Reviews for Learning ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX: A Practical Hands-on Guide

1. What is the purpose of this book?

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   This book is rather disapointing, and a little confusing.
   
   It assumes that some of its readership are at the level where they still need objects explaining in terms of "if 'Dog' is a class, then your own dog 'Sparky' is an object - he's an instance of the Dog class" (page 21) or that you still need to learn what 'If-Then' statements are (page 121).
   
   Despite the title, it goes into very little detail about Ajax - most chapters are about ASP.Net 2.0.
   
   And here's my quandry. How many people go from knowing no VB, and nothing about ASP.Net, to creating ASP.Net/Ajax websites in a single step?
   
   The book is thin (approx 500 pages) which would be great as an intro to VB (or C#) and ASP.net OR as a pretty complete coverage of Ajax with ASP.Net.
   
   However, unless all you want is a very short intro to VB, ASP.Net and Ajax which will leave you wanting to know more (especially about Ajax, which is why I chose the book), then steer clear of this book.

2. One of the best .NET books I've found

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12nd, 2008

   It's not often I feel suitably compelled to write a review but I have to say this is one of the best books I've found. I had read many ASP.NET books before and got this because I wanted to learn AJAX with ASP.NET. I was a little concerned when it first arrived as was quite thin compared to my other .NET books which could used a building blocks for the great pyramids. I am currently 1/2 way through this book and so far have found it to be the clearest and easiest to follow book on .NET I've found. Although it may not go into the same depth as the thicker books, it encourages you to experiment and find these things out for yourself, which is the best way to learn. If you'r new .NET this is an excellent way to get your head round it without being overwhelmed by the enormity of the thicker books. If you've been using .NET for a while but still have some blank spots, this book should help clear them up. I would recommend this book to anyone. Plus the inclusion of AJAX has to be a must for any .NET site I write from now on. It makes previously quite complicated techniques easy and vastly improves the sites performance.