ASP.NET developers are bored with traditional books that outline concepts in
a lengthy way. These books are good if you like to learn the features in a
detailed manner. However, by the time the book is read, a new version will be
released. Hence, many learners including myself prefer short and succinct
books that not only explain the topics in a user-friendly way, but also
enable the reader to learn the concepts of the current technology before a
new version is released. ASP.NET 2.0 – Your Visual Blueprint for
Developing Web Applications is a book that examines ASP.NET 2.0 in a new
style without providing any junk content.
When I got the book to review, I quickly glanced through it and was
immediately impressed. The author has done a great job of restricting the
content of each exercise to two pages. At first I thought he hadn’t
divided the content into ... (more)
As always, Murach publishing updates their books as and when a new version of
the software is released. SQL Server 2008 for Developers is an updated book
of its 2005 edition. The book consists of 22 chapters divided into five
sections providing solid coverage of SQL Server 2008. The book looks similar
to that of its 2005 edition except the content and syntaxes targets 2008.
Inside the Book
Section 1 provides a crisp introduction to relational databases including
various SQL statements. It also demonstrates the usage of SQL with the help
of an ADO.NET application. The section also... (more)
I have been a big fan of the Dummies book series for the last 8 years. I can
still remember the day when I picked up my first dummies book from a local
book shop. I recently came to know that Ken Cox has been involved in writing
a dummies title for ASP.NET 3.5 and was keenly waiting for its release to
review it. I was quite impressed with the overall coverage of content when I
quickly scanned through the Table of Contents. I found that the author has
also covered advanced topics even though the book is oriented for beginners.
Inside the Book
The book begins with an overview of va... (more)
Web developers are always on the lookout for great products to add dynamic
effects to their Web pages. Dynamic pages, often called DHTML pages, make use
of slide shows, random content rotation, and news scrollers, and are
generally developed using languages such as Visual Basic, Java, JavaScript,
and VBScript. Many developers also use Macromedia Flash and other animation
tools. Although it is possible to create dynamic pages with these languages,
developers face many challenges, such as cross-browser compatibility issues,
complex code, high maintainability requirements, and slow ... (more)
Nowadays, many web developers have implemented AJAX in their web
applications. This enables them to create dynamic, rich web sites. There are
numerous resources available on the web for learning ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX, but it
is always nice to refer to a book as and when required. In his latest book,
ASP.NET 3.5 AJAX Unleashed, Robert Foster examines the relevant concepts in
less than 300 pages, which I think is excellent and is rarely achieved by
authors. It is hard to write short and crispy content, especially on ASP.NET
related concepts, but Robert has worked really well to bring ou... (more)
Anand Narayanaswamy, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), works as an independent consultant based in Trivandrum, India. He also works as chief technical editor for ASPAlliance.com and is the author of Community Server Quickly (http://www.packtpub.com/community-server/book), published by Packt Publishing. He runs http://www.Learnxpress.com, http:/www.dotnetalbum.com and http://www.csharpfaq.com. Find out more about him and his other websites at http://www.visualanand.net.
Scott Sellers
David M. Adler
Anthony Franco
Daniel Morris
Wayne Walls
Niki Acosta
Jereme Hancock
Oren Michels
Marvin Wheeler
Douglas Kim
Ken Guiberson
