Customer Reviews

Beginning ASP.Net Using C#

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is an incredible book. I would not recommend reading it if you already read the VB.NET version. The two books in my opinion were designed to be the same but let you choose which language you prefer. I know C and C++ and wanted a C# approach to ASP.NET not a VB.NET. I was delighted they gave me the option. Granted the book may spend extra time on programming in general but not to the point that I would fault the book.
I was able to get the example programs to work in the book; there is also an errata on the web site.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants a C# perspective on ASP.NET. They also cover topics on XML, CSS, Relational databases and more. This is a good book period.

The books content on ASP.Net is excellent and provides the reader with a good foundation to start developing on the .Net platform. The range and depth are good for the beginning series that Wrox(The Red Book) puts out. The book progresses so that even a novice web programmer can learn the fundamentals of ASP.NET. However, I was unable to give the book 5 stars due to some lack in details in typos. Even with a few mistakes, (authors are human), the content of the examples is excellent. If you have any problems with an example it's always good to check or post new entries to the book errata section on Wrox's own site. Also, if you are trying to learn all about C# you would be better off purchasing a book that deals only with C#. This book's title gives you exactly what it says and then some.

WROX pushed this out way to fast. They didn't even bother to run it through a spell checker, much less try to run the example code. Mistakes like, "It's spellt..." and "..you can miss it out.." just are unforgivable from a major publisher. Don't they have proofreaders?

Then, there are the technical mistakes. A lot of the examples won't run without modification. And, beginning programmers (who the book is supposedly aimed at) wouldn't be able to fix the errors. Also, many of the examples are poor attempts to convey a concept. The authors talk often about a topic, then show an example that almost shows counterpoint to what they said.

Next flaw... The book is not "Beginning ASP Using C#". It's "Beginning C# Using ASP." Crucial ASP topics are left undiscussed. Like the difference between Page_Load and Page_Init. They point out an 'anomaly' in one example concerning the two methods, but don't explain that it's not an anomaly at all! There's a very good reason behind it, and the explanation is not terribly difficult.

Finally, the books explanation of fundamental OOP concepts is so confused and misguided that it makes me wonder if the authors have more than a passing familiarity with the topic. My guess is that they are former VB/ASP programmers who haven't ever had any experience in a real OO language. They don't seem to grasp the key concepts behind Inheritance, Polymorphism and Encapsulation and the certainly don't have a clue how to explain them. Forget more subtle concepts, such as the difference between strong and weak aggregation.

As one reader pointed out, this is the only book, currently, on the market doing ASP with a pure C# emphasis. But, it just has too many flaws. Steer clear.

I purchased this book because I was looking for a leg up with creating data driven web pages with C#. (I found the C# books light on the ASP side.)

This book clearly has some value about ASP.Net using C#, but it should really have been titled Introduction to programming using ASP.Net and C#.

The author spends way too much time educating the reader about topics like how to declare a variable and that SQL means structured query language, and to retrieve data you use the SELECT command. There is actually a whole chapter on what a variable is, and how you declare them. (boring). The first 4 chapters are pretty much useless to anyone but a person learning how to program for the first time.

(note: too many Access database examples..)

That said, there are some valuable topics, and I did get something from the book. There is a pretty good review of Static Class Members and Class relationships. (for those of you moving to Object Oriented programming). Chapters 12 - 17 are really the meat of this book. Covering Database Driven web sites, Server Controls (very valuable), Component building and Debugging/Error Handling.

Bill

Being a dyed in the wool Windows developer, I've spent the last few years in blissful ignorance of ASP, however with ASP.NET I thought I should take a look.

The book teaches in a very practical manner, with enough information to create some fairly sophisticated web sites. As I had never written an ASP page in my life, the overviews of what was available and where were useful.

In short, if you've no experience of traditional ASP, or are wanting a first leg up to ASP.NET, then this book is a great start.

This book assumes you know nothing at all about C# or ASP.NET and it does take a long time to evolve. I would say it takes about 600 pages to get to a level that one would consider to be real world practices in regard to ASP.NET programming with C#. But this book is not insulting for all of that. It offers a nice slow moving tutorial on C# and manages to introduce the many varieties of data access available with ADO.NET, while also serving up a useful introduction to ASP.NET server controls and .NET coding techniques and design practices. By the end of this book you will certainly have a good grounding for further exploration. Also, absolutely every one of the examples in this book works! Despite what some of the rather limited and obviously inept reviewers below claim.

I've always been a fan of Wrox and their big red books. The way the book approaches ASP.NET (and the more difficult challenge of C#) is easy for anyone with basic HTML knowledge to understand. One warning to those who already know ASP Classic: this book is designed for people who have no idea what ASP stands for, so the beginning is slow going if you already know ASP Classic like myself. However, as I haven't tried their Professional ASP.NET book yet I don't know which one's better for the experienced. For now I'll just say that if you want to learn ASP.NET and C#, this is the book, period.

This book is good for begineers. It is very simple to understand and go through. The reason I gave it a 3, is because some important chapters on forms are completely incorrect. I had to go through websites to figures out the correct methods of implementing forms (posting).

I have not seen a book yet that addresses a large target audience that is missing for ASP.NET books -- and that is people like me who were ASP/VB/VBScript programmers moving to C#, who do know something about ASP and (separately) event-driven programming.

As such, I think it would be great if there were a book that said "Here's how you used to do things" and "Here's how you do them now" and why, and then focused on the newer concepts in ASP.NET (such as object orientation, something simulated in VB but not in ASP.)

My big problem with THIS book, is how the chapters are ordered and written. Chapter 1, how to set up ASP.NET, is indeed a good start and is something more books should contain. I tried to read this book in chapter order, and I think that was a mistake. For someone else with a similar background, I would suggest the following order:

(Basic overview of what's new)
Chapter 1 - skim
Chapter 2
Chapter 3 - skim
Chapter 14

(If not familiar with C++, or better yet, get a full-on C# book)
Chapter 6
Chapter 4

(events)
Chapter 7

(Database)
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 5

(Debugging)
Chapter 17

(Your own objects -- even classic ASP programmers know how to USE objects, so I'm not so sure some of the earlier material is terribly necessary)
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

(As needed)
Chapters 15, 16, 18, 19

As a classic ASP developer, this book provided exactly what I needed to transition to .net using c#. The c# part comes fairly easy since I have used java quite a bit. The thing I like the most is that the book teaches you to write code for .net without using the IDE. The IDE is great; however, if you don't really know what is going on behind the IDE... well - you get the picture. Overall - I like the book alot because it is teaching me what I need to know to write good production code.