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Summary: Author's Comments
Review: As a co-author on this book, I feel compelled to respond to Andres' review. I've never done this before, but this review is so slanderous as to cause both Paul and me great distress.Every book has typographical errors--that's the way the business is. If we're alerted to them, we're That's the great part about not having a CD--the samples can be updated "on the fly". As opposed to Andres' comments, the samples DO work, if installed correctly. Getting ASP.NET up and running prior to installing the book samples is crucial. Many, many readers have used the samples without incident, and have told us so. In addition, either Andres contacted other authors, or sent email to the wrong addresses--both Paul and I respond to each and every email we get--usually, within minutes, if not seconds. Implying that we ignored his email is, to us, quite painful. One might accuse us of many things, but not answering email is NOT one of them. We welcome user comments and questions, and have corresponded with many readers of the book. Our email addresses are prominently displayed within the book itself, and in many other places online. Please, if you're one of the very small minority who is having trouble installing or running the sample applications, let us know. With ASP.NET and Visual Studio .NET set up correctly, the samples install and run without a hitch. Obviously, this is not the correct forum for discussions involving these reviews, but being incorrectly accused of ignoring a reader's email is inexcusable.
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Summary: A "must-have" book
Review: Having written in 3 books and published hundreds of times, i never thought i'd write one of these amazon.com reviewer things. but, having read paul sheriff and ken getz's book i can tell you that this is a must for beginners and savvy .net developers alike. there are 300+ books published on .net. i bet i have 30 of them. but, this book is top 5. it is really well layed out and covers a main theme (ie: application) and takes it through a lifecycle. it has just enough referency stuff too.
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Summary: A lifesaver!
Review: I already have half a dozen books on ASP.Net, and in IMHO this is the one I usually use most of the time. Granted, is not a reference type ala Francesco Ballena's VB.NET from MS Press, but it gives a head start. Of course, if you need more detail, then it's up to the VS.NET documentation. The examples are clear, concise and to the point. No MS propaganda here...just how-to-do-it explanations all the way. There are some typos here and there, but what book doesn't have it? The chapters on the Data Grid and Crystal Reports alone are worth the price of the book. And the simple explanations on how to do a User control are just marvelous. I also liked the Tips and Warnings snippets on every chapter. More that one of those saved me hours of head scratching! Of course this book will NOT teach you how program in ASP.Net, but, as the title indicates, will provide a jumpstart to begin with. In conjunction with David Scheppa's ADO.NET book and Programming Visual Basic.NET (and of course the VS.NET documentation) they will provide just about anything you need to create great ASP.NET apps. Kuddos to Paul and Ken! Highly recommended.
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Summary: One of the best ASP.NET books!
Review: I don't really know what was on the mind of the first reviewer, but this book is just great and better than the other book he mentioned. Believe me, I have both books, and as a computer science student I know what I'm saying. This book will help you on developing real world applications. It will not waste your time giving you examples of codes, that you will never need or implement in your life. Even though, the book says 'developers jumpstart' you don't need to be experience on with .NET. The book is great for starters with the .NET Framework, as long as the starter is serious and disciplined to learn it. You will just need experience on any object-oriented language. If you know VB it will be great. This book is a most buy!
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Summary: Finally, a step by step intro for ASP/VB programmers
Review: I have about 1 dozen books on .NET, generally focused around ASP.NET and VB.NET, but also with Troelsen's C# and Wahlin's XML books. Almost all of the books are written from a .NET framework perspective with no VS.NET IDE. That's fine, but since we want to work in the VS.NET IDE AND come up to speed in .NET then we need something else. Of the books that do post-date the release of the IDE, this one is the best I've found that you can simply follow sequentially, load the samples, make the edits from the books and see it all work. This is what I expected from PDSA since they are notable instructors in the .NET world, and this is what I got (finally).
I'm about half-way thru the book thus far. I expect to complete it in a week. There are some minor editting issues, and mis-matches between text and sample code but nothing earth-shattering. The sample code directories take a bit of getting used to but they do work as advertised. Bottom line: Buy the book, spend a week or 2 or 3, going thru it and Voila, you will finally have some logical, hands on mentoring for building apps in .NET. Then move on to some other books that have more in depth discussions, examples etc.
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Summary: The best ASP.NET book I found for a VB'er
Review: I looked at well over a dozen ASP.NET books at the bookstore before buying this one. Contrary to the other reviewers, I had not heard of Getz or Sheriff before this book. I'm a longtime developer, but have not created a full blown website yet. I was looking for a book 1. organized in a step by step, read & type format, 2. with examples in VB, and 3. that leads to the creation of a full website. This book fit my objective the best, and I'm happy to say that after reading it cover to cover it accomplished those objectives.
The website you create in this book is based on the Northwind traders database many of us are already familiar with. It's not the prettiest or most functional site you've ever seen, but it does cover the core components very well, and does provide the A-Z web development experience I was looking for. Some sections are redundant with general VB books (error handling, stored procedures, IDE stuff), but others that address ADO.NET, State management, web security, deployment, & XML web services are web development specific & I found them very educational.
There are errors in the text, but certainly below average for a 600 page technical book. I counted 11, and only 1 was major or really frustrating.
I envy the people with the time to tackle this book in a week or two... it took me nearly 3 months of on & off effort. Rarely did I do more than one chapter (30 min - 2 hours) in a day, and there are 31 chapters. Fortunately most chapters are stand-alone chapters that work well in my undedicated approach.
The coding standards appendix in the back is also helpful & well thought out.
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Summary: Book is excellent, the samples DO run
Review: I think that Getz and Sheriff's reputations in the VB community are peerless. Their countless magazine articles and numerous books have helped me personally over the past decade, and their names are ones I look for and know I can count on. This includes ASP.NET Developer's Jumpstart. I admit that getting the environment to sit up and beg is tricky, but I'm pretty sure I read in the Introduction that the basics wouldn't be covered. There are many texts and KBs to help with that. If you have ASP.NET installed correctly, the samples run as described. This text was a big help to me, especially with its treatment of VB.NET in ASP.NET. The ADO.NET treatment was equally valuable. I couldn't recommend this book more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Book is excellent, the samples DO run
Review: I think that Getz and Sheriff's reputations in the VB community are peerless. Their countless magazine articles and numerous books have helped me personally over the past decade, and their names are ones I look for and know I can count on. This includes ASP.NET Developer's Jumpstart. I admit that getting the environment to sit up and beg is tricky, but I'm pretty sure I read in the Introduction that the basics wouldn't be covered. There are many texts and KBs to help with that. If you have ASP.NET installed correctly, the samples run as described. This text was a big help to me, especially with its treatment of VB.NET in ASP.NET. The ADO.NET treatment was equally valuable. I couldn't recommend this book more highly.
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Summary: Jumpstart not nearly as good as the SAMS book
Review: I was allotted money by my boss to get books to learn ASP to expand our websites capacity. I got the SAMS Active Server Pages 3.0 and this book based on reviews I'd read. I ALMOST NEVER USED THE JUMPSTART BOOK! Any time I flipped through for an answer to a problem, I found the book wasn't really laid out to help me. I was greatly disappointed. I threw this book away and learned all I know from the SAMS book.
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Summary: Buy this book ASAP
Review: I've been reading this book for about a week now, and after reading many other books on .NET, I have to say this is the best layed out description of the .NET Framework as it applies to web technology that I've seen so far. The way the base classes and namespaces are explained is easy to understand even for a beginner. I've had to try to explain the use of namespaces and base classes before with much trouble, yet this book makes it simple. But it is not just about simplicity but about depth, and this book covers just about everything you need to create well designed, good performing applications.
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