Rating:  - Leading by example -- bad example
When I bought the second edition of ASP.NET Unleashed based on the reviews I had read, I felt assured that my purchase was a sound one. But upon receiving the book, I noticed that almost all the code samples have no code-behind files. The C# or VB.NET code is in the .aspx files along with the presentation layer code. What in the world?
One of the key best practices for writing ASP.NET applications is this: separate the presentation layer from the rest of the code for the project. ASP 3.0 applications, for example, suffered from having all the code mixed together. Then when graphics guys would add their work, or when the presentation layer needed major changes, the rest of the ASP code (business logic, etc.) was affected. Since ASP.NET offers a solution to this problem, why would this author provide all his code examples in .aspx files with non-presentation code contained therein?
I hope that beginning and intermediate developers who read this latest edition understand that the author was merely taking shortcuts. Whether Walther was using Notepad or not to edit his source, he still could have utilized code-behind files for the examples, thereby setting a much better example for more junior developers to follow.
My second but much less important complaint is that the code samples in the book are all in VB.NET. One must refer to the CD to see the C# versions of the .aspx files.
I recommend choosing a different ASP.NET book -- perhaps one published by APress or O'Reilly.
Rating:  - Very good book and highly recommended
Very good book. All code is in VB, but there is also a C# version in the enclosed CD (let's face it: VB is more popular, so that's the right way to do it). Doesn't use the .NET developlment environment (uses only plain text editor with command-line compilers) which I like - teaches the language from the foundation without the automatically-generated code from the .NET UI.
A point that some people might not like - author gives complete examples (all code + HTML) which are 1-2 pages long just to introduce 3-4 new lines of code. This makes it difficult to find and concentrate on the new code, but on the other hand is excellent for quick reference later - all examples are complete and working.
The book is quite thorough, detailed, easy to understand, includes nice tips and good explanations that go into sufficient depth. Iit might be a bit intimidating for a beginner, but is nice for a person looking to read a single book and then be able to get some work done (using just the .NET help if needing more info).
Rating: - !GREAT! NO VS.NET or other "Visual programming?" !GREAT!
This is a great book, it teaches everything without recurring to Visual Studio, which is great so you know exactly what it is in the code, and you get the really knowledge of this technology.
I'm a manager in an IT company, and I must say that Visual ?programmers? don't last too much, they click and click over Visual Studios make us spend too much in external components, and when the client want's something too much specific they just can't do it because they don't know source code, they only know visual windows.
(it's incredible but I trust more in my workers that learn from books and work over notepad or other text editor on their source code than in Microsoft Certificated Programmers which come ready to make us spend money in Visual Tools from MS of course)
So this book is great to get an in depth real knowledge of VB.NET Script at ASP.NET (.aspx) files.
This is a great book, I bought all the books of Stephen Walther since old ASP editions (which i still use sometimes)... this guy rocks, and I know what I say because I buy dozens of books for my department every year.
Cheers,
JV
Rating: - Fantastic Programming Reference
I'm going to be needing to pick up a new copy of this because I've nearly warn out the copy I have now.
The best aspect of this book is its coverage of the .NET framework. I refer to this book even while programming in VB.NET. Also, its coverage of ADO.NET is untouched. There is no other reference book that I reference as often.
Rating:  - A thorough dissapointment
When I first started looking for an ASP.NET book about 12 months ago, I saw that most sites recommended this one. But after I had purchased it I realized that this one had 2 major problems:
1. The author uses text editors like notepad instead of VS.NET
2. Everything's written in VB6.0 and not in VB.NET
If the above two don't seem like problems to you, go ahead and buy it.
Also, I couldn't understand why many reviews have raved about the book. Even without the above two points I think its an average book. There are much better ones in the market that can give both knowledge and also help in the real world applications.
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