Product Reviews

ASP .NET 2.0 is Microsoft's server-side language for building sophisticated web pages. It's new, but many programmers already know versions 1.1 and 1.2. Author Wei Meng Lee's book is aimed at bringing experienced ASP users up to speed.

Each short section of the book deals with a single topic. The selection of topics

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is fairly arbitrary. Although all are potentially useful, there's no real logic to the presentation. There isn't much discussion of general principles, either. The cover explains that the book is "All lab - no lecture".

The examples are quite difficult to follow and are presented as listings, without being woven into the text. They use only VB .NET, but this shouldn't be a big problem. Topics covered include the Web Parts Framework, security, membership APIs and new controls such as GridView and data source. There is also a discussion of the overall structure of a website, including Master pages and skins.

This is a worthwhile addition to your bookshelf if you already know the basics of ASP and just want something to dip into as and when the need arises, but it isn't comprehensive. Its biggest drawback is that it fails to impart wider principles to help you work things out for yourself.