Slashdot Mirror
Programming .NET 3.5
lamaditx writes "The world of the .NET framework is taken to the next level by the release of .NET 3.5. The intended audience of this book are experienced .NET programmers. There are no sections that tell you details about C#, SQL servers or anything like that. I don't recommend this book if you never worked on a .NET project and don't know how to set up a SQL database. You should be aware that the code is written in C#. You might use one of the software code converters if you prefer Visual Basic instead. I think the code is still readable even if you do not know C#. I appreciate the fact that the authors decided to use one language only because it keeps the book smaller. The authors assume you are using Visual Studio 2008. You don't necessarily need to update to 2008 if you are working with an older edition because you can use the free Express Edition to get started." Keep reading for the rest of Adrian's review.
Programming .NET 3.5
author
Jesse Liberty & Alex Horovitz
pages
476
publisher
O'Reilly Media
rating
7/10
reviewer
Adrian Lambeck
ISBN
ISBN 978-0-596-52756-3
summary
Covers all main .NET technologies found in .NET 3.5
The table of contents is available from O'Reilly — together with a chapter preview — here. The book does not come with any extras but includes the usual free 45 days access to the book on Safari.
This book covers the key technologies in .NET. There are books on each of these technologies: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), XAML, AJAX,C# and Silverlight already, but this book shows you how everything is connected with each other. As the authors note: "Our goal is to show you the 25% that you will use 85% of the time.". From my point of view this is good because I have a .NET 2.0 background and wanted to know what is new in .NET 3.5 and how things are connected.
The book is divided in 3 main parts. The first is presentation, which covers XAML, WPF and AJAX. The second describes how to take advantage of the design pattern support in .NET. The last part covers the business layer which includes LINQ, WCF, WF and CardSpace.
The first part starts with XAML. This is the eXtensible A The next main topic is using WPF which is the successor of Windows Forms. The authors explain how to connect data structures to the user interface which I consider to be one of the most important parts of using WPF. You will also find a lot of code and XAML layout descriptions.
The chapter on Silverlight was not very helpful to me. Silverlight is the competitor of Adobe Flash. Giving samples how to layout a Silverlight application is essentially the same as a WPF application thus it dives into more details of XAML. I am missing the real Silverlight message so this part did not meet my expectations.
The third technology you will learn about is AJAX which leads us away from the desktop client to a web client. The explanation how AJAX works is pretty good. The authors show you step by step how to create a todo list web-application with a database backend using ASP.NET and AJAX. Again, this does not cover all AJAX controls or ASP.NET but it shows you how the parts are interconnected and assumes that if you know how to handle one control, then you can also figure out how to handle all the others. Most web applications need some kind of access control. At this point the authors argue that it is faster to implement your own security tables instead of using the ASP.NET forms-based controls.My opinion is that you should never do something that is not correct to teach something else. There are always people who get it wrong in a way you did not anticipate. My recommendation: use the ASP.NET components and do not implement them by yourself.
The second part about the design patterns was surprising to me because I expected the common introduction to standard design pattern. The Model-View-Controller project implements the pattern for ASP.NET and allows developers to incorporate it easily. The advantage is that you get a comprehensive and easy to understand introduction how .NET supports design pattern implementation. I guess this will lead some developers from theory of design patterns to actually implementing them.
I consider the third part to be the real interesting content. It starts with LINQ which bridges object-oriented code to relational databases. You get to know the differences to SQL and also the advantages it provides by explaining new concepts. The examples are easy to understand and successfully make their point.
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) covers the hot Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA) topic. The authors explain what it is all about but you will need some knowledge about Web Services and XML to really get it. The introduction is rather short but more details are explained in the corresponding example.
The chapter about Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) starts with a short example how you implement a workflow without WF. After that you get to see how you do the same with WF. This way the necessity for WF become clear and you understand how to take advantage of this technology.
Card Space is the successor of Microsoft passport which was not successful as an authentication service with respect to user acceptance. This is also the key issue that decides on the success of Card Space. Maybe the improved interoperability will help. The chapter provides you with a short authenticate-yourself test and shows you how to offer Card Space authentication in your ASP.NET application.
