ASP.NET v. 2.0-The Beta Version (Microsoft Net Development Series)

Rating:
Summary: This book isToo OverRated imho!
Review: 1. Yes, this book covers the Asp.Net 2.0 main features

2. Examples are NOT well written [in general] ... some of then actually fails

3. I'm a Csharp programmer so having to convert VB.net code [doesn't matter how simple it may be] is time consuming.

4. This book is just an update of: A First Look at ASP.NET V. 2.0 by the same authors

5. Since we're all 'learning' new aspects of v2.0, things should be very clear and simple, eg: KISS!!!

6. What's really strange in Amazon reviews is that sometimes books with 5 stars rating are actually very bad ones, and books with a 1 or 2 stars rating are incredibly good ones!

7. Maybe I/We should give a try on Bill Evjen's book: ASP.NET 2.0 Beta Preview - Bill Evjen, I have his book on WebServices which is extremely well written. [...]

8. Before I bought this book I knew all of that but I decided to give a try on another author [Alex Homer], but I'm a bit disappointed

Well, that's my 2cents!!!

Rating:
Summary: Solid walkthrough of ASP.NET 2.0
Review: I appreciate the emphasis on the front end in this book. The book does not cover back-end features beyond the data binding. It walks through the front end, talking about the different control types in the first part of the book, and the page logic in the last half of the book. The text is very readable, but often it is overwhelmed by the graphics and code. I also wish the book spent some appendices on a reference portion that could be used after I was finished with the walkthrough style introduction.

This book is for professionals. It's not a step by step style walkthrough. It's apparent that the authors intended the reader to have some reasonably solid ASP.NET chops already.

I'm happy to see the front end of ASP.NET sites getting the respect of a whole book on the topic. It certainly deserves it.

Rating:
Summary: Solid reference book
Review: Very clear, systematic, detailed and illustrative style, examples make the book by Alex Homer a valuable resource for any .NET developer. Book examples can be either run or downloaded from http://www.daveandal.net/books/7278/. I liked the fact that the reader is given an opportunity to download and try to compile and run the examples or simply watch their execution in a web browser pointed to the above mentioned URL. That makes the material presented in the book more illustrative. For example, I started with data binding examples, sorting, filtering and XMLDataSource and Gridview. Security examples actually allow the reader to compare the "old" and "new" login controls, create users. Personalization and theme selection are presented, control enhancements, caching and configuration tool. These online examples definitely give a book an extra value. I tested examples using IE 6.0 and Netscape 7.1 browsers. I also downloaded the examples source code and tried to compile and run them after installing a .NET SDK 2.0 and Visual Web Developer Express 2005. Overall this is a solid reference book with broad and detailed coverage of ASP.NET v. 2.0.