Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When it comes to SQL Server, I have always found BOL to be 99% comprehensive and 99% usable, so I regard the majority of aftermarket books to be written for people who want to avoid BOL for other reasons.
Of course, BOL 2005 is a work in progress, as is SQL 2005 itself, which makes the learning curve steep, especially if you didn't get started with an earlier beta, so I had high expectations for "A First Look at SQL Server 2005 for Developers" from Addison-Wesley. It's roughly 700 pages (depending on how you count; Amazon apparently counts every single sheet of paper between the covers, even if they aren't normal pages).
Let's get something straight right away: this book is for mainstream app developers. In particular, it's mostly about the CLR integration and XML-related features. Sure, general T-SQL enhancements and other areas like Notification Services get covered, and there's some cursory information about the new GUI tools. But topics like Analysis Services, DTS, Reporting Services, and migration/deployment are totally missing. I think this book does a great job covering its chosen topics in reasonable depth, but the bottom line is that you should set your expectations based on your interest in CLR and XML.
One more thing to get out of the way: The publisher's "Book Support" page is useless. The publisher claims that you should be able to find Errata here, but there's currently no link. Also, the Sample Chapter link is currently broken. (You can, however, find a sample chapter from this book in the Beta 2 Resource Kit recently posted on the MSDN Subscribers Download site. It's Chapter 15 covering the new Service Broker.)
The book has an official web site with updates, downloadable code examples, and errata. To find it, you must visit one of the links on page xxxiii and surf to the book site under Bob Beauchemin's site at DevelopMentor.
This is a very well-written book which does an outstanding job of moving from concepts to code. When concepts are introduced, some books drag out the process of putting them into context (either historical context such as the current situation in SQL 2000, or the context of real-world application usage). This book quickly and concisely explains why a feature is important, then proceeds to show how it works. The authors are careful not to become too concise when it comes to SQL terminology. Their trainer backgrounds probably tell them that many people don't know the formal names for things (especially users of Microsoft products who first learned things on-the-job with no help) so they are careful to define terms like aggregate functions and ACID when first used. Therefore, I think someone with little/no SQL experience will still be able to follow this book. Chapter 6 on security deserves a special mention for being accessible to a wide audience. If you're well-versed in SQL Server 2000, Windows, and .NET security, the reminders in this chapter are quick to review while discovering the 2005 improvements. If you're shamefully ignorant of current security issues, this chapter brings a lot together in only 35 pages.
On the other hand, if you are not already familiar with .NET, this book is not the place to start. There is an attempt in Appendix A to include a brief overview of .NET, but I seriously doubt it would be adequate for the stated audience: people "who haven't done any development at all using .NET."
Code fragments are intermixed with the text at the proper points, and they are just the right length to illustrate the point at hand. This book does not attempt to assemble a complete sample app as you go sequentially through the chapters, which makes it easier to jump around. Simple diagrams are used when needed. Some books use random screenshots and fancy charts just to break up the text and keep it from looking dense, but this book is readable without wasting space on fluff. There very few screenshots in the entire book, most of them in Appendix B which covers the GUI tools.
Based upon what I see in Amazon reviews of various .NET books and upon the fact that many .NET books go to the trouble of providing sample code in both C# and VB .NET, I gather that there are some VB .NET programmers who don't like books which use C# exclusively. If you're one of them, I urge you to give this book a chance, even though all the .NET example code is C#. The examples are short and so clearly written that you shouldn't have any trouble reading them.
The book is meant to cover Beta 2 as best it can, but the majority of the book had to be finalized in early May which you can tell from the sample PDF. Published copies were shipping several weeks before Microsoft built the actual Beta 2 release. Although the screenshots in Appendix B show "Beta 2" on the login dialog, the title bars still say "SQL Workbench" and a footnote acknowledges the discrepancy between the screenshots and the text which refers to SQL Server Management Studio. Luckily, the authors and early readers have been diligent about finding the things which need to be updated and corrected, so make sure to visit the book's web site. I expect relatively little of the book to be affected by Beta 3 and the site will probably cover whatever is.
While RTM remains many months away, this book is a good investment. It doesn't replace BOL, and other 2005 books will be coming out, but if you need a time-efficient way to get your arms around the CLR and XML capabilities of Beta 2, I recommend this book.
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