The book is a good entry to the world of .NET 3.5 because it gives you an idea about every part and what it is good for. Maybe you do not need all of it for your job but at least you know that it exists and how it might be useful. I think it is reasonable that a comprehensive introduction to .NET 3.5 can not satisfy everybody because the range of topics is too broad. One can argue that this kind of information could also be retrieved from the net. I consider the book to be a better resource because it already summarizes the important information such that you do not drown in a flood of information.
There is also some criticism as I pointed out earlier. Maybe I am just a little picky about the details but if you print code download references into a book, they must be available. Most examples can be downloaded but the Alex Horovitz site was not reachable when I tried to access it. Another personal remark is that I do not like to see quotes from Wikipedia. Other people might think different about that so you just need to decide on your own.
I rate this book a 7. The authors scratch the surface of every topic and choose an appropriate style to explain it. You can tell that they thought about how to explain each topic on it's own and give you not just the "how" but also the "why".
Adrian Lambeck is a graduate student in "Media and Information Technologies" and worked with .NET for a few years.
You can purchase Programming .NET 3.5 from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
This book covers the key technologies in .NET. There are books on each of these technologies: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), XAML, AJAX,C# and Silverlight already, but this book shows you how everything is connected with each other. As the authors note: "Our goal is to show you the 25% that you will use 85% of the time.". From my point of view this is good because I have a .NET 2.0 background and wanted to know what is new in .NET 3.5 and how things are connected.
The book is divided in 3 main parts. The first is presentation, which covers XAML, WPF and AJAX. The second describes how to take advantage of the design pattern support in .NET. The last part covers the business layer which includes LINQ, WCF, WF and CardSpace.
The first part starts with XAML. This is the eXtensible A The next main topic is using WPF which is the successor of Windows Forms. The authors explain how to connect data structures to the user interface which I consider to be one of the most important parts of using WPF. You will also find a lot of code and XAML layout descriptions.
The chapter on Silverlight was not very helpful to me. Silverlight is the competitor of Adobe Flash. Giving samples how to layout a Silverlight application is essentially the same as a WPF application thus it dives into more details of XAML. I am missing the real Silverlight message so this part did not meet my expectations.
The third technology you will learn about is AJAX which leads us away from the desktop client to a web client. The explanation how AJAX works is pretty good. The authors show you step by step how to create a todo list web-application with a database backend using ASP.NET and AJAX. Again, this does not cover all AJAX controls or ASP.NET but it shows you how the parts are interconnected and assumes that if you know how to handle one control, then you can also figure out how to handle all the others. Most web applications need some kind of access control. At this point the authors argue that it is faster to implement your own security tables instead of using the ASP.NET forms-based controls.My opinion is that you should never do something that is not correct to teach something else. There are always people who get it wrong in a way you did not anticipate. My recommendation: use the ASP.NET components and do not implement them by yourself.
The second part about the design patterns was surprising to me because I expected the common introduction to standard design pattern. The Model-View-Controller project implements the pattern for ASP.NET and allows developers to incorporate it easily. The advantage is that you get a comprehensive and easy to understand introduction how .NET supports design pattern implementation. I guess this will lead some developers from theory of design patterns to actually implementing them.
I consider the third part to be the real interesting content. It starts with LINQ which bridges object-oriented code to relational databases. You get to know the differences to SQL and also the advantages it provides by explaining new concepts. The examples are easy to understand and successfully make their point.
Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) covers the hot Service-Oriented-Architecture (SOA) topic. The authors explain what it is all about but you will need some knowledge about Web Services and XML to really get it. The introduction is rather short but more details are explained in the corresponding example.
The chapter about Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) starts with a short example how you implement a workflow without WF. After that you get to see how you do the same with WF. This way the necessity for WF become clear and you understand how to take advantage of this technology.
Card Space is the successor of Microsoft passport which was not successful as an authentication service with respect to user acceptance. This is also the key issue that decides on the success of Card Space. Maybe the improved interoperability will help. The chapter provides you with a short authenticate-yourself test and shows you how to offer Card Space authentication in your ASP.NET application.
