Alf said
In general this book will not teach you how to build a professional web site because the book is not designed and written to teach you how to build one. That is because its chapters are too short and disarticulated, containing inconclusive information and incomplete examples. The book at first glance is appealing and it does a good job attracting potential readers. One of the multiple marketing pitches on the book cover claims that within the first 4 chapters, it will show you how to build a multi-page web application that gets database data and manages Session State. The truth is that the first 4 chapters show you how to build a form with a combo box, a text box, and two command buttons and another form with a list control and four command buttons. The book of course covers the infamous GridView control but like most books for the novice it fails to explain how to use it with lots of rows. The very important navigation controls are touched briefly in two very short chapters and again the examples are incomplete. Database access is covered on chapters 12 and 13 but the two chapters are short and not linked to offer a comprehensive example. To end my review I would say that I was deceived by the book's excellent marketing. I was compelled to return it but I did not do it because I bought it used and it is too heavy to pay shipping.
Ali said
This was a good book on asp.net but it could be much better
[...]
ieee488 said
I don't where the other reviews about this book being good for beginners is coming from.
I have solid programming experience in C and Visual Basic 6 and two semesters of Java. I have also 10 years experience with regular HTML.
I have even worked through all the exercises in Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB by Cristian Darie and Zak Ruvalcaba.
Thank goodness I had that going for me, because I would have been lost otherwise in chapters 2 and 3.
The example in Chapter 2 should have been about the Order.aspx page which is used in the remaining chapters of the book. Instead the authors go off on a tangent using as an example a different webpage which isn't ever used again later on in the book.
The first 2 or 3 chapters are critical, and I strongly believe that the authors need to SHOW how to go about creating the Design views of Orders.aspx and Cart.aspx pages that they discuss extensively in Chapter 3. They basically just throw the screen captures up thinking that the discussion in Chapter 2 would be useful and helpful. Not!
They also put up the code for both Product.vb and CartItem.vb without specifically telling the reader which should go where. A no-no for beginners.
I also agree with a previous review which said that the dual-page approach is a great waste of paper because much of the text was redundant.
I am not saying it's a bad book, but it is not as good as it could be.
It is for people who have some programming and HTML experience.
Chris Gaddy said
I thought it was a good reference book - not one you could read cover to cover. It seemed to jump around a bit more than I liked. It covered most of the need-to-know topics.
I tend to work in the source code window more than the design window, and this book tends to do the latter. It's not a bad thing, it's just different.
All in all, it's a good book, but some of the topics/concepts seem forced into the application you are creating throughout the book.
Burton Houck said
I've spent hours and hours on Amazon, on messageboards, sitting on the floor at Borders reading thru every ASP.NET book available, and it seemed none came close to this book for real-world, comprehensive teaching and practice. I have not been dissapointed, as I am almost finished and the book has helped me get up to speed after a long layoff (I last programmed Classic ASP years ago). Each example builds on the previous one to build a completed application. Awesome.
Comments