Customer Reviews

Microsoft .NET for Visual FoxPro Developers

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Don't let the name of this book mislead you! Even if you're not a Visual FoxPro developer, this book is an EXCELLENT introduction to learning to develop .Net applications.

Kevin McNeish did a great job in balancing theory and practice and an even better one at recommending "best application development practices", probably because he draws on his many years of experience as a world-class trainer and mentor in the SW industry.

This is especially true about the Data Access chapters because, as any seasoned developer knows, "every application wants to be a DATABASE application when it grows up"!

The book's "rhythm" is great... never a dull moment, and lots of code snippets to experiment with your newly acquired skills, making it THE book you want to buy if you trully want to learn to develop .net applications.

The McNeish book is an excellent treatment of the subject. I especially like the VFP developer slant which is really helpful. Beside that, the book is the best balance of thoroughness and conciseness of any .NET books I've read and I've read many. This should be read by non-VFP developers as well. The book is well designed as well. It's also nice that screen shots can actually be read unlike some contemporary computer books. This is not intended to be a "core reference" or a deep treatise on .NET architecture.

This is the best book for the .NET book series, I think we should called it ".NET for all Developers" not just for VFP developer. There are so many books in the market place talking about .NET, but this book is one of the best which walks you through all the aspects with a great examples. GREAT JOB Kevin!!!

I have barely gotten started on the book but looks like it is going to be extremely helpful. If I can only find the time to put in!

This book is just so-so. There are much better books out there.

This book just doesn't give a good big-picture of .Net, so if you are new to .Net, you'll learn some concepts, but you won't see how they fit into the big picture all that well.

A premise of this book is that you can take your skills as a VFP developer and transfer them quite easily to .Net. That is not quite correct - you can take your skills as a PROGRAMMER in general and transfer them.

I honestly think that you are better off not trying to learn .Net from a VFP perspective, but rather to learn it from scratch. You'll only confuse yourself if you are looking for similarities. I believe that you are best off taking your generic programming concepts (i.e. OO design, structured programming, etc.), and going into .Net fresh. It's a whole different way of thinking, and all it takes is a good overview to get into that way of thinking. Again, I just didn't feel this book provided that.