The book is a good entry to the world of .NET 3.5 because it gives you an idea about every part and what it is good for. Maybe you do not need all of it for your job but at least you know that it exists and how it might be useful. I think it is reasonable that a comprehensive introduction to .NET 3.5 can not satisfy everybody because the range of topics is too broad. One can argue that this kind of information could also be retrieved from the net. I consider the book to be a better resource because it already summarizes the important information such that you do not drown in a flood of information.
There is also some criticism as I pointed out earlier. Maybe I am just a little picky about the details but if you print code download references into a book, they must be available. Most examples can be downloaded but the Alex Horovitz site was not reachable when I tried to access it. Another personal remark is that I do not like to see quotes from Wikipedia. Other people might think different about that so you just need to decide on your own.
I rate this book a 7. The authors scratch the surface of every topic and choose an appropriate style to explain it. You can tell that they thought about how to explain each topic on it's own and give you not just the "how" but also the "why".
Adrian Lambeck is a graduate student in "Media and Information Technologies" and worked with .NET for a few years.
You can purchase Programming .NET 3.5 from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Pogramming? :P PROGRAMMING.
It is not a god that would do evil biddings, but only a mortal and its limited knowledge would let such atrocities exist
Behold, the Ultimate Pog!
music lover since 1969
I would like to send this to my programmers.
this is a great book but is designed for advanced programmers only.
The act of doing a really bad job of gramming.
Pogrammers need to spell korekktly - just konsistenetely.
Informatus Technologicus
Microsoft devs who focus on .NET are known as pogrammers. Microsoft is right and the rest of the world is wrong. Better get on the bus.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
How appropriate, it's a picture of a lame duck.
it's = it is
its = belonging to it
Is the picture on the book supposed to be a limping/lame duck?
There should be a space between pog and ramming. Back in my day, we used pog "slammers," not "rammers," but you can call 'em whatever you want samzenpus.
Also, I am still confused as to what this has to do with Card Space. Is there a new crossover between pogs and yuugio/magic/pokemon? I hope so. I believe children nationwide will benefit from throwing large chunks of brass at the ground during school.
Thanks for the review Adrian! I'm also a .Net 2.0 programmer. Being employed doing 2.0 full time makes it hard to bounce around the net trying to find cohesive 3.5 examples and explanations (that aren't just hacks.) This looks like a good place to do the concentrated study that I need.
I think Pog Ramming is a new sex position that Balmer invented with his wife. He makes her bend over a chair and makes sum luvin' doggy-style; shortly thereafter he tosses her across the room. There is a story that goes around that says that Balmer is quite loud when he finishes, to quote exactly what he screams out like a pig: "I LOVE THIS COMPANY!"
Thank you everyone, I'll be here all night.
Lol, MIT. We have that at my university as well. It's entirely comprised of students who can't hack CS or CE.
Meanwhile Mono struggles on a few versions behind pushing interoperability to the limits of 2006.
Never got that project, never will.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
A book with a duck on the cover for pogs
"Being employed doing 2.0 full time makes it hard to bounce around the net trying to find cohesive 3.5 examples and explanations"
Perhaps a language which changes so drastically and so quickly should be avoided. Especially when that company is Microsoft, and especially when that stands a major chance of ruining all of your previous hard work.
"Our goal is to show you the 25% that you will use 85% of the time." - exactly...
XAML, AJAX,C# and Silverligth
Silverligth?? Sounds like some creepy relation of cthulhu
I clicked just to see what Pogramming was.. boy was I disappointed..
It's a sad day at Slashdot when more people would comment on a typo than offer criticism about a book. So let's fix this.
It explains some of the newer things 3.5 brings but does it deal with their actual implementation with business logic or otherwise? From what I've gathered, LINQ sounds like craziness in terms of being able to keep SQL maintained.
Roll with that.
import system.cool.Sig;
I'm sorry, this is a really poorly written review. It's choppy, uninsightful, and just painful to read. And then there are "sentences" like:
Good lord.
