covers .NET overview, compiler use, C# syntax, types, exception handling, FCL, Windows forms 2. ASP.NET: covers ASP.NET forms, controls, web apps., web services, security 3. The Cutting Edge: covers ADO.NET, XML, multithreading, remoting The book is an excellent resource. I used one of the examples to code up a proof of concept web app. in very short order. I had no problem compiling and running any of the other examples. The writing style is fresh, and easy to read. The book comes with soft copy in HTML Help format that is very handy to read at your workstation. There is no skimping on technical details, but the material is covered in a way that is easy to understand. -- Reviewed by Bill M.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing !!
Review: The book is really amazing, Jeff's capability to simplify complex issues is unpresedented, i was hating and rejecting web programming till i read this book, Im a VB.NET developer, that didn't prevent me from geting all the benifits from c# samples in the book, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Rating:
Summary: Should have been called Programming Microsoft ASP.NET
Review: The primary focus of the book (500+ pages) is on using .NET with ASP. Since I bought the book figuring that the book would be more focused on the FCL (Framework Class Library), the majority of the book is not useful to me. The 180 pages dedicated to using the FCL and CRL (Common Runtime Library) with C# were very good, but could have used some additional material. Specifically, sample programs using more than just the edit, list, and button controls would have been good. In addition, detailed samples using streams would have also been good. The final 100+ pages is a whirlwind tour of other aspects of .NET including ADO.NET (databases), threading, and remoting. The chapters do not have as much depth as the other chapters and give you just enough information to be dangerous. Again, additional depth would have been good. If you want to use .NET from ASP with a little C#, this is THE book for you. If you want to use .NET from C#, this probably isn't the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: Fair to Good, but panders to MS
Review: This book is informative and easy to follow. Jeff Prosise is a proven writer for windows technologies. However, my biggest complaint is his constant pandering to Microsoft. I have lost track of how many times he writes how Microsoft revolutionized such and such industry, with such and such product. I am left with the distinct feeling that any short of shortcomings in the .net framework will be glossed over. It is unfortunate that I run into this so often when using Microsoft press publications.
Rating:
Summary: Fair to Good, but panders to MS
Review: This book is informative and easy to follow. Jeff Prosise is a proven writer for windows technologies. However, my biggest complaint is his constant pandering to Microsoft. I have lost track of how many times he writes how Microsoft revolutionized such and such industry, with such and such product. I am left with the distinct feeling that any short of shortcomings in the .net framework will be glossed over. It is unfortunate that I run into this so often when using Microsoft press publications.
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