Product Reviews

This book claims to be for novice and professional programmers, but you have to know C# to get anything out of it. It is clear about the differences between web and desktop programming and explains how to set up a website and the differences between client- and server-side code.

The pace is slow but it explains everything. However, it doesn't go deep, and you'll need another book if you want to do anything unusual. The authors, Daniel Cazzulino,

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Victor Garcia Aprea, James Greenwood and Chris Hart, do a good job of speaking with a single voice, but differences of approach are apparent as the book progresses.

This book is about ASP .NET, and there is no point in reading it if you want to use something else. It covers basic server-side coding and ADO .NET as a way of interacting with databases. It also uses Visual Studio .NET almost exclusively. An example case study starts in the early chapters and grows as the book proceeds. However, you won't be overwhelmed by pages of listings as examples are presented in small chunks with explanations. The book is strong on principles and tells you how something works before showing the code. It also goes beyond programming to discuss setting up a web server, configuration files, security issues, performance tuning and debugging. It even tackles topics such as XML and web services.

This isn't the only book on ASP .NET you will need but if you know C# and want to extend your knowledge to web applications, it's a start.