Visual Basic.NET XML Web Services Developer's Guide

Rating:
Summary: Comprehensive Web Services Guide
Review: A pretty thorough book covering Web Services technologies in some detail, the title is a bit misleading (not in a bad way though), as the author covers both VB6.0 Web Services technology and VB.Net implementation of the same, (with good reason). This strategy should ease the transition for the typical VB6.0 developer to VB.NET Web services, and also facilitate better understanding of SOAP over HTTP.
This guy's writing style is pretty unique among Computer Manuals in general. He has really researched his stuff, and the book is peppered with several references to tools, articles, and online resources of which many can be put to very good use.
The one and only gripe I have is that there are no simple example applications in this reference. The author acknowledges this in the book, but explains that no B2B or B2C application is simple either, (primarily what XML Web Services are for).
I can see that this approach will appeal to some and not to others, but on the whole I have to admit that his web-service examples are more complete and real-worldy than the typical "weather samples" and "add two numbers" implementations which are promoted in many circles as "Web Service examples". The author is a regular columnist for many of the Fawcette group publications such as Visual Studio magazine and I'd advice any purchaser of this book to keep in touch with Roger's writing on XML Web Services in these magazines as there are regular updates on some of the information presented in this book, which Roger continues to write about.