Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition (Windows.Net) by Andrew Troelsen Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition (Windows.Net)
Book Review: Comprehensive
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is pleasure to read. Very nicely structured and really comprehensive with its 33 chapters and over 1300 pages. About half of it is devoted to the new features in 3.0 and 3.5, while the other half covers "the old stuff", but not at beginner's level, so it's not boring. Overall, a highly recommended reading.Book Review: A big bible on C#
Summary: 3 Stars
Today when you want to know more about Asp.Net, due to a relentless number of new features (Ajax, silverlight, Linq, etc...), you have the choice of buying books on each of the topics or more general reference books that try to cover all the topics in one.
Pro ASP.Net 3.5 in C# 2008 falls into the second category. I am not convinced that this is the best direction to take for .Net 3.5. I rather suggest that buying a book on each of the topics you are interested in learning about could prove more useful and thought provoking.
However, if you want to take on a mammoth sized book (more than 1400 pages!) then this is the right reference text book for you.
Another thing I want to comment on before I discuss the actual content is the title of the book itself, which is somehow misleading. The 'Pro' part in the title seems to indicate the authors are targeting more than beginners. Yet I think this text is valid for anyone who wants to write ASP.Net applications - newbies and gurus alike.
The introduction covers all the bases by talking about the basics you need to know or the tools you need to have to start an ASP.Net project. In fairness, the very short part about the daily use of Visual Studio is an interesting feature; showing how to write your code and debug it with the IDE is a too often forgotten part in other books.
The chapter organisation is rather disappointing, maybe because this book is essentially an upgrade from the previous ASP.Net 2.0 edition. I don't understand why the Ajax Toolkit, which is now full part of .Net 3.5, is pushed back to the end of the book? The new rich controls chapter would have been better placed at the start along with the other HTML controls.
I won't go on further about the details of each chapter, as I said before; this is a reference book, the kind of text you use when you want to find a specific entry from the index, like a good encyclopaedia.
Regarding the code, C# obviously, because this book follows a dictionary approach, you won't find any complete applications in it, only snippets on all scenarios. This is not ideal as it does not allow you find solutions to your specific problems that easily.
It's true that this book abounds with code samples. The only chapter where we can see the start of an application is the one on portals with web part pages.
To conclude, I would recommend this book as a good thorough reference text that certainly covers everything you can imagine on ASP.Net 3.5. In that regard the authors have done a great job. However, I don't think we can sustain anymore similar types of text books that cover everything on .Net in one go. I think individual books on specific topics are the way to go in the future.
Paschal L
Founder & Leader of the Irish User Group www.developers.ie
Book Review: Andrew is the new Jeff Richter
Summary: 5 Stars
I read every single page of this book (ok, I didn't read the index). While I disagree with a few very minor points I found the material to be quite readable and appropriate for a "Pro" level book.
This edition will definitely maintain a prime spot on my bookshelf for the foreseeable future.
Great job Andrew.
Book Review: Excellent Survey of C# 3.5 Technology
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent survey of the .NET 3.5 technologies. It does not cover all topics (e.g. cryptography and MAF are missing), but does cover a large cross-section of C# & .NET. It has nice illustrations and clear explanations. While it uses a running example, you can still easily jump in at any topic and understand the code (I hate books where it takes more work to understand the running example than the topic at hand).
Book Review: unsuitable for WEB developers
Summary: 3 Stars
This was the first book I bought on 3.5 and VS2008, I should have waited.
Dont get me wrong this is a fine book if you are doing desktop apps or backend work.
If you are developing web applications,there are far better books, less that 5% of this book has web relevance. Does cover getting started with the VS2008 IDE, covers many general matters, getting started in the VS2008 package. Almost feels unfocused - like writing a book and know knowing who it is ideally suited for. The tag 'Pro' is missused,its not really for professionals (as they would have an end in mind), more a collection of bits from MSDN that are overly explored.
You need to have a look at this book before you buy it and see if these topics get you moved. Otherwise buy secondhand or expense it.