Professional .NET Framework [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Kevin Hoffman (Author), Jeffrey Hasan (Author), Thiru Thangarathinam (Author), Denise Gosnell (Author), Jan Narkiewicz (Author), Jeff Gabriel (Author), John Schenken (Author), Christian Holm (Author), Scott Wylie (Author), Jonothon Ortiz (Author), Ed Musters (Author)

Book Description

Series: Programmer to Programmer | Publication Date: September 15, 2001

Professional .NET Framework has been designed as a practical guide to the .NET Framework. It covers the Common Language Runtime environment in which .NET applications are deployed and managed along with the fundamental structure of the base class libraries upon which Microsoft's .NET platform relies. It has been written using beta 2, a feature complete version of the .NET Framework.

This book provides the essential aerial view of the framework, placing .NET in a meaningful context with current programming frameworks, before delving into detail with a thorough, practical, example-led approach to exploring and working with the constituent parts of the framework. It systematically covers namespaces and their extended classes, which professionals will need to work with to build distributed, scaleable, applications. It also covers the techniques required to expose or consume code over the Internet as Web Services.

Professional .NET Framework also examines best practice for designing and constructing applications, engineering .NET components, and utilizing COM interoperability. The final section of the book provides a chapter and case study dedicated to approaching migration to .NET.

The book drills down to a level which scopes specific classes in detail yet retains a focus on imparting information in the most practical, relevant and useful way, to make the transition to .NET as smooth and clear as possible.

This book covers:

An introduction to the .NET Framework

The Common Language Runtime and execution

The .NET class library

The System namespace

Working with data

Engineering applications and Web Services

Remoting

Migrating to the .Net Framework

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Professional .NET Framework aims to explain what Microsoft Corporation's .NET initiative is all about from a technical point of view. The authors explain what it means for an application to run in the .NET environment, providing details on what code executes on which machine, where various resources come from, and how the .NET class library works. The book's goal--at which it's largely successful--is to explain how .NET systems work, without getting too deep into actual code. The code samples that appear here (and there are quite a few) are mainly for clarification. The authors based their work on the Beta 2 edition of .NET, which was pretty close to the final version.

There's a tradeoff inherent in multiauthor books like this one (Wrox Press publishes a lot of them). It is true that practically no one knows everything about a complicated subject like the .NET architecture soon after its release, and team authorship is a good way to achieve something like comprehensive coverage in a timely fashion. The downside of such books, however, is their irregular collection of writing and teaching styles, and the lack of cohesion across chapters. Individual chapters may be excellent (in this book, the chapters on the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and on components and controls are particularly good) but there's no unifying authorial voice. That's why you'll want to treat this book more as an encyclopedia to be consulted for information about particular .NET components, rather than as a tutorial to be read front to back. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Microsoft .NET software framework from an architectural standpoint. In addition to coverage of the .NET design as a whole, focused coverage goes to the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and its way of managing memory, classes, and compilation across multiple machines. There's also information on the .NET class library, the technique of remoting, and Web services under .NET.

From the Publisher

This book is for anyone who wants to gain a solid grounding in how the .Net Framework works and what is possible with it. To get the most out of the code samples, readers should have some experience with either C# or VB.NET.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1000 pages
• Publisher: Wrox Press; 1st edition (September 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1861005563
• ISBN-13: 978-1861005564
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,261,723 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I got my first start programming in BASIC on a Commodore Vic-20 that my grandfather repaired. Ever since then, I have been learning everything I can about programming and my current obsession: C# and the .NET Framework 3.0

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a Professional book, November 1, 2001

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional .NET Framework (Paperback)

Wrox has a long standing policy of dividing their books into Professional, Beginner, etc. categories. The Professional books are generally a series of books that deal with topics on a level that requires an experienced developer to traverse. While this book might require experience, it does not fit the mold of the normal Professional book.

One of my biggest beef with this book is the same beef I had with Microsoft's MSDN series of .NET books. It feels more like a mismash of articles that have been published before (in Microsoft's case, they had been). There is no real cohesion in the book, and, while the content is not bad, the lack of cohesion makes you feel more like you are sitting through a conference than reading a book on the .NET Framework. One last downside: The appendices in this book are largely useless.

Having knocked the book, there is good material here. While this book is not the best to learn to code .NET, there is ample information on how the Framework works. If C# is your language of choice, and you are an Internet developer, the chapter on Engineering web services may well become the most useful in the book.

I will this book as an addition to your library, although I but not as your first purchase. If you want a book to understand the .NET Framework, I believe .NET Framework Essentials is a much better tome (at a much better price).

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Random collection of topics, not a .NET framework book!, October 13, 2001

By 

"asquare_from_flatland" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional .NET Framework (Paperback)

I debated giving this 1* which I have never done before on a review. It really is a totally overpriced incohesive mess of random chapters.

But first off just in case you were thinking like I was what it isn't is a detailed discussion of the .NET framework, namespace by namespace (which is what I originally thought it would be).

What it is seems to consist of leftover chapters that didn't make it into the other two Wrox books: Professional VB .NET and Professional C# or were already there in other forms.

There is yet another chapter on what is .NET?, a chapter on migrating to VB NET that is better done in Professional VB NET and much better done in Appleman's book, there is yet another chapter on ADO .NET, yet another discussion of versioning.

To be blunt: everything in here is pretty much done as well or better in the other two Wrox books I mentioned and most of these topics are in fact done so much better in such books as Archer, Liberty, Troelsen, Appleman and Cornell (depending on the topic).

I don't know what has gotten into Wrox lately but I wish they would just go back to the days of old when they had single author books and were the best.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good collection of material over a broad subject, October 20, 2001

By 

Maxime Bombardier - See all my reviews

This review is from: Professional .NET Framework (Paperback)

What is .NET? How can you work with .NET? Why would you switch to .NET? There are a lot of questions that we could ask about .NET that aren't easy to ask. .NET is very broad, and thus, Wrox brought together some of their best authors together so that they share what they knew best about .NET. This book WILL provide the information you need to learn about the new things in .NET.

Remember the old time with the XML series of books? Most books had at least a few similar chapter. This is Wrox's response to counter that. This book is a foundation to learn a lot about the .NET Framework. It will be covering what most developers want to know, for both C# & VB.NET. This is a book that you use in conjunction with other current or upcoming .NET books that will be more focused on their subject.

Having multiple authors on this title, I believe, is a good thing. Simply because it's impossible to have one person know all about the .NET Framework as well as it's good to see multiple opinions. There are over 25 technical reviewers that read through this book to make sure that the flow was as easy as possible from an author to another.

For the rating, it was a debate between 4 & 5. Sure, I'm always looking for more so I guess that's where the 4 would be coming from. However, since I will be using this book as a reference for any other .NET books that will refer to this one for .NET Framework content, it's worth a 5-star. I will be more than delighted to have other books skip the usual "CLR" chapters and point at this book instead.