Customer Reviews

.NET Compact Framework

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

 

 

The .NET Compact Framework Beta 1 was released in April 2002 and this book was published in February 2002 based on a 'technology preview' release. The only reason I read this is because - understandably - there is no other book out there covering the .NETcf

It's a small book of 167 A5 pages written by 4 people. There are 6 chapters starting with an introductory overview of the .NETcf and ending with advice on porting code from existing CE code or the desktop. The second chapter is about the SDE and VS.NET. This leaves chapters 3-5 which go through building a 3-tier application (GUI - middle tier - data tier).

Unfortunately, I found it to be full of syntax/grammar errors and the overall style indicates a piece of work that has gone through little review prior to going public. Irrelevant info is included (how to build Window & Web Service projects on the desktop and MMIT) and some of the relevant info is just wrong (features in Beta 1 added/dropped since PDC release). It will become even more outdated with the next release of the .NETcf in August (the final expected in November).

IMHO, there is much more info and benefit to be gained by visiting the relevant pages of gotdotnet.com and the compactframework newsgroup.

I don't know what the purpose is of rushing this book to the market. Wrox should be ashamed of itself.
The .NET Compact technology preview version it is built on is pretty bad and this book is worse. It isn't realistic to write a book about an alpha product. To fill the pages, they discuss other issues not related to .NET CF and regurgitate the existing Microsoft documentation. The inane little projects featured in the book will not work - you can't even enter data!
I'm hoping the bookstore will take this turkey back. This book is not even half-baked. Wait for a book based on the released product.

If you really need usefull info about developing applications for the .Net Compact Framework then you better wait.. Most of the content of that book is off-topic. For example there is less than one page about SQL Server CE Edition but a lot more on SQL Server 2000, actually more wouldn't help either because there isn't any provider for CE. Maybe we should wait to develop on CF, and Wrox should wait until there is something to write about..

This book is utterly and completely useless - void of sufficient detail on any subject to be useful. Avoid at all costs.

Craig Morris is brilliant and this book is simply the best. It helped me so much with my life and relationship with my computer and cat.