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A First Look at ASP.NET v 2.0
by Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, Rob Howard
List Price: $39.99
Our Price: $27.99
ISBN: 0321228960
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co (24 October, 2003)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 15,877
Average Customer Rating: 4.67 out of 5
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Rating: 5 out of 5
If this doesn't get you to buy an MSDN subscription...
I started working with ASP .Net when the first beta went out in 2001. It was so much better than anything out there at the time that I bought an MSDN subscription and jumped in head first, despite not having a job at the time.Weird how history repeats itself. I am working this time, because of my initial pursuit of the .Net platform. During that time, I spent a great deal of time working with it to make slick content management apps and portal sites. As much as I'd like to pat myself on the back for all of that, Microsoft clearly understood I shouldn't have had to do that. The names on the cover of this book should be familiar. Homer has been writing MS-centric books for years. Howard has always been active on www.asp.net, a refreshing thing to see given his position at Microsoft. His team's participation in online communities has largely gone away, but this book shows what they've been up to. It's hard to review the book without reviewing what v2.0 is brining to the table. It changes everything, again. The book is not for new developers to the platform, though much of the declarative programming info should be easily digested by anyone. If you've been living and breathing this platform for a couple of years, you need to see what's in this book. It'll have you buying an MSDN subscription again when v2 goes beta in the spring.
Rating: 4 out of 5
A More Declarative Approach
In 2000, Microsoft released ASP.NET version 1. Now comes a major release, 2.0. The main use is for making dynamic web pages. Microsoft has put a lot of effort into smoothing over the rough edges of version 1 and making it more powerful, and yet easier to use.There has been a deliberate shift in emphasis from a procedural language to a more declarative one. If you are unsure what this means, consider the stylistic difference between C and HTML. C is procedural, while HTML is declarative. As we know, it is far easier for an average person to learn HTML than C. This is perhaps the main motivator for the change. Microsoft is trying to broaden the user base. Along the way, this can also benefit you, as an ASP programmer. Because in trying to emphasise scripting, Microsoft reduced the amount of "boilerplate" coding. So you can now concentrate on the more intricate stuff, adding more value. Version 1 users will also like not having to directly edit the XML parameter file in version 2. A simple GUI now mediates that file. Sounds mundane, but this reduces the chances of editing errors. One interesting change seems to be inspired by competition with Java. Version 2 will have only 1 set of server controls for all devices; even small mobile devices. The Java industry consortium that maintains J2EE took a different route. They made J2ME for mobile devices, that are often very limited in resources. I think the J2EE/J2ME division is necessary. But Microsoft claims that their Version 2 single set, with extensible ability, will work. The problem is that one might get a bloated resource usage. Still, Microsoft has very talented people, and they may indeed have found a practical solution. The book does not actually mention J2EE and J2ME. But reading between the lines, you can find this implicit comparision.
Rating: 4 out of 5
That Geeky Xmas present you're looking for
Christmas time is here, the geese have gotten fat and the only thing left to worry about is the present for yourself. You mean you didn't reward yourself for buying everyone else presents and developing like a mad dog? Why not grab a copy of "A First Look at ASP.NET v2.0"? You'll be planning next year's Christmas list in no time. This new tome is the first by the prolific writing team of Homer and Sussman for Addison Wesley and fits very neatly into their .NET Development Series. At a little under 500 pages, this is as complete a preview of the new features in ASP.NET 2.0 - due for release in Winter '04 - as you could wish for the three months before we the public can actually get our hands on a beta of the code itself in the spring. Written against the Whidbey preview code handed out at PDC '03, all the examples are in VB .NET so there may be some change in syntax for C# users but are simple enough to follow in your head. The only problem is that your head might be spinning too much from the well-described and frankly groovy new features described within. There's a large 'wow' factor to most of this book which, coupled to the well-worded text and excellent examples (available online at www.daveandal.net), makes you wish the final release of .NET 2.0 was this Christmas gone, and not the one to come. Chapter one sets up the book nicely with a balanced summary of everything covered in the book in twenty four pages leaving it up to you where you want to go (sic) next. The remaining twelve chapters fill out the detail as you'd expect, but in a seemingly random order. It might be a stroke of genius to push topics the average Joe wouldn't normally read up front to bring them to his attention, but equally it might make just as much sense to group UI, business and data tier topics together, mightn't it? Not that it matters really. Whether you're reading a chapter on its new caching system, its improved security or the evolution of its personalization features, this book does a great job in putting across the main tenets of the new ASP.NET as well: less code, more usable features, mobile platform integration and quicker to build. Alex Homer and Dave Sussman are rightly regarded as two of the communities foremost authors on ASP.NET. With a little help from one of the ASP.NET team's product managers, this book just proves it again. Now back to next Christmas. Now should I just ask for Visual Studio Whidbey, or a new computer to run it on? If I don't need to write much code, maybe I could get a tablet PC and build web apps with a stylus? Bet I could. I'll definitely need the follow up to this book for the final release, then I can plan world domination and buy that penthouse I've always wanted. Hope Santa's got a big enough sack.
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