Re: Books reviewed

From: William Ryan eMVP (dotnetguru_at_comcast.nospam.net)
Date: 05/29/04 

Date: Sat, 29 May 2004 11:56:09 -0400

I appreciate your intent here, but you've left off a few books that are so
good and such must haves I have to chime in.

If you are going to do any serious VB.NET Development, Francesco Balena's
Visual Basic .NET Core Reference is the one book to have. There are a ton of
other books that address certain areas better than this book does, but it's
the most thorough book on VB.NET there is, and there's always enough
discussion and samples of any topic to get you over the hump. However it by
no means only caters to newbies and there are plenty of examples that more
advanced developers would find useful

As far as ADO.NET goes, I totally agree with your statement on Sceppa's book
and from my observation, it's one of the most universally loved books there
is. However Bill Vaughn's ADO & ADO.NET Best Practices is another must
have. He's got a ton of insights in that book that only Gurus like Vaughn
have I think these two books, although on the same subject, compliment each
other well. Learning ADO.NET wouldn't have been nearly as much fun without
both of them.

As far as CF Books go, there's a good list and discussion on them here
http://www.devbuzz.com/content/books.asp
On the Compact Framework, Dan Fergus and Larry Roof's Definitive Guide to
the Compact Framework can't be left out of any must have list. Andy and
Steven's book is the first one I bought on the subject and it's a first
rate book from start to finish. Dan and Larry's Book though is quite large
and had the benefit of being published a little later on. As such they have
some more examples and they elaborate more on many subjects. If you think
that Andy and Steven's book is dry, I don't know that I'd agree but I will
say that they stay very focusedon any given topic. Dan and Larry's book
definitely injects a lot more of the author's personality's into it. But
ti's as good of a book as it gets. I wouldn't want to write CF apps without
both of them.

Not everyone using the compact Framework will be using SQL Server CE,but if
you are, Rob Tiffany's Sql Server CE Development with the .NET Compact
Framework is a must have for two reasons. 1) It's a great book, has a bunch
of great examples and is easy to follow 2) It's the only one out there on
SQL CE and CF Development.

Dan Fox and Jon Box's Building Solutions with the Microsoft .NET Compact
Framework is another great one to have in the collection. It's smaller than
the above two are, but that in a way is its strength. The fact they get so
much info across in a relatively small amount of space is testimony to how
good they commmunicate. It's not a definitive reference like the other two
are, but it touches upon many important issues and the examples are
excellent as well..

As far as General .NET books, you can't leave out Jeffrey Richter's Applied
.NET Framework Programming, the quintessential text on undrestanding how the
framework works. It's a must have if you care about understanding how the
framework works behind the scenes, and this one has a picture of Jeff and
his new hellicopter which should provide plenty of incentive to learn the
framework as best you can.

Then there's the whole Addison-Wesley .NET Developer's Series. Everything
in there is pure gold and although I admit it came out a bit late in the
game, they totally got it right

Anyway, I just figured I had to chime in on this one b/c each of those books
has saved my *** more than a few times and definitely helped me quite a
bit.

