Rating:  - Excellent: better than others
This was a breath of fresh air, and restored my hopes that some authors do care about training, really teaching, really conveying meaning -not just padding pages. This book gives excellent overviews of web development, of web-development with ASP.NET, and of Visual Studio. All topics thereafter are properly introduced, the big picture conveyed, before details explored. Code dumps are sparse and pertinent, not filler fluff. Writing style is of the highest quality: rich, correct, to the point, but interesting. The author makes the topic very exciting, and seems to know you, seems to know your level, what you need explained.
Rating: - Great book
This book is the best so far that I've read on ASP.NET. I will list the good points.
1. Explains the internal workings of ASP.NET and what goes on behind the scenes unlike other books who just teach you the syntax.
2. Explains the pros and cons of using different but related controls/classes so that we can make an intelligent choice.
3. Explains the properties of classes concisely and with simple examples.
4. Explains the history of Internet server, visual studio IDE, asp.net.
This is really an excellent, nearly comprehensive book touching on nearly all aspect of asp.net. However, it doesn't teach you C#, the programming language which is found on another book.
Rating:  - Still A Great Book, Just Too Long
'Pro ASP.NET 3.5 in C# 2008' by Matthew McDonald is an update to the earlier versions that covered ASP.NET in the .NET 2.0 flavor and earlier. With this updated revision you get 200+ pages of new material covering such new concepts as the incredibly hyped LINQ, ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. The content here is VAST, with 33 chapters and 1500+ pages. The content is broken up in logical fashion from the basics of ASP.NET to data types and conditional loops to database access and everything you would need to know. I like this book perfectly fine and think it's a good resource but I can't imagine that most people are going to sit down for the weekend and start reading this cover to cover. With the previous version I felt that some content needed to be trimmed and I feel the same with this edition as well. Good writing, nice examples but the editor needed to take out the red marker and make this a manageable size. The core audience is someone that is new to ASP.NET and wants to learn. This encyclopedia is tough to learn from and intimidating in general.
Is it a usable ASP.NET book?? Very much so, just a bit too long and this might turn some people off in the long run.
**** RECOMMENDED
Rating: - Great ASP.NET 3.5 Resource
This book is almost too thorough, and I highly recommend it if you are a serious programmer or software architect for ASP.NET web apps. I don't recommend many books since most provide superficial overviews with content can be gleaned free from Google or MSDN searches. You won't be disappointed in the sections on security, AJAX, JavaScript, and deployment. This book and Scott Guthrie are the only two sources that I trust for ASP.NET development.
Although it covers LINQ, I only use this technology if you access data from a database via a stored procedure; otherwise you bypass the DBA. Not good for big shops like I work for. There are too many cowboy programmers out there who lack the team concept of checks and balances. LINQ is great for XML and iterating through object collections.
Great buy and better resource.
Rating: - A must have Book
This book is an excellent resource for learning ASP.NET 3.5. It also serves as a great reference.
It is a comprehensive book that covers all of .NET 3.5, not just the new features in .NET 3.5, but all the features that have been there over the last several releases.
Mathew includes chapters on Linq, ASP.NET AJAX, and Silverlight. If you only want to learn about the new features in .NET 3.5, buy separate books on ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. Mathew does a great job of putting Linq into it proper place within a common ASP.NET 3.5 Architecture. So far he has done this best job of this I have seen in a book.
One reviewer on Amazon pointed out that the book has a lot of material from previous versions. That is to be expected since all the previous versions are included in the technology. Like I said above, this book covers everything.
Mathew does a great job relating everything to real world scenarios. He also provides very usable code samples.
If you are developing in ASP.NET 3.5, this is a must have book.
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