Rating: 
Summary: Not for the Beginner!
Review: Perhaps the words "Crash Course" in the title are just a bit to seductive for the newbie to ASP and VB Script. As a reader of many programming and application books over the years, (but in no way a professional programmer), I flipped through the book at the store and was pleased to find a "spoonfull" approach to the coverage of material. As a professional trainer, this was really a good sign so I bought the book.First the good news. For someone who needs a brief yet understandable introduction to HTML, SQL, and Database design, this book was up to the challenge. The explanation of the role ASP plays in Web development was also clear. So I entered the material on VBScript with high hopes. That's when things began to go downhill. First, if I had not had some knowledge of what a function or subroutine is I would have been totally lost. As it was I was stretching to understand. When I hit the section on "structured code" I really hit the wall. Here I was, coming from learning HTML and some JavaScript, being presented with the idea of generating all of my pages in ASP! (I don't dispute the advantage of this approach but this was not the place to put this material! (Just looking at all the "Write Lines" stressed me out! I then began to run into many instances where I think the author assumed I knew concepts and terms. A whole bunch of information on server variables, "includes", and error handling blew me away, so by the time I got to databases and the application piece (eOrganizer)it was all over. Nothing really hung together at all. Objects, methods, collections, includes, etc.,all fogged my brain. How do they work together? In all fairness, my rating is based on how the book met my needs as a non-professional programmer with limited experience in writing code. I was interested in learning the concepts involved in creating database driven web pages for training and educational purposes. I had a basic working knowledge of HTML,exposure to Javascript and Access, and WYSIWIG editors like FrontPage, so I wasn't completely ignorant. I believe learners like me would benefit from a more comprehensive book that adequately covers the vocabulary,concepts,proceesses involved in developing ASP. I would also suggest an approach that builds an actual application throughout the book (similar to Paul Wilton's excellent book "Beginning Javascript". I just don't think the "examples" throughout the book are robust enought to teach a concept. I am convinced that there is no way for the "beginner" be ready to do anything productive after reading a "crash course"type book. They may be fine, however, for developers who already understand quite a bit about application development. I know the siren song of titles like "learn in a weekend" or "21 hours" may be smart marketing ploys but not very effective as training tools.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the fastest way to overcome the beginner's hurdle
Review: This book will take you from zero to intermediate level in fewer pages than I've ever seen. Its objective is to be concise and easy to read and it achieves that. But expect to invest in a reference like ASP in a Nutshell if you want to go any further. (Most notable omission from the book is the File System Object.) As for whether one can absorb this book in one weekend: if you can program Web pages in another language, and you have a long attention span, that is not impossible, but most programmers will take one to two weeks. Crash courses like this are for those who are no strangers to programming. If you've never programmed before (HTML is not a programming language!), you are likely to find the pace of this book daunting.
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