Introducing Microsoft .Net, Second Edition (Pro-Developer) [Paperback]

David S. Platt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pro-Developer | Publication Date: June 15, 2002

What problems does Microsoft .NET solve? What architectural approaches does it take to solve them? How do you start using .NET -- and how do you profit from it? Get the answers to these questions and more in this entertaining, no-nonsense .NET walkthrough. The author, a well-known computer-science instructor at Harvard, covers a single topic from the top down so readers can choose how deep they want to go. Thoroughly updated and featuring three new chapters, this is the first book to read about the innovative .NET development platform.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd ed. edition (June 15, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735615713
• ISBN-13: 978-0735615717
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #602,973 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #93 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > .NET

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good introductory information, May 23, 2001

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft .Net (Encyclopedia of Visual Medicine) (Paperback)

As a programmer, I get a lot of books, esp. when looking at new technologies, like .NET. From my viewpoint, right on the bleeding edge, this book is a bit too simplistic. If you have been working with .NET since the PDC beta, this is probably not the book for you either.

Now, before you step away, let's put this in context. Mr. Platt has not written a book for those of us who have been on the bleeding edge of this technology for the past year (well, almost). This book, instead, is written to give a good overview of .NET for those who are just starting out.

Who is this book for? This book is aimed for anyone who wants a 20,000 foot view of the .NET Framework. While there are code samples, this is not designed to be a tutorial as much as an overview.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a nice overview. As much of the information in the book is overview, most of this one, unlike the MSDN books recently released, will still be applicable in a few weeks. Looking at the MSPress site lately, even Microsoft is embarassed at the MSDN books, as even an ISBN number will not pull up the books.

Unfortunately, even some of the info in this book may change before the gold release of .NET. One good sign, is the fact that the author points out which sections are likely to change. This type of honesty is unusual in the seemingly cutthroat business of computer book publishing.

Summary: This book is definitely a beginner's book. If you are already developing .NET applications (playing with .NET), you will not find a great deal of new information. If you are looking for a developer's book, pass on as well. If you would like to know more about what .NET is, however, this is a good choice.

My Rating: I feel this book is a 4 in context with the audience it is aimed for. For developers, I would subtract a star. For those already working in .NET, I would take off two. For those who have really worked through .NET, I would say 1 star is about all of the value you will get out of it.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars When Platt met .NET..., July 12, 2001

By 

Oleg Mustiazza (Hayward, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft .Net (Encyclopedia of Visual Medicine) (Paperback)

For those of you who are still afraid to admit that .NET is here to stay - fear no more - David Platt's "Introducing Microsoft .NET" can help you pick up with Microsoft's latest invention.

The four core chapters of the book - ".NET Object", "ASP.NET", ".NET Web Services" and "Windows Forms" give an overview of what each technology is and how you can put it to work right away. Each chapter talks about the "Problem Background", technology's "Solution Architecture" and always gives a "Simplest Example" - an ideal construct. The author then elaborates on the major particularities of each technology and explains how they all tie together. Written with no bias towards any part of .NET, after finishing this book you'll have a fair idea on which topic you want to read more. The generous 2" wide margins are full with conclusions and bookmarks (of the kind "The sample starts here", etc) to ease your search through the book. Frequent diagrams, screenshots as well as notes and warnings (on a gray background) add to the readability of this book.

The majority of the samples are in Visual Basic .NET and however much this may displease the C++/C# fans, let's admit it - this makes the samples just a few lines long, they fit nicely on one page and they reduce the size and weight of the book by a whole lot. The author has only included the relevant pieces of code in the book, leaving the rest for you to download from his website. If you ever read a book on Win32 with declaration of the same "WinMain" and "WinProc" on every fifth page then you'll find this simplification very useful.

You can familiarize yourself with the style of the book by downloading the source code and a chapter on ADO.NET from http://www.introducingmicrosoft.net/. Reading this chapter will give you an idea of where the book is headed.

You'll need the .NET Framework to run the samples, available on Microsoft's MSDN website. Visual Studio.NET is also available thereat if you have the MSDN Universal Subscription or (as of this writing) have it shipped to you for $12.95 (4 CDs).

An adaptation of the topic from this book on ".NET Objects - Interoperability with COM" was also published in the August 2001 issue of the MSDN Magazine, also available online on the MSDN website.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars It's called "Introducing" .NET, September 12, 2002

By 

"bbvegas" (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Microsoft .Net, Second Edition (Pro-Developer) (Paperback)

The title on the book says it all. If you have read MSDN or Technet, or much on the .NET Framework, then you are not the intended audience. If, on the other hand, you are a technical person either tasked with having to jump into .NET or tasked with evaluating a potential move to .NET, then this is a great book for you.

I read this book cover to cover, which is usually hard to do with a technical manual. Scott livened up otherwise mondane technical prose with insight, background/history, and even pot-shots at Microsoft themselves. Scott gives you an objective look at .NET for or against MS. His style exposes you to industry problems that .NET was designed to address countered by what .NET actually does (many times in agreement with each other).

At the end of the book I had a thorough understanding of what I needed to learn, and in what order, to be productive in the .NET paradigm. In many ways the book adequately prepared me to be productive now while I chose what avenue to take to gain more in-depth understanding of any given .NET topic.