Customer Reviews

Programming Windows Server 2003

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

 

 

Don't expect a lot of detail in this book. It covers most of it's topics on a cursory level and provides a good introduction to the topic. Weighing in at ~300 pages with ten chapters you get about 4-40 pages per topic.

That being said, there chapter on Web Services is excellent. The explanations are great. The book is well written and edited which is something that we expect from Manning.

So in the final analysis, you will probably still need spot books on various key topics and a subscription to MSDN to go along with the purchase of this book. But if you are someone new to Windows development, especially for web applications, you might want to take a look at this book.

(Full disclosure: I am a Manning author but I in no way allow that to effect my reviews.)

The whole book as well as each chapter follows the same pattern. It begins with
an overview. Then goes into a detailed discussion. Do not get discouraged by the first 2 chapters. The detailed discussion begins
in chapter 3.

The chapter subjects start being like a white paper. Then it talks about real world problems like being able to use intellisense
debugging, and version control in Visual Studio. Sometimes the book walks the reader through wizards. Some places it just repeats the text that is in the wizard. In other places
the reader needs knowlage of the .NET classes.

The code examples are shown in both VB.NET and C#. This is not redundant because
the examples are small. A large percentage of each code example is different
because of the differnet syntax of the languages.

It is a good introduction to the new features of Windows 2003 for programmers.

The many screen shots are in black and white. They would have been better in
color. Color would have shown the syntax highlighting.

I had never heard of this publisher before.

Great resource! If you are looking for a great introduction to the .NET framework or need to get down and dirty with meaningful code examples then this book has it. The author's writing style pulls the reader through Microsoft's newest and most complex OS to date. Read it from start to finish or easily flip around for information most pertains to your most pressing technical needs. It will get anyone from beginner programmer to seasoned admin up to speed. Check out the security piece!