Is there anyone else here who is already sick of seeing greenhorns implementing LINQ left and right? I personally, am not that impressed. Hype = more money for Microsoft and less maintainability for us designers.
Is Microsoft using .NET 3.5 for any of their own internal development? Basing the future of your application on a development environment that MS won't use in-house seems a bit short sighted to me.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Actually it's Pooh-gramming. A child-like state all programmers try to enter into.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
They have a lame duck on the cover of the book.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
"Perhaps a language which changes so drastically and so quickly should be avoided. Especially when that company is Microsoft, and especially when that stands a major chance of ruining all of your previous hard work."
You know I just had to reply to such a curious complaint. FOSS is not only subject to change, but more so due to it's open nature and "defacto" leadership. And no one complains about all the changes required when some code you're depending on changes, or your existing assumptions don't work as well as you thought.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
How is a book review flamebait? Why tag a book review with "microsoftsucks" and "vssucks" and even "eclipsesucks"?
There is only one reason, and that is zealotry and bigotry.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I use LINQ almost exclusively in two ways:
1. To access stored procedures
2. To do SQL-like queries on in-memory collections
It works GREAT for both.
I don't need the book since I can't afford any for the xpensive MSoft Visual 2008
software tools. i.e. professional. If MSOFT lowered their tool price, I might have
some money leftover to buy and read the book.
Does anyone out there using .NET have a comment about how it is shaping up? Has MS included MVC support for ASP.NET? What types of apps are people doing?
When I first saw the article I thought ".Net finally has it's Llama book" but then I saw it was a duck and that was the first thing I thought... "lame duck".
Get it online $31.98
http://www.betterworld.com/detail.aspx?ItemId=059652756X
54 .Net Books, most used and under $10
http://www.betterworld.com/list.aspx?Category_ID=764452&s=18339247
and save the planet while you learn .net :-)
http://www.betterworld.com/custom.aspx?f=impact
The APress offering in this category, Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, is almost certainly superior in both breadth of topics covered and details presented. I own the Apress book and have found it to be a useful reference on numerous occasions, but read the reviews and look at the scores before deciding what to buy. If you only have funds for one or the other then get the Apress book, you won't be disappointed.
This book is not of o'reilly quality and reminds me of sams or wrox. They had too many personal stories and it was light on technicalities. It was akin to some large paste of some code they wrote and then a followed up chopped up description of the easy parts. The ajax part was horrific on how basic it was. The WCF part didn't help me pick it up.. anyways I'd suggest that anyone interested in this book to look through it, rather than depened on o'relly's name.
Of course not, obviously O'Reilly thought of it first.
Alright, I understand that "Eclispse" doesn't suck, but can someone enlighten me as to what it is? Sounds like a good name for an IDE for CLISP.
John McCain hates America.
Bah! Tell me when they release version 2!
South or North?
This is the best version of .NET Since version 3
Hello World in only 750MB
Whoops! A MSCP fount this... :) tag -1 as you wish, .NET STILL is a big, ugly, bloated, bizarre piece of useless junk.
Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
.NET Framework 3.5 is doing what Linux and oSS have been trying to accomplish but is horribly failing at.
MS now has large backing of a very good language design team with a lot of $$$ and zeros. The pulled some of the best heads out of OSS. These guys know how to bring better simplification of complicated environment such as Linux OSS, but Microsoft was smart and pulled them with PHAAAAAAAAT paychecks, and hundreds of thousands of Hindi programmers at their disposal (which are better educated, better communicative, and better connected than most programmers in the states).
Also, Microsoft is pulling best minds from India to work at Microsoft, and now is working to pull from China.
In the front, Linux may seem to be losing due to poorer technology, but really, Linux is losing because they can not pull enough people, and the right people.
Also, businesses that use Linux are despotic and are not contributing to the whole advancement of developing on Linux.
Google for example just made simpler faster JavaScript host, but only for use on Windows! This, even though they have used OSS as their laybrick and foundation.
With such despotic companies supporting Linux, it is doomed as business environment unless something changes. Only thing that keep Linux afloat right now is it is the only alternative to Microsoft mistake, and it's a fun and challenging hobby.