Rating: 
Summary: Regrettably, it sucks.
Review: I did not read the reviews before I bought this book on a friend's recommendation. I made a big mistake. The critics are right on target. This book needs major editing before it will be an aid to anyone. And while I've marked mine up and cannot therefore recover my $30, maybe I can save you yours.
Maybe if sales of this book die as a result of the reviews these publishers will think twice before rushing out so flawed a product. They should truly be embarrassed.
Rating:
Summary: misleading and filled with errors and the site is down
Review: I just purchased Teach yourself Visual Studio .NET 2003 in 21 days from Amazon. In the introduction the book advertises itself as a book for novices: "nothing is taken for granted in any of the days"... this is clearly misleading as upon reading the book I have found that the content of the book is quite obviously targeted to experienced VB programmers who have previously built windows forms apps. As a professional teacher I am appalled at this ruse and at the instructional design of this book. I think it is misleading (read dishonest) to positionf this book as something for beginners. The lessons do not progress from simple to advanced as should be the case... but jump from beginner to advanced to intermediate in random order. For example.. object lifecycle is an intermediate concept that should be dealt with after a learner has mastered more basic ideas and yet it is covered on day three. This concept is covered at a MUCH later time in all the other tutorial materials I have purchased and seen. There are too many other examples of this haphazard approach to instruction to mention...
Instructional design flaws aside, I have found glaring errata. For example..Figure 3.14 shows a web form instead of "Multiple MDIchildren open in an MDIparent form". Most of the code samples imple don't work. Did anyone actually proofread this book before it went to press?
I have to say I was surprised to be disappointed this way. Sams usually provides much better books than this.
At any rate, I have resigned myself to simply using this book as a pointer, or introduction to things that can be done in Visual Studio. To this end I needed the code samples which were also advertised in the book.
I had hoped to gain access to the code samples and errata on the web site advertised by the author in the introduction: www.vbasp.net
This address routes to a 403 error... I cannot go to the site. From looking at other reviews I see that many others have had the same problem.
Mr. Beres purports to be a .NET evangelist... he does a disservice to the .NET community by producing such misleading and flawed material and targetting it to beginners.
Bottom line... if you are an experienced programmer you'll find the flawed code samples frustrating and unprofessional. If you are a beginner you'll wish you hadn't wasted your money.
Rating: 
Summary: A frustrated programmer
Review: I thought I would be spending 21 days learning Visual Studio .NET, instead I have been spending much of the time working around bugs in the code examples. All of the code listings are suppose to have both VB.NET and C# listings. In one case there was no C# listing and converting the VB.NET code to C# was not easy. In another case an error in both the VB.NET and C# listing resulted in a form that had bogus data displayed and this form was shown in the book! This book is not for the beginner. It assumes you have a basic knowledge of SQL Server and XML. It lacks organization. Very poorly proofread.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book to understand Visual Studio.Net
Review: I was intimidated by the .Net Visual Studio IDE, but this book really helped me to understand how to use it. I tried most of the sample code and did not have problems with it. It is a very pratical book. I'm reading it a second time since last year to more fully understand this complex topic. Good job.
Rating:
Summary: Great book to understand Visual Studio.Net
Review: I was intimidated by the .Net Visual Studio IDE, but this book really helped me to understand how to use it. I tried most of the sample code and did not have problems with it. It is a very pratical book. I'm reading it a second time since last year to more fully understand this complex topic. Good job.
Rating:
Summary: a decent book but not for a real beginner.......
Review: It did cover the basics but the way the book is organised did not work well for me. One need to know VB.Net and C# on a intermediate level and some XML and SQL knowledge to appreciate this book. It seems to foucs how to use visual studio .net for XML and database, rather than understaning VS.net inline with C# and VB.net ,more details and explanation of VS.net features with relevance to OO concepts like inheritance, encapulation, interface,etc; which i felt would be more effective for one to understand visual studio .net better and its proper usage during window form programming. Not really for someone needing a better understanding of VISUAL STUDIO .NET with relevance to C# or VB.NET !!!
Rating: 
Summary: Where's the errata?
Review: The author claims in this book's introduction that "My own web site will have the code samples, fixes, errors and omissions, additional stuff I forgot about, and other goodies for this book... As of April 9, 2003 that web site appears to have never been online. If you need the code samples, you may want to wait until that website is online before you consider buying this book. May 15, 2003 update: Jason Beres reports that the code samples are available on the Publisher's site... Apparently the related "fixes, errors, omissions, and additional stuff" were a casualty of a crashed server and are being redeveloped. The book is definitely helpful. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Not ready for prime time
Review: The layout and content of the book are excellent, but the utility to someone trying to "Teach Yourself Visual Studio" is severely hampered by excessive errors in the text and samples. Publishing this book in its current state is the equivalent of implementing an application as soon as it successfully compiles. Both are not a good idea.
Rating:
Summary: Not ready for prime time
Review: The layout and content of the book are excellent, but the utility to someone trying to "Teach Yourself Visual Studio" is severely hampered by excessive errors in the text and samples. Publishing this book in its current state is the equivalent of implementing an application as soon as it successfully compiles. Both are not a good idea.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book
Review: This book is the best book I've ever purchased. It taught me everything I needed to know to get my feet wet with VS.NET. His site is awesome (http://www.vbasp.net). All the errata is listed for you so you can quickly get fixes to technical edit issues. Not only does he cover his book but you can find tons of useful information to learn even more. I emailed Jason with questions and he replied right away. What more can you ask for? This is the best and I can't wait for his next book to come out. I've had the chance to see him speak and he is awesome!
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