Visual Studio 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies

This book provides an overview of Visual Studio 2008. It is not a programming language book. To learn C#, Visual Basic, or C++ you need to get a book on those languages. However, there are many parts of Visual Studio and the IDE that aren't covered anywhere else, except in the online documentation from Microsoft that sometimes can be a challenge to find what you are looking for. This book explains a number of terms, such as LINQ, Ajax, Asp.net, ADO.net, CSS, etc. It also gives a good overview for deploying your application using OneClick or the Windows .msi installer. A number of those kinds of topics are consolidated in this one reference. The book is not a language tutorial. But it does exactly what it claims - it is an excellent Desk Reference for Visual Studio 2008.

Visual Studio 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference for Dummies is an excellent book. I found it to be very helpful and informative. I would recommend it for all who are starting out in VS 2008.

This book has been a great reference and learning aid. From start to finish it gives you a great insight of Visual Studio 2008 and the versatility of this program. There are many step by step examples of the many uses of Visual Studio 2008 as well as many tips and web site references. From building application programs (such as smart client and web applications) to accessing data(by using XML or SQL Server) this is a great reference for any programmer. I would strongly suggest that this book become a part of any programmers library.

This is exactly what you need to get started with Visual Studio 2008. Whether you are a novice programmer or an experienced developer this book has something for you. It is a very easy read and has a basic step by step approach throughout. For anyone interested in programming with Visual Studio 2008 or if you just want a good reference guide, I would highly recommend this book.

I haven't read the entire book yet, but my initial impressions are that it is an excellent beginning book for Visual Studio 2008. It also touches on some topics not immediately related to Visual Studio, such as modern programming practices, which I found valuable as a junior programmer. If you are a veteran Visual Studio user, this book is probably too basic for you. Most of the chapters are overviews, rather than in-depth coverage of any one topic. However, the content is very practical and concise, and contains a lot more useful information per chapter than some more poorly written books would. From what I can tell, this book is very similar to the previous edition for Visual Studio 2005, with much of the same text. This new version includes mostly the same chapters, with a few new chapters on new features - notably AJAX and LINQ. The new JavaScript debugging does not appear to be covered, which would have been nice. The new book is missing a few chapters that were in the 2005 edition - one on SQL Server Reporting Services and another one on Using Enterprise Library. The omission of Reporting Services is unfortunate, since that is a popular alternative to Crystal Reports. (The 2008 edition still has the Crystal Reports chapter that the 2005 book had.) However, if you are going to use Reporting Services you'll probably get a separate book for that anyway. And perhaps the RS chapter was left out of this 2008 book in anticipation of SQL Server 2008 (scheduled for release later in 2008). All in all, this is an excellent overview and introduction to Visual Studio 2008. If you have a little .NET programming experience and want to learn more about the basics of Visual Studio development, this book is for you.