Beginning Visual Web Programming in C#: From Novice to Professional

I had a great deal of C# Windows forms programming experience. What I needed was a book to help me leverage that into Web programming. This book fit the bill. You will not learn C# in this book (it assumes you already know the language); but it will get you quickly into building Web applications. The examples are clear, well organized, and most importantly run properly when typed in correctly! The examples also have one important feature I prefer, which is a lack of over embellishment. They show only the code needed to complete the given task, not additional bells and whistles that can confuse the point of the example. After completing the book, I found it easy to adapt the examples for use in building my own web site.

I found this book to be a very good source of overall C# information. It was not an exhaustive resource, nor did it delve in minute detail to all the points, but I have not found a better book to get a complete picture of the web programming world. The code samples are very easy to follow, and the reader can download the code from the publisher's web site. I chose to input the code samples manually and only had a couple of minor issues along the way. One example late in the book (Chapter 11 or 12) left the code in a state where it would not execute. I also had problems with the web service examples but that can most likely be attributed to the proxy/network configuration at my place of employment. The only other issue I encountered was with the stress testing tools like ACT. I was unable to access the site and still have not been able to determine why. Of course, that's not a failing of the book or the author, just a configuration issue, I'm sure. If you are looking at starting ASP.NET development, this book is a good, solid read.

The book shows how to write a C# web application on a server running .NET. Perhaps the most succinct description of the book is its cohesiveness. It describes using two crucial packages, ASP.NET and ADO.NET. ASP.NET essentially handles the client-server interaction, by making dynamic HTML pages and handling the user's input. While ADO.NET controls the interaction between the application server and the database. As you go through the book, if you keep this simple demarcation in mind, then it helps your understanding of the many lower level details in each chapter. It is clear from the book that Microsoft is pushing hard to have the entire web development process done on their .NET machines, by offering a tight and consistent tool integration. Gives the open source movement a serious challenge.

This is an end-to-end introduction to the world of .NET development. The coverage, which starts with the architecture and ends with deployment, is never comprehensive, but is always thorough enough to get you started. Graphics are used extensively, which is not appropriate for a reference, but which works here because of the introductory nature of the text. The book doesn't pander though. I recommend this to anyone who is starting with ASP.NET, and who wants an introductory text in the step by step style. If you are experienced in other web application development technologies then you would be better served by one of the O'Reilly ASP.NET reference books.