Customer Reviews

Pro Dynamic .NET 4.0 Applications: Data-Driven Programming for the .NET Framework (Expert's Voice in .NET)

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

 

 

I purchased this book in hopes of learning some new techniques for writing dynamic, data driven applications. However, this book simply explains methods for interrogating SQL Server meta-data and then using that information to manually create forms.

Not only is this book light in context, but it is seriously lacking samples and the author doesn't seem to be the most inspired developer. If you are an experienced application developer then this book will offer you very little in the way of new knowledge. Avoid this book.

I thought this book was ok, it follows good practices for dynamic approach but it didn't really apply to what I was hoping. I was hoping that it would provide a universal way of Data-Driven Programming but instead it splits up the technologies. You have to double or triple the work depending how many different platforms you're targetting. It did, however, have some good ideas on getting you started.

First off... I don't understand what makes this content relate to 4.0 whatsoever. Sorry man, nothing new going on here. These techniques are old, come on man; where is the T4, LINQ, Entity framework? Not to mention "Dynamic Data" isn't even mentioned?

Case and point, download the companion source code for this book it's in 3.5 (WTF?).

I'm not denying the authors is knowledgably, but I think perhaps this book is titled inappropriately.

I'm hugely disappointed.

I didn't see anything uniqely [....] specific in there, and given that 4.0 shipped with Visual Studio 2010, it's an embarrisment that the author missed the Visual Studio Text Template files. The book contained introductory understandings of reflection, types, and reflection. I'm fairly confident that anyone who as read one of the "Beginning" APress books would be able to workout any of the code in this book (except perhaps some of the SQL statements).
I found the code examples to follow archaic styles, and the screen shots are very amaturish. This was my first dissapointing [...]

This book offers excellent introduction - backed by easy to ready examples - to the advanced features of .NET platform. It is not an introduction to C# though. If you have a decent grasp of C#, Java or even C++ you will be able to zoom through this book in no time learning very useful techniques.

One drawback of this book is that code formatting sometimes can be annoying but this does not change the fact that presentation of the material is clear and concise (only 240 pages). I tend to like programming books that do not resemble telephone books and get right to the point. My favorites chapters from this book are:

1. Reflection
2. Runtime code compilations

these concepts are super clearly explained here with easy to follow examples.

We're creating a data-driven project for our company and this book showed us how it needs to be done. We needed to have the screen layouts and business rules flexible enough so we could update the functionality with SQL statements. By putting all the functionality in the database instead of compiling it into the application, we now have the flexibility we need. I'd recommend Ganz's book to anyone who needs a foundation in data-driven development.

With the .NET 4.0 features out already, its important that the new features in the 4.0 version of application development with .NET like custom code generators, reflection, dynamic winforms, runtime code compliation, and new dynamic features in WinForms andf ASP.NET.

The author goes through all the details in the different technologies and shows some great examples and explains them in non-technical termonology so if your a beginner you can still understand. The examples are beginner to intermediate level and use some real-life scenarios that you are sure to use in your everybody development.

A quick look at table of contents:

1.What is Dynamic Programming?
2.Reflection
3.Run-time Code Compilation
4.Dynamic WinForms Applications
5.Dynamic ASP.NET Applications
6.Dynamic WPF Applications
7.Reporting
8.Building a Database Design for Dynamic Development

This is a great companion book for anybody looking to see all the new features in the latest version of .NET and will become an important asset to your technical library.

Ganz has recognized the amount of flexibility afforded by Microsoft's latest incarnations on the .NET Framework and it's supporting environments. Data Driven, as Carl defines it, is of late bound (run-time execution) application logic, interfaces, and "glue" more reminiscent of Smalltalk and other "foundation" languages for dynamic OOP development.

It is truly a huge leap that MS is making with these recent releases, from a code based rigid design approach "yesterday", to the dynamic execution environment today. What BizTalk did for application integration, C# 4.0 is doing for application logic, and SQL Server 2008 is doing for application design and definition. The synergy of these environments opens up a truly new way of designing, deploying, and managing applications.

Carl provides excellent coverage of the choices developers will face in defining applications within this brave new world. It is quite easy to be overwhelmed by the myriad techniques afforded by dynamic design. This book helps make those choices understandable, as "dynamic" can easily equal chaos instead of the purported goal of increased agility. Without the proper perspectives to guide design choice, "chaos" is a serious risk.

Buy this book.