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Message from Dean - May 8th 2007
I am currently testing out a new version of the APF Bridge Component - If you notice any errors within this demo store please drop me a line.
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I found this book a good reference, however, there was a .NET class called Repeater that I was surprized wasn't mentioned in the book. Hmmm I guess it's not a complete reference. I wonder what else is missing. Thank goodness for the internet.
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This book is a good all-around book on ASP.NET. This means that the book covers a lot of topics to get you up to speed on ASP.NET, rather than focusing on specific areas like other publishers do. That's what makes this book pretty versatile, as it covers a lot of ground and exposes its readers to some new arenas they may never have developed in before (like IIS 7).
It's also written by some talented writers, so that makes for an easier read as well.
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Simply put, this is the best tech book I've read on a topic in quite a while. The authors do a great job of covering almost all important topics of asp.net. For any given topic, the writing is easily readable, thurough, filled with examples, and a mimimum of full. If you want to learn about asp.net 3.5, start here.
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Bill, Scott, and Devin really did a great job pulling together key topics in ASP.NET 3.5.
This book is huge... weighting in at 1,584 pages not counting the online resources and index.
It basically covers everything any developer would want to brush up on or learn completely from scratch. I was only looking to learn about caching for scaling issues( and it was a great chapter 23), but I learned about so much more. I recently got a new job as a Lead ASP.NET developer and the site I have to fix is a poorly written asp.net 2.0 site with lots of table adapter code, custom role management based on a nasty switch statement, custom logging based on a file and poor threading synchronization, etc. It's bad... not to mention all the ASMX stuff. :-(
Anyway, every time I flipped to a new section of the book it had a solution to the problem I was facing with the nasty 2.0 site. For instance, I can use LINQ to SQL to get rid of the table adapter code, role based management is obvious and should have been leveraged from the beginning, custom logging is cool because now I can leverage System.Web.Management.EventLogWebEventProvider which handles writing to the eventlog and database at the same time... for free! Not to mention System.Web.Management.SimpleMailWebEventProvider which handles emailing me about any warnings or errors. A few more chapters in the book that I really like are IIS7, Membership and Role Management (might as well be under the hood), and of course... LINQ.
LINQ to Objects, LINQ to XML, and LINQ to SQL. The book even ends with a chapter on Silverlight. Awesome stuff!
Theirs so much in this book that I couldn't possibly due it justice by listing it all here. All I can say is go pick it up if you're a Dev... or at least thumb through it the next time your in the book store. :-)
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I am about a third into this and have found the book to be somewhat disappointing relatively to other Wrox books. My areas of concern include the following:
- Lots of editing errors, spelling errors, and references to figures that are not what the descriptions suggest.
- Wrox book strengths are in their good examples. Most of the examples in this book are so trivial as to not demonstrate anything except perhaps syntax.
- Some topics are not explained beyond the listing of the features and settings. Could use more explanation of many of these features and settings, and exactly what they effect. (In fairness, its a big subject, and I am only 500 pages in so some topics may be explained in more depth in subsequent chapters.)
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