cheers,

Bill 

-- 
W.G. Ryan MVP Windows - Embedded
http://forums.devbuzz.com
http://www.knowdotnet.com/dataaccess.html
http://www.msmvps.com/williamryan/
"Earl comcast net>" <brikshoe<at.> wrote in message
news:uHTOQUYREHA.3528@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> I've been on a mission this past year to move from VB6 to .Net. I'm
> fortunate(!?) not to have the big catalog of some long-time VB developers,
> although I have some CE apps that have to be entirely rewritten in CF. A
lot
> of what I develop has to be written for the PPc, so I knew I would be
> looking for information in .Net, ADO.Net, CF -- and SQL Server.
>
> So in the spirit that others might benefit from my journey, here are my
> observations. Having been a tech writer many years ago (and a page
designer
> before that), I give these reviews with the caveat that I know how
difficult
> it is to write technical literature and also how difficult it is to pull
> together all the aspects of a book. Thus I'm not going to give much about
> any specific errors or bugs, but a general feel for the book and how it
> helped me.
>
> I will also give the caveat that I've never read ANY book that didn't give
> up some useful bits of information -- no matter how bad that book might be
> otherwise. Final caveat is that I'm not there yet -- I'm still learning
much
> as I develop and I'll still have many questions here. But I don't see my
> opinions changing on the books I'm reviewing here.
>
> The following list is in no particular author order:
>
> Introducing Microsoft.Net 2nd Ed (note: the 3rd Ed is out now), David S.
> Platt
> As its title implies, its a great book to get you started in the .Net way
of
> thinking. There are some examples, but that is not really the focus of the
> book. Touches briefly on all areas of .Net. I wish I had read this book
> first.
>
> VB.Net, Matthew McDonald
> Strange, I've never seen any reviews of this book, and I got it for $10 at
> the half-price bookstore, but its chock-full of information and examples.
> The book is aimed at developers moving from VB to .Net, so it was right up
> my alley. If you can find it, buy it.
>
> Visual Basic.Net, Matt Tagliaferri
> Another out-of-the-mainstream book (spell that c-h-e-a-p) with some good
> stuff in it. If you are interested in GDI, this might get you kickstarted.
> Also gave me some intro to the datareader and datasets.
>
> Visual Basic.Net Database Programming, Evangelos Petroutsos, Asli Bilgin
> I've seen this book slammed in a few reviews, but I feel that's totally
> undeserved. This is a very good book for those just starting with ADO.Net.
> Its deep enough, it gives you a lot of great examples, and is fairly well
> illustrated. I do have some minor heartburn as follows. Some of the
examples
> that required the Command Builder to be used did not show those in the
code
> example. Literally, those examples would not run (I'm thinking this was
one
> of the places that William Ryan straightened me out). Next, a few of the
> illustrations were actually screen shots of the code that were too small
to
> read (altho in fairness, you have a CD to pull the code up in front of
> you -- I'm not much on using the CDs unless I do not understand the
written
> word). Finally, the layout of the book is kinda goofy as regards the
> DataReader (you have to look in a couple of different areas where the
> material should have been pulled together). I have about a dozen pages
> tabbed for future reference, so that may give you some idea that despite
my
> misgivings about a few errors, I still find the book very useful.
>
> Microsoft ADO.Net, David Sceppa
> In the lingo of the 20-something crowd, this book is "the bomb". I'd read
> reviews of how good this book is, and its reputation is well-deserved. I
> have not finished the book yet, but after several chapters (and some peeks
> ahead into the "Questions that should be asked more frequently"), I can
see
> already that I'll feel more secure in my knowledge of ADO.Net once I'm
> finished. I'm thinking that this is probably the only book I've ever paid
> full-price for. If you were to be stuck with the task of creating a robust
> application with just any 3 books, this would be 1 of the 3. More about
this
> anon.
>
> .Net Compact Framework, Craig Morris, et. al.
> One of the first books I bought and should've been one of the last.
Examples
> all in C#, and since I had no .Net experience at the time, I didn't spend
> much time with it. Fairly lightweight tome, but I'm hanging on to it and
> intend to get back to it
>
> Microsoft .Net Compact Framework Kick Start, Erik Rubin, Ronnie Yates
> This book helped me out tremendously, not only with the CF, but on how to
> work with the datagrid and datatables. I do not claim to being there
> completely, but using some pieces of this book in conjunction with answers
> from the afore-mentioned William Ryan in the forums, I can at least
> visualize most of the concepts I need to pull things together.
>
> Microsoft .Net Compact Framework, Andy Wigley, Stephen Wheelwright
> I have not finished this book. Examples all in C#, and highly technical
> (these guys might be wound a little too tight, and might want to check out
> www.moosehead.com). I'm counting on this to fill in the holes in my
> technical knowledge once I have the nuts and bolts down.
>
> C# Text Manipulation Handbook, Francois Liger, et. al.
> I found this book also at the half-price book store and oh I love it as a
> reference! This little gem has helped me tremendously with casts, parsing,
> math manipulations, numbers to strings, strings to date, you name it. Even
> if you write only in VB.Net, the examples are easy to read/convert. This
> book will save you hours and hours of frustration with casting issues. Buy
> it.
>
> Professional SQL Server 2000 Database Design, Louis Davidson
> How did books about SQL Server land on the .Net list? Frankly, you will
miss
> more than half the journey if you try to learn.Net in a vacuum without
some
> knowledge of SQL Server. This book is so language-agnostic, it is an
> excellent resource. Written in a very user-friendly conversational tone, I
> have been enjoying it tremendously -- while learning much along the way.
>
> Troubleshooting SQL, Forrest Houlette
> I found this book totally by accident. It deals exclusively with
> troubleshooting SQL statements. Heck, while I realized the depth of SQL, I
> never envisioned that someone could write such a "troubleshooting" book
that
> was language-independent. Using this book in conjunction with "The
Practical
> SQL Handbook", "SQL Queries for Mere Mortals" and "Database Design for
Mere
> Mortals" will make you much more confident in your SQL abilities.
>
> SQL Server Black Book, Patrick Dalton, Paul Whitehead
> I really appreciate the "black book" series of books. They helped me
> tremendously with VB and got me started with understanding C++. But for
some
> reasons, this particular black book has not been as helpful. Its just as
> big, has just as many examples in it, but for some reason, I feel
> disconnected and the descriptive material feels lightweight. This book
will
> remain a reference for me, but I'm somewhat scratching my head about some
> topics in the book.
>
> ADO.Net Step-by-Step, Rebecca Riordin
> Of all the tech books I've bought over the last 4 years, this is the only
> one I've ever returned and I did that last night. Because I consider books
I
> buy to be such a repository of reference material, I struggled with even
> returning it, but something about the book just did not fit my way of
> thinking (which cannot be considered a knock on the author at all!). I've
> read some reviews about the book that it has errors and buggy code, but I
> did not get past the 2nd chapter nor even crack the CD, so I'll not lay
that
> out as an issue either. I think that maybe part of the problem was that I
> had some knowledge already and clunking around with a "step-by-step"
manual
> was like having someone eager to drive a racecar but their instructor
wants
> to show them how to use the shifter. This book probably has a target
> audience that I didn't fit in.
>
> Visual Basic.Net, Richard Bowman
> One of my bargain purchases that was a dog. If the author's name is not on
> the cover of the book, that should be some sort of warning right there.
> Actually, there is some good material in the book, but its so covered up
> with screens on every page, you have to spend a lot of time digging for
what
> you need. An excellent example of how NOT to design pages for tech books.
> Save your money.
>
> If you were only allowed 3 books to learn how to write both desktop and
> Compact Framework database apps, my choices would be:
>
> Microsoft ADO.Net, David Sceppa
> Professional SQL Server 2000 Database Design, Louis Davidson
> Microsoft .Net Compact Framework Kick Start, Erik Rubin, Ronnie Yates
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