Customer Reviews

Moving to ASP.NET: Web Development with VB .NET

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

 

 

This book is my best buy on ASP.NET. Don't be deceived by the "Moving to" in the title: it is not a book aimed at VB6 programmers. It is a book for those beginning with ASP.NET. It only assumes you know VB.NET (you should) and have at least a basic understanding of object oriented programming and web technologies.

About it's style:
The authors have the (so much rare) gift of getting in their readers shoes and give you a clear picture of things.

It has strikingly clear explanations even when it goes in-depth. Everything seems to be in the right place: they provide the right detail, the right moment, focusing only on the topic at hand. And all this while being very gentle and friendly, enjoyable I'd say.

About it's content:
So many books out there weight too much and offer to little because their authors think they write a novel. This book has absolutely no fluff (not even about how great .NET is), no cross-reference, no code repetition. It has precisely what you need to get a solid understanding, and the precious little details which help you get a good grasp. Above all: covers both theory and practice.

The explanations built-up from the basics to the more in-depth, and take you from the beginner level to the confident one. Even if you know some ASP.NET (like me) but have some uncertainties this book will put your thoughts in order.

In the bottom line: once you finish the book you 'll be able to start programming with confidence.

If you are looking for your first book on ASP.NET or are dissapointed by some other (like I was) go for this one.

I'm a fan of Rob Macdonald already, and now he seems to have teamed up with an equally talented writer in Steve Harris. I've read a number of ASP.NET books and articles that assume you're going to use notepad to build your applications. This is the first book that teaches how to use ASP.NET assuming you are using the productivity features of Visual Studio.NET.
But it is not just about point and click programming. As I expected, the authors take the trouble to explain how ASP.NET works, what techniques to use when, and takes you from a simple start through to advanced topics such as scalability and security.
I recommend this book to anyone coming to ASP.NET either from a Visual Basic programming background or from an ASP background. You'll come out really condfident about building Web sites with ASP.NET.

As a Visual C++ programmer, I don't do web development for a living. When I do have to work on our company sites, I typically have a specific task to accomplish and no time to fool with it. I moved to .NET for one reason - productivity. I was delighted to find that this is exactly what Steve and Rob offer in "Moving to ASP.NET". They dive right into the practical tasks that I need to accomplish, giving background where needed but otherwise keeping their focus on getting the job done. Even with no VB experience, my database work was up and running in 4 hours. If you want to get up to speed on ASP.NET as quickly as possible, this book will make you productive your first day. I even had time left over for pizza.

Thanks, guys!

This was the first book I bought on ASP.NET and 4 months into the project I still go back to it now and again. It covers all the major topics to get your web application up and running with just enough info on all the major components of ASP.NET to allow you to make informed decisions about the design of your web application. I would recommend this to anyway starting out in ASP.NET.

I have recently had the pleasure of being taught .NET by both Rob MacDonald and Steve Harris on a boot camp, and two better teachers you couldn't hope to find. Like the training course they authored, this book is outstanding and highly recommended.

Good for reading if you cant count sheep to fall asleep, but with no other practical use. I am amazed by the fact I cannot get even a single line of code out of that book and apply it (there is hardly any code) and the author's desire to go on and on discussing theoretical stuff and not even explaining their code if there is any. The pals assume you know already how to program in VB.NET and have done a few apps and now all you need is to get good theoretical background to become a teacher. Usefulness 0.