Customer Reviews

Effective Visual Studio .NET

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Not what I was looking for. This book should be called "Dabbling with the programs that come with Visual Studio. Net". I was looking for a book that really explained what is going on with Visual Studio from how to use it to what is really happening behind the scenes. This books DOES NOT do this. It is more of a primer for VB.NET, ASP.NET, XML and Crystal Reports...stuff that is already available in most books on each respective topic.

WHAT I LIKED
Debugging using VS.NET
Deployment using VS.NET

NOT INCLUDED IN THIS BOOK
-The VS.NET environment
-What is happening when you create a solution?
-How solutions and projects relate to each other
-Files associated with projects vs. files associated with solutions
-How to configure the environment
-How to get help and create favorites of it, including information on the namespace references
-How to move, rename and delete projects, including web projects
-Tips on project layout, directory locations, and web project file management
-How to use common custom libraries for all your projects
-Use of multiple languages working together
-What are the files that are created when creating a project and what are they for
-The VS.NET Compiler, how it works, creating separate executables for each module.
-What happens at the code level when adding a reference, etc.

Basically, I wanted a book to explain the VS.NET environment and how it works, not a bunch of other information I can find in any other book and the subject. HELLO!

All in all I consider this a useless book. Just buy a book on the specific VS.NET area of interest (C#, ASP.NET, VB.NET) and it will cover all that is in this book on that topic.

Earl

Earlt777@hotmail.com

I bought this because of the other good reviews, but after reading about half the book, I've come to the conclusion that unless you've never used VS.NET, don't bother getting this book.

It spends far too much covering topics that could be figure out in a matter of minutes simply by playing around with the interface, and spends nearly no time covering advanced topics like large scale project collaboration.

In other words, if you're looking for a book that will give you the cool hints and tricks that will really make you a productive VS.NET developer, look elsewhere.

Visual Studio .NET is the best way to program in .NET. This book is superb at showing you how to set up Visual Studio and begin programming in it. Really great book. All my programmers will start learning .NET by using this book and the OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step By Step book. If you are NOT going to program in C# (which you SHOULD do) and instead are programming in VB.NET, then think twice about Effective Visual Studio .NET since it is aimed at C#.

This is my second review on this book but this time I am looking at it form the prospective a brand new programmer wanting to get their feet wet with the overall VS.NET languages and tools.

This book is great for the beginner programmer. It is very clearly written and covers enough detail to get you started. From here, you could branch out into the respective languages and have some idea of the overall context.

If someone has had some programming background with Microsoft languages, you still might just want to start with a book on the language of choice...but for the beginner...this is a good choice.

Just don't expect an in-depth VS IDE book!

Earl

I have been using VS .NET since the beta release. This book has given me an insight into the product that I have been unable to get reading the Microsoft documentation. The book is laid out in a very logical manor and easy to use as a reference. This is MUST have for any developer that is moving to the .NET platform.

This intro to the new features of the IDE is a good fit as a guide to the features of VS.NET for the experienced Visual Studio developer. I give it a 5 with the preceding caveats.
The book is just what I needed--a tour of the IDE highlighting the new features. It doesn't let any language considerations get in the way of showing how to use the IDEs features, and in fact tells the reader to go away if they are looking for a book on VB.NET or C#. Note here that all their sample code is written in C# though.
Their treatment of each topic is in-depth enough to step you into the use of the particular feature at hand, yet concise enough to keep you on track and get you finished working through their example quickly. I found them illustrative and easy to implement.
I give it overall a 5 because I feel that all the great features of this book tip the scale, and because I value ease of reading and quality of organization over quality of index and error free examples. -- Reviewed by Robi P.

I have been a professional software developer for several years. During this time I have amassed quite a collection of books in an attempt to learn the in's and out's of various technologies. This book delivers what many lack, clear and concise communication of the relevant concepts. "Effective Visual Studio .NET" is well organized and can be read strait through or used as a reference. If you are interested in developing on the .NET platform this book should be your first purchase!

I was really disappointed with this book, as it covers much of what you probably would get out of any C#, ASP.NET or VB.NET book. What it lacks (given the insane number of features in Visual Studio) is some in depth looks at the features, settings and goodies included in the product. I know I'm not getting the most out of VS, and this book is partially to blame.

This book is a great choice for a professional developer who's been using VS6, and wants to get a feel for what .NET will help them do. A good mix of theory and detail; this isn't a reference manual, but neither will you get bored reading pages of what .NET can do without anything to back it up. Highly recommended if you are an enterprise-level VS6 developer investigating .NET's capabilities.

I first got this right when it came out--when there wasn't much information on Visual Studio. At the time, I found it helpful. However, I feel that the title should be "Introduction to VS.NET". If you are looking for an introduction to VS.NET this is a good book to get. If you are looking for something akin to the WROX "Professional" series I would look else where.