Distributed .NET Programming in C# [Paperback]

Tom Barnaby (Author)

Book Description

Series: .Net Developer | Publication Date: May 29, 2002

With the release of .NET, Microsoft has once again altered the distributed programming landscape. Almost everything has changed, from data access to remote object calls to the deployment of software components. And, of course, .NET introduces a new technology in XML Web services that may revolutionize Web development. Distributed .NET Programming in C# describes how to use these new .NET technologies to build fast, scalable, and robust distributed applications. Along the way, it answers common questions, such as, How do I use the .NET Remoting Framework? What role does COM+ play in the .NET universe? How can I interoperate with COM components? What¿s the difference between .NET Remoting and Web services? How will these changes affect the architecture and design of a distributed application? Tom Barnaby assumes the reader is already familiar with the fundamentals of .NET. However, a .NET overview is provided to concisely explain several of the core .NET technologies that are essential for distributed programming, including building, versioning, and deploying assemblies; garbage collection; serialization; and attribute-based programming. Author Bio: Tom Barnaby is an instructor and software architect at Intertech-Inc., a company dedicated to teaching top programmers how to develop enterprise-level software. As an instructor, he is in constant contact with developers from around the world and knows the problems they must solve and the questions they have. As a software architect, he advises companies on the design and implementation of their IT systems. Before becoming a teacher, Tom developed a variety of applications ranging from a proprietary 4GL/Database system on UNIX to a fully distributed ERP application on Windows. In his spare time, Tom enjoys playing with his son Max, watching movies, and playing power chords on his electric guitar with the amp volume turned to 11.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tom Barnaby is a Microsoft consultant, C# "Most Valuable Professional," national speaker, and author of several .NET books including Distributed .NET Programming in C#, and Applied .NET Attributes. In his spare time, Tom enjoys playing with his two sons, watching movies in the family home theater room, and banging out power chords on his electric guitar with the volume turned to 11.

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (May 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590590392
• ISBN-13: 978-1590590393
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,026,236 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review: Distributed .NET Programming in C#, October 30, 2002

By 

Paul Wilson (Atlanta, GA (USA)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distributed .NET Programming in C# (Paperback)

Audience:

This book, Distributed .NET Programming in C#, is intended for experienced Microsoft developers and architects.
It expects the reader to be familiar with the basics of C#, the .NET framework, and object-oriented practices.
It also clearly assumes the reader is at least somewhat experienced with both COM and distributed programming.
If you have this background and want to learn about distributed programming in .NET, then this book is for you.

Pros:

This books covers nearly every topic in distributed .NET programming in enough detail to get you going yourself.
While this book is not solely about .NET remoting, it has three very thorough chapters that are sufficient for me.
If you are not familiar with the concept of .NET remoting, it is the centerpiece of the distributed .NET model.
It basically is the replacement for DCOM, and thus you can see that it is essential for the distributed developer.
I had read some about remoting to be familiar with the basic concepts before reading this book, but that was all;
now I could easily go out and implement .NET remoting, with this book being a great supporting reference to keep.

Of course, if you are an experienced Microsoft developer, then you also want to know about COM+ and MSMQ in .NET.
This is actually why I picked this book to read, since it covers these essential topics as well as .NET remoting.
There is one chapter on Component (or COM+) Services in .NET, and another one on Message Queuing (MSMQ) in .NET.
Both of these assume the reader is already familiar with the concepts, and gets right into their .NET details.
This included thorough discussions of Just-In-Time (JIT) activation, object pooling, and transactional support.
There were also chapters on COM Interop and Web Services, as well as an advanced "overview" of some .NET topics.

Cons:

While this book is a very good book on distributed .NET programming, there are also some things I did not like.
First, you have too read (or skip) the first 90 pages to even get to .NET remoting, and then just an introduction.
That said, I did learn several things from the author's advanced discussion of assembly binding and other topics,
but I can't help believing that this was too much -- it could have been mixed in later or put into an appendix.
Next, the chapter on Web Services, while clearly being part of distributed programming, just seemed out of place.
It was too short and too shallow -- it could have either been dropped completely or more should have been added.

Although the book was thorough with .NET remoting and some other COM+ topics, there were also some items missing.
I would have liked to have seen a short section or chapter on COM+ Events, also called Loosely Coupled Events.
To be fair, this topic is mostly left out of COM+ books too, but it is actually a very important part of COM+.
Next, as the author himself notes, there were no "real world" examples, only short code snippets as examples.
There was also little, if any, discussion of the whys and why nots of distributed programming, only the hows.
Both of these items may not matter to many readers, especially those already experienced, but they were missing.

Notes:

I have one other issue with this book that didn't really belong anywhere else -- its just one of my complaints.
There is a long (74 pages) appendix in this book called "Data Access with ADO.NET" that just doesn't belong.
It is actually a complete chapter out of another book, C# and the .NET Platform, written by Andrew Troelsen.
I have heard Andrew speak before, and I do respect his work, but it is here only because he is a colleague of
this book's author, Tom Barnaby, since it clearly isn't relevant to this book, nor the audience of this book.
I appreciate cross-marketing, doing it myself whenever possible, but this just seems to be an excessive case.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good in COM/COM+ interop but not in .NET remoting, August 4, 2002

By 

Chung Yeung Choi (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distributed .NET Programming in C# (Paperback)

Basically, this book can be divided into 2 sections. One is for .NET remoting and the other for COM/COM+ interop.

For the .NET remoteing part, this book is not really good though.

For example, it does not explain the metadata distribution in good detail and always show you the examples need to copy the
server side assembly to client side in order to compile & run it! It really voliates the rule of ditributed networking. If you would like to learn more about .NET remoting, I recommend you another book also from Apress: Advanced .NET Remoting ISBN: 1590590252
instead of this book.

For the COM/COM+ interop part, this book does a excellent job.
First, it gives you a big picture how .NET and COM/COM+ communicate and explain how to let your .NET talk to COM/COM+ or
vice versa in good detail. I especially like the chapter for Componet Services (COM+), it shows me how .NET uses transactional service, MSMQ, etc...

In conclusion, if you like to learn COM/COM+ interop for .NET, go for this book. If you like to learn .NET remoting, go for
Advanced .NET Remoting ISBN: 1590590252
I give 4 stars to this book is because I learned quite a lot of stuff from its COM/COM+ interop chapters.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book on this aspect of the .NET Framework, September 25, 2002

By 

Steve Sharrock (Pleasanton, California United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Distributed .NET Programming in C# (Paperback)

I've read that "Remoting is the unsung hero of .NET". This is a great book that introduces an aspect of the .NET Framework that is not yet widely understood. While this is not an in-depth reference on Remoting, neither is it a book for beginners. In the words of the author, this is a book "that leads the reader through a logical progression of topics while clarifying complex concepts."

The first thing I liked about the book is that the obligatory introduction to the .NET Framework (and C#) really contained some valuable information--not just an overview for beginners. In my opinion, the introductory sections alone are worth the read.

While the book is filled with sample code, the author stays with a simple example consistently throughout the book. There is no attempt to show real-world examples; but rather a simple example in real-world situations. An in-depth study of real-world remoting scenarios.

This book truly provided me with a great head start on understanding and using .NET Remoting concepts.

Many thanks to Tom Barnaby for a great book.