Reviews for Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 (Programmer to Programmer)

1. Useless.

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2007

   I had to learn ASP due to a new job as Programmer. I bought this book as I had brought 2 other programming books from Wrox, and I was very impressed with them.
   
   How I regret this purchase. I was looking for a book to teach me how to write code in ASP.
   
   This book will not teach you how to write web applications in ASP, it will teach you how to create a rather lame and uncreative website for a pretend football team.
   
   For a start, you have to download the source code for the pretend football team. Then, the book goes bit by bit showing chunks of the code, and explaining how it's done.
   
   Ok, if you want to learn how to make a football team website, which looks like, acts like, imitates, and in fact IS the pretend football team, then GREAT this book is for you.
   
   However some programmers, like me, are paid to create web applications that do not involve the pretend football team, look like the pretend football team, and have nothing to to with the pretend football team.
   
   Heres my beef, I was looking for a traditional programming book. The kind may start with a simple, "hello world", program. Then teach you new bits of code, in an inpartial manner.
   
   Not code that teaches you how to make a soccer site, but code that says, "ok here some ASP code, and this is what it does, how it works, how you can use it, how it relates to other code".
   
   Sadly, I only found 1 chapter in the entire book that shows you plain and simple coding, without showing you how to code for the pretend football team.
   
   When I found this chapter, I was pretty happy. Until I realised it was just 1 chapter on variables.
   
   What the guys at Wrox need to do is re-think their approach. Write an inpartial and neutral book that will teach ASP code, and how to use it.
   
   Instead, Wrox created a book that will teach you how to make a painfully dull website about a football team... and nothing else.
   
   After 2 days of studying each chapter to try to find anything remotely usefull, I ended up putting the book away and going online to learn how to code ASP instead.
   
   I've learnt more about how to code ASP on free online tutorials than I did from this book.
   
   Please don't waste your money on this book, please.

2. A beginner guide, just like it says.

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2007

   I was a Classic ASP developer and used this book to step into ASP.NET 2.0. I first tried Professional ASP.NET 2.0 by Wrox but soon realised I was walking into completely unknown territory. Why?
   1: I had to learn the .NET 2.0 framework
   2: I had to learn OO principles
   3: I had to learn VB.NET
   
   The book is "plagued" with errors. These may appear to most as a pain but they actually forced me to really take my time with the book and pay close attention (sometimes it's nice not getting spoon-fed). In every case I was able to work out why errors had occurred and what to change. This increased my confidence that I knew what the authors where talking about.
   
   Without the errors in the code, I would give the book 5 stars no problem. It's simple, and covers aspects that really show off ASP.NET 2.0 such as the Visual Studio IDE (Free Version: Visual Web Developer), Profiles, Roles, Authorization and Authentication, Web Controls, Validation etc and "hints" at the more exciting underlying powers of .NET such as generics, web services and more.
   
   Overall, a nice book to get started with ASP.NET 2.0.
   
   If you finish this book and are looking to move forward I would recommend looking at:
   Professional ASP.NET 2.0
   Programming Visual Basic 2005 The Language
   ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed
   
   
   
   

3. Great attempt, but full of errors.

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2006

   As an overview of ASP.NET 2.0, this is an excellent book. Where it falls down is the vast quantity of bugs and errors. The book is written to fit with downloadable example code, and yet the book descriptions fail to fit with these code downloads on so many, many occasions. Just have a look at the www.wrox.com forum devoted to this book and you will see many, many frustrated users posting issues, and the (usally very helpful) authors apologising and coming up with corrections. Unfortunately there are just too many issues which do not have solutions published on the forums.
   Perhaps a subsequent edition will be improved, but for the current edition that I have (which was published in 2006), I just can't recommend this due to all the errors.
   This is a shame, as the book is obviously a labour of love by four authors and it would be so very, very good otherwise.
   
   

4. Great Book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2006

   This is an excellent book that describes creating a website with login, online shop etc. Great book. WOuld recommend to anyone.