Code Generation in Microsoft .Net

I agree with the author that "code generation" will grow as a dominant force in the IT industry over the next 5 years. When you hear stories about programming tasks being shipped overseas, its not the deep, creative thinking of type work that is shipped... no, they ship the redundant, grunt type of coding which could be described by an algorithm. When you find yourself writing code falling into a predictable pattern, then perhaps you should consider code generation. Before I read the book, I was already convinced that code generation was a valuable thing to do, but the book helped reshape how I thought of code generation in the context of a large project, or even an IT department. Here are the main points that resonated with me: 1) Code Generation should be thought of as a step in the overall project build process. 2) The biggest payoff will be gained by generated stored procedures and middle tier components. 3) Code generation allows the architect to decouple the system meta data from the technology. (eg. I can change my data access strategy by simply modifying my template) 4) It is possible to generate UI components. Finally, the book goes beyond code generation. You will learn other interesting tidbits about Visual Studio .NET and the .NET framework. The appendices include good primers on XML/XSLT and her Code Generation harness. The freely downloadable harness is designed to orchestrate the CodeGen process, but you really need to the book to understand how it works and how it can be extended.

This is a great book. Surely not the kind of book that you can read to relax: there are always several threads to follow, and if you skip a page, then you sort of feel that you're going to miss something, maybe a little useful practical tip, or maybe a smart design approach with lots of interesting implications. So it might take a fairly long time to read it, but it's well invested. Not only if you're on .NET: most, if not all, code generation concepts can be applied to other platforms and languages. So if you are interested in code generation this book is a must-read.

Even the most complex topics are understandable. The book is targeted at programmers who have some experience in developing applications using .NET. Most of the content is not geared toward .NET beginners, but the introductions to each topic can be a good jump-start if you have previous application development experience. The book also provides a lot of advice to help determine when code generation is useful and when it is not. Anyone implementing code generation as part of their .NET application architecture should read this book at least once to assist with planning their strategy, and then refer back top specific topics during implementation. Overall it's a good buy because the author has taken a lot of time to ensure that the content is relevant to real-world developers, and there are several real-world application examples with source code included.

I don't understand the viewpoint of the first reviewer. A book isn't one star simply because the content of the book wasn't what you intended. If you expected a book on reflection I'm not sure why you thought a book on code generation was going to do it for you. Perhaps you are thinking about runtime code generation, but I'm sure that would be in the title.Back to the book. I think it's great. The only flaw I can find is that it's almost too detailed in spots. She presents an entire framework for building SQL DDL, stored procedures, an ORM layer, and user interface with both WinForms and HTML from XML descriptions. She also provides a larger perspective on code generation in the context of the development cycle as well as avoiding the common pitfalls. The jovial tone also keeps it light.Anyone skilled enough to understand how code generation can revolutionize their development process should be able to handle the VB, XML, and XSLT used in the book, and either apply the principles in derivative work, or use her code directly.