Customer Reviews

Programming Microsoft ASP.NET

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This book is the perfect reference for any Intermediate/Advanced ASP.NET programmer. It may not be as helpful if you are a beginner because the coverage is too wide and too deep to keep the interest of a beginner. But it is a must-have as a desk reference when you get past the beginner stage.

We looked at many books on the general subject of .NET and the specific subjects of VB.NET, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET to learn how to successfully create Web Applications that users love. There are a lot of books out there on .NET that are more confusing than helpful. And most books - just touch the basics, don't give detailed explanations, or don't have sample code that works. There are a few exceptions and this book is one of them. It doesn't have any of the above mentioned problems.

What is most impressive about this book is the readability of the material. If you are interested in the details of how something works in ASP.NET, you will find that once you pick up this book and start reading it, it is difficult to put it down. The explanations are clear, concise, yet detailed and the different topics are all very neatly interconnected.

If your primary interest is in finding a book with code to modify for your own project situation, this is NOT the book. There are other excellent books for that purpose. 'ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook' by The ASP Alliance is one that we prefer(despite most claims, the code in this book does work after you find workarounds to Visual Studio .NET problems first).

The book being reviewed here can be best used for accomplishing the purpose of gaining a COMPLETE working knowledge of ASP.NET. It will obviously take many months of dedicated effort (at least 10-15 hours a week) to master this subject. And there isn't a better book in the market that is so effective in the long run. This is the preferred Desk Reference that all of us use at our company.

One more thing - doing a price comparison, we found that this book also offers the best value since it's priced around the same range as most ASP.NET books but covers the subject end to end while the others only addres a few topics. The high price of .NET books has been a disappointment to us especially due to their general low quality.

Enjoy this complete desk reference to programming in ASP.NET! You will really see the return in a few months.

I'm still recovering from a really bad asp.net book, and Esposito is restoring my faith in the technical writer.

this book is the best if not only asp.net book you'll ever need to read. the style is very reference-oriented, which means it dumps voluminous amounts of knowledge in your lap (1,000+ pages), all well organized, and with enough tutorials and code samples so it's not like reading a dictionary.

i did some research before buying this book, and i've been delighted with it. no fluff, no meanderings, just hard-core learning. when you're finished, you can use it like a reference, which is how *all* programming books should be, except maybe the beginner-level books.

warning: this book is not for programming beginners. you should have some prior asp experience as well as some object oriented experience in something like Java, c#, c++, etc., or you'll be completely lost, because the material is meat, very little milk.

I'd recommend getting this book if you are new to ASP.NET, even though this book is not for the newbie to ASP.NET. This isn't a quick reference book for little problems, this is a concept book, that goes into great detail of how things work in ASP.NET.

I received this book right after starting to use ASP.NET, and it was basically useless to me, as most of the content went over my head. After I got much deeper in my knowledge of ASP.NET, this book started to make much more sense. Most every advanced concept behind ASP.NET is covered here in depth, all at your fingertips, I find it amazing that Dino knows all this stuff!

They only cons I see is that it is a little dry to read, and you won't find any vb.net examples. Other than that, I recommend getting this book

I had stumbled across this book at the time Wrox sold out. I was hooked on the publisher (about 20 books) The editorial staff wasn't below the 3rd grade level of English, like Addison-Wesley. (Hated everyone one of their books I bought. I read some of the books twice to make sure I hated them, despite the reviews.) I had liked some of the Microsoft Press books, in particular, the Resource Guides because of their "deep" content. So I gave their programming books a try. This book is nothing short of phenomenal. It is well written. The reader is lead thru the concepts as they unfold and expand. The theory of the code presented makes it an excellent source of knowledge. It is not for the beginner at heart. I had to read this book 2 times because there is NO fluff - just excellent, concise writing that flows.

This book rates as one of the best with me. The others are "Beginning Java Programming" from Wrox by Ivor Horton or the automotive engineering books by Author W. Judge, published by Bentley Press in 1966. (This dates my years of reading reference books.) I subscribed to MSDN magazine because of his writing skills, his knowledge, his ability to develop concepts and ability to aid the reader in developing an understanding of the material presented. Dino Esposito is a deep thinker so get ready to bury your mind!

This book is good for the intermediate ASP.NET programmer before they go on to tackle the tough stuff i.e. Component Controls. Don't get this book if you are not willing to invest the time or do not want to really understand ASP.NET. (P.S. this is the first review I have written.)

Its good to know the underpinnings of any technology. But my sincere suggesstion to Dino would be to consider making the presentation technique an interesting one with a complete practical exapmle for any future books he writes or perhaps a revised edition of the same book . As of now all examples are unrealistic and also just bits and pieces. Examples could be more realistic and complete, that can be applied to a more practical scenario. Even a technical description, if it goes with a good and fairly simple example that can be applied to a practical scenario, it would make the book a great success and will make more people read. To say the truth, I use this book just to glance through when I have doubts but the title means that you can use it to learn ASP.NET. Because of the language, presentation and examples used, I dont get motivated to read it continuously. But the teachnical stuff is really good. Its just the language, presentation and examples needs to be refined and improved. In general, a useful book for ASP.NET if anyone wants to get a in depth knowledge of ASP.NET.

Although he does a good job of providing a lot of information about ASP.NET, Esposito neglects to separate details of the .NET framework's internal workings from the practical information that developers need to know to build real apps with ASP.NET. This makes for some very dry reading and it can be difficult at times to figure out how to accomplish the day-to-day tasks needed in web application development.

Dino has a knack of making simple things complex, and I strongly believe the 1000+ pages can be reduced to less than 250 without losing any real value.

This is partially due to his poor command of the English language, but what's so irritating is his frequent use of uncommon terms and phrases to show off his "mastery" of the language (especially the word "orthogonal"). The editor must have slept on the job as well.

The whole book tastes like sand, but there are occassional insights that can help recover the cost of it, and that's where the 2 stars come from.

Another bigger complaint against this title is that it doesn't show you how to build a real world application; just snippets of code here and there, with no clue at all about how to piece them together.

It seems that Dino is far more keen on impressing his readers than delivery of value.

I purchased this book based on the rave reviews it has gotten, but have been grossly let down. Although the author seems to be knowledgeable on the topic of .NET internals, his explanations and book structure are reflective of someone who just wants to show how much he knows, not help you learn. Additionally, good examples are severely lacking.

This book is not a good learning book, and at best a mediocre reference book.

This book bills itself as THE book for ASP.NET. It will be a mistake if one buys this book in order to learn ASP.NET. This book is a good book only for the slim minority of the people for whom it is marketed. It is more appropriate for this book to qualify its title by something like "... for advanced Web Programmers", "Mastering..." but then it wouldn't sell as much.

The table of contents presents a clear, logical organization but the text within those chapters does not. So here we have another item of (...). It's as if the publisher wrote the TOC and the expert Mr. Esposito just dictated a stream-of-consciousness text into his dictation machine... with a strange version of the English language.

I suspect intermediate to advanced level ASP.NET developers would benefit from the book. At that level, lack of teaching ability may be more tolerable and Dino Esposito's fame as the expert in the subject may become the book's redeeming value. I gave it the third star on that expectation only.

This book covers a lot of in-depth information about ASP.NET 1.1. Its well-organized information is very useful for us to save precious time in searching and exploring. Thanks a lot, Mr. Dino Esposito.
Suggestions for the author:
(1) Use more graphical presentations if possible (could be more concise and organized)
(2) Please add more real-world code samples!!! - a bit boring to read dry descriptions