Customer Reviews:
 Ideal for a newcomer to ASP.NET September 2, 2008
Music lover (Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I made a decision about three months ago that I would use ASP.NET to create a new database-driven website. I immediately bought a couple of heavyweight reference books that came well recommended. However, as soon as I opened their covers I realised that my previous background as an Access VBA programmer was insufficient to let me leapfrog the early stages of the fairly steep ASP.NET learning curve.
A book called Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 seemed like an obvious choice to fill that gap. Luckily, it does that job very well. Unlike the two reference books I got initially, this is one that is worth reading from cover to cover. Imar Spaanjaars covers a very wide range of topics in the demo application that is the core of the book, without delving into them any deeper than is appropriate for the target audience (at various points, he suggests further reading if you want to investigate specific topics more thoroughly).
This book has proved invaluable in kick-starting my first ASP.NET development, which is now about halfway to completion.
Build Your Own Web Page Easily August 14, 2008
SharonUK (UK)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I am very impressed with this book. There are many books out there to help you build a web page, but get this one - it's ideal.
The book is definitely designed for the beginner (like me) and the book is set out for you to work through as a course. It's easy to read, and contains regular practical exercises for you to follow in which you'll build an actual web site. The exercises are the key to it's success. It covers a topic, then gives you an exercise to demonstrate that topic, then does a quick review to reinforce the information.
It even gives you the information you need to get the right software to develop your web site (in this case Microsoft Visual Web Developer express edition - which is free to download) and shows you how to use that software. It does touch upon using Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (which I'm using) but predominantly concentrates on Microsoft Visual Web Developer. On saying that, they are pretty much the same for the purposes of the exercises, so that isn't a problem.
The book covers things like CSS (which is used to style your web sites) and gives all code examples in both VB.net and C#.
Being a programmer already, I found the book a little simple in places, which is probably a good thing, because it means that non-programmers could pick this book up and use it. I just skip over the bits that are obvious to me.
I am really pleased I bought this. I needed to upgrade my skills to web development and this book is definitely helping me to do that. It's an absolute must.
Great introduction to ASP.NET 3.5 May 28, 2008
Mrs. Annette Lagan (Ireland)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
I've been using ASP.NET 2.0 for a few years now and wanted to find out about the new features in vers. 3.5, especially LINQ, Microsoft's new query language. Imar explains in plain English how to create a sample clean, efficient website from scratch using the best of ASP.NET 3.5's features. I've been using VB for years and am gradually switching over to C#. I found the sample code (in VB and C#) throughout the book is also a great way of learning C#. All sample code can be downloaded from Wrox's website.
The book is a great introduction to so much more than ASP.NET 3.5. Imar also introduces the reader to: Visual Web Developer Express 2008, SQL Server 2005 Express, HTML, CSS, Databases and programming (VB and C#). To summarise, 20 well spent.
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