Softsteel Solutions

For Visual Basic and C# programmers facing Microsoft's new platform, The .NET Languages: A Quick Translation Guide offers an extremely useful comparison of three languages: Visual Basic 6, Visual Basic .NET, and C#. With nearly indispensable code snippets that show central language features at work, this book offers an excellent resource for getting up to speed with .NET in record time.

The just-the-facts approach in this text is its best feature. By keeping the commentary to a minimum, this book gets you to what you need to know quickly. The author shows how specific language features are implemented in three different languages, beginning with basic constructs such as data types and flow control statements. Technically, both Visual Basic .NET and the new C# are equal partners in Visual Studio .NET. This book can save significant time for two types of users: those moving from the VB 6 to VB.NET and those thinking about upgrading their VB skills to C# (an option, now that the languages are so close).

The book does a good job comparing the use of common class design constructs for methods and properties and how to use inheritance and interfaces. This material will likely justify the cover price of this book for many readers as it is tricky to get right, and each of the new .NET languages uses slightly different keywords and conventions when it comes to class design.

Later chapters cover essential .NET APIs with code snippets that will also help you save time. In particular, we liked how the author illustrates how to get started with ADO.NET and databases. Also useful here is a section on COM interoperability with .NET (as this is likely to be a common programming chore).

By keeping explanations short and sweet and letting short code excerpts (along with their short complete programs) do most of the talking, the author has devised a very useful text, one that can demystify what's new and different about .NET for any VB or C# programmer. Timely, concise and deftly organised, this title is a perfect choice for those who like to learn new programming languages by example. Few programming titles can claim to be as immediately useful as this one. --Richard Dragan

The 1,200-page Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 starts predictably with an explanation of ASP--Active Server Pages--and why they are a Good Thing. It covers installing and testing IIS 5.0, and then you are ready to write your first ASP example--all in chapter one. Next you learn about client and server side scripting followed by chapter on variables; control structures; objects, properties and events; cookies, the all-important error handling and so on all the way up to creating a working ASP-based database application. COM+, ADO and XML are covered en route, and the result is a considered and well- constructed course in ASP for professionals.

One of the strengths of Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 is the feeling it gives that the authors have been there before you. (Six authors are credited, complete with the usual pictures that grace the covers of Wrox titles-- why aren't programmers more photogenic?) Their experience shows through most clearly in the gotchas and practical debugging advice peppered through the book.

If you're already creating HTML pages and want to extend your skills into the more lucrative corporate Web sector--a major stronghold of ASP--then you'll want to work your way through this book. -- Steve Patient

Chunky and detailed, Programming ASP.NET is a hands-on guide to Microsoft's Web development technology. It is a huge subject, and at over 900 pages, this is longer than most O'Reilly titles. With support for Web services as well as dynamic Web sites, ASP.NET is the most impressive part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, but developers familiar with the old Active Server Pages have much to learn. This title begins at the beginning with "Hello World," but goes well beyond the basics by providing in-depth examples and explanations. There is some coverage of Visual Studio .NET, but most of the content is equally applicable to those who prefer to use straight code editors. There are extensive code examples, almost too many, with most given in both Visual Basic and C#. Some of the code is repetitive, and at some points shorter, more specific examples would help the book's flow and reduce its bulk.

The early chapters introduce the ASP .NET architecture and cover the event model, the different control types, debugging and the essentials of Web Forms. The chapters that follow tackle database development, including validation, data binding, programming ADO .NET and managing transactional data updates. This accounts for two-thirds of the book. The last third tackles Web services both as client and server, caching and performance optimisation, security, and application deployment. A bug database is used throughout as an example application.

Overall the authors do a great job of covering ASP .NET essentials, somewhat slanted towards database applications. The book has a real-world feel to it and does not skim over problem areas. It is nicely written, and working through the examples is a good way both to learn ASP .NET, and to get a feel for what it can do. --Tim Anderson