Customer Reviews

Pro Visual Studio .NET (Expert's Voice)

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Someone brought this book to my attention and asked me about it. So I took a brief look into it. First thing.... this book is from 2004, and it's for the MVS 2003 version. There have been several newer versions since. So I recommend looking for a book that covers the most recent version, right now that's Visual Studio 2010, unless ofcourse you are using a previous version (in that case look for a book on your particular version).

I took a look at the book anyway, and on itself is very good. It's not for true beginners. More for experienced developers or those seriously working to further enhance there developing skills. As it says on the back cover "... for professionals by professionals". This is a real developers handbook. Best to be used as you are developing and enhancing your skills at the same time. It's very well written, clear and relatively easy to read/follow, and has sufficient screen shots. Each chapter ends with a summary, which gives you the highlights. It's very well structured, covering all aspects of developing with Visual Studio .NET.

Here's an overview of the chapters anyway:
Ch1: An IDE Tour
Ch2: Building Windows Applications
Ch3: Web Application Development
Ch4: Data Tool Orientation
Ch5: Mobile Client Development
Ch6: Team Development with VS.NET
Ch7: Performance Testing
Ch8: Project Deployment
Ch9: Crystal Report for .NET
Ch10: Customization
Ch11: Add-Ins
Ch12: Macros
Ch13: Wizards
AppA: Project Files
AppB: Visual Studio.NET Directory Structure
AppC: Certification

In short, very good book for true developers, but look for more recent version,... for example Introducing .NET 4.0: with Visual Studio 2010 (Expert's Voice in .NET) also from Apress.
Check it out,... it has pretty good reviews, ... (as I expected after taking a look ta this book).

But there are several others also if you prefer a different publisher.
Just do a search on Amazon with "Visual Studio 2010".

This is the flip side to the API book, the IDE book. Dave Thomas talked about knowing your editor and your IDE. This book plows into making the best use of Visual Studio, including extending it. If you are going to be using Visual Studio for eight hours a day you will want to have a look at this book to see how to make better use of their IDE and particularly how to extend it. If you can write a macro that saves you ten minutes a day, it will save an hour a week and a week a year.