Rating:  - Steer clear...
One of the most important things for me about a programming book is "How good is the index? Is it thorough and accurate?"
If I'm going to spend the money required to buy a programming book, I intend to use it as a refernce later... the index at the back of the book is *extremely* important for that purpose. If you can't find the information you need in a 1400 page book, you just bought a really expensive paperweight or filler to look nice on your bookshelf.
Unfortunately this is just such a book. I like the writing and the code but the index is absolutely worthless. That severly impacts the value of the book.
If you're like me and want to be able to refer back to the book later to find things, steer clear of this one. It costs too much for the return you'll get on your investment later.
The fault here is clearly with the publisher/editor or whoever created the index for this book. It's way too short and poorly detailed for such a lenghty tome.
Additionally the writer makes repeated references to the complete code for his examples (not included in the book) being on a cdrom that's included with the book... except there isn't one. The back cover of the book says the full code is available on SAMS website but doesn't explain where. It doesn't appear to be there either...
Rating:  - Excellent resource - great examples...
Just wanted to chip in a couple of thoughts regarding Stephen Walther's book, ASP.NET Unleashed (Second Edition).
The book covers all the major aspects of programming with ASP.NET against the .NET 1.1 framework. It has proven to be an invaluable tutorial for me as I've continued to develop my skills. Additionally, it has proven to be a great resource that I refer back to often. In this way, it achieves what few other technical publications have been able to do: be both a good teaching aid as well as an excellent reference source.
I also wanted to provide a note regarding a previous reviewer's comments concerning Walther's decision to eschew code-behind files for the sake of "shortcuts." In actual fact, he does cover code-behind files and demonstrates how to use them. The vast majority of his examples, however, do include the programming logic within the .aspx file.
This is not best practice for production applications, but it IS a very effective way to teach ASP.NET to people new to the subject. Having everything in one file simplifies the process and makes the entire subject more approachable.
Walther emphasizes the value of code-behind files and I believe most new programmers will understand that code-behind is a better model for most real-world applications.
Rating:  - A quality learning tool and reference alike
This book provides a complete reference to the .Net Framework V1.1. A Concise book, written and laid out well with examples in both VB and C#. Although aimed at Intermediate-Advanced users, this book covers most of the grounding needed to take up new topics covered within itself. A knowledge of the .Net Framework V1.1 would be useful before using this book. The only bad point i could make about this book is that the code samples are written as 'in-page' rather than as code behind, which could mislead a novice to thinking that this is best practice, however it is also worth noting the book is not aimed at novice users.
Rating: - Don't let the "1400 plus" pages scare you!
When you examine the book, you wonder if the author is just stuffing all these pages in the book just so that the publisher puts a $55 tag on it!
However, when you go over the first chapter of this book, you will realize that the author did not intend to pack this book with so many pages just to inform you about ASP.NET, he really wanted to teach you about ASP.NET, and his teaching style is to start you from the bottom up.
There are many things in this book to appreciate the author for:
- Each chapter is full of examples, you learn by doing the examples. The author even provided the codes on a CD; however I like to type these codes, cause by doing that, I make errors, and I learn from my errors.
- Perhaps the author meant for this book to be a college level book; however; he realizes that many of us out there too busy to take a class in college, for this reason he paid attention to the little stuff so that you are not left in the dark; for example, when he shows you how to compile a custom control VB file, he tells you if you have Visual studio.Net installed on your machine to use the command from the visual studio tools, and not the Dos command(page 1221 under the heading: Note). Many authors do not tell you that, and the results is simple you are left in the dark!
There are many ASP.Net books out there some are too shallow to really learn anything from them; and some are just full of useless talk; you will not see shallow subjects in this book, and you will not see any useless talk. The author gives you all the ingredients to learn ASP.Net successfully, and it is up to you to put these ingredients all together.
Rating: - Best ASP.NET Book I've ever read...
This is a great book for understanding the .NET framework and the many aspects of ASP.NET. I also found the coverage of ADO.NET to be extremely helpful. I've read about 3 books now on ASP.NET and this one is the most complete. I will definitely keep it around as a desktop reference.
Mike
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