Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4 Six-in-One (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an awesome survey that does Wrox and the entire .Net community proud. The quality and professionalism are exemplary. The low price is an amazing value!
Since technology is changing so quickly, survey books have much to offer in the way of imparting a great high level view of the entire .Net landscape while requiring the least amount of time on the part of the reader. Survey books also serve as a solid foundation on which to build deeper study.
This book leverages the wisdom of "many hands make light the work" by recruiting top notch domain experts for each topic. I hope more industry related technology books will follow this lead because utilizing lots of authors prevents the reader from picking up the limitations and biases that can (potentially) come from a smaller set of authors, and it also imposes less stress on a group of authors by not forcing overreach.
The book walks readers through the evolution of .Net technologies, which provides beneficial context. This information is also useful to those using legacy versions of .Net technologies.
My favorite part is the F# section, which is delightfully concise and accessible, yet doesn't skirt advanced topics like computation expressions, asynchronous workflows, and CPS (continuation passing style). The F# presentation is extremely important to all .Net programmers because many of the latest trends in C# and .Net are coming directly out of F# and functional programming (i.e. generics, LINQ, lambda functions, etc.). It is very pedagogical to see these concepts in a natively functional language like F#; they can then be leveraged from other technologies.


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Complete coverage of all key .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 languages and technologies
.NET 4 is Microsoft's latest version of their core programming platform, and Visual Studio 2010 is the toolset that helps write .NET 4 applications. This comprehensive resource offers one-stop shopping for all you need to know to get productive with .NET 4. Experienced author and .NET guru Mitchel Sellers reviews all the important new features of .NET 4, including .NET charting and ASP.NET charting, ASP.NET dynamic data and jQuery, and the addition of F# as a supported package language.
The expansive coverage is divided into six distinctive parts for easy navigation, and addresses: Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4, ASP.NET, the C# language, the VB.NET language, and the new F# language. A practical approach and complete examples round out this much-needed reference.
Focuses on the new and important features of the latest version Microsoft's core programming platform-.NET 4-as well as Visual Studio 2010, which allows you to write .NET 4 applications
Provides comprehensive coverage divided into six parts: Visual Studio 2010, .NET 4, ASP.NET, the C# language, the VB.NET language, and the new F# language
Discusses Visual Studio snippets and templates, .NET charting components, the .NET framework and WPF, LINQ, and the Entity framework
Explores various aspects of Visual Basic 2010, such as multi-line lambdas, auto-implemented properties, nullable optional parameters, and more

This investigative look at .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 will help you identify and isolate key elements that can benefit you immediately.

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Introducing .NET 4.0: With Visual Studio 2010 (Expert's Voice in .NET) Review

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(More customer reviews)When you buy a new television and are luxuriating in it's opulence, it's extra crisp display and hi-fidelity sound, do you read the entire owners manual or do you just read the parts of the owners for the things that are basically new on this model of TV? You already know how to work the television as they are fundamentally all the same but this new model that you've bought may have a built in wireless connection, or options on the sound to change from Stereo to Dolby etc. There is no need to read the entire manual, only the bits that are new to this make and model.
Over the years that I have been a Microsoft .Net programmer I have read literally hundreds of books that are basically re-hashes of previous titles, updated to include what's new in the latest Framework release. For example, when .Net 3.5 was released, I read numerous books that were basically the .Net 3.0 books that were simply updated and expanded to include the new features of .Net 3.5. Whilst this can be a good thing, you have a single reference manual incorporating all you need to know in one place, sometimes you just want a book that only covers the changes in the frameworks. Just place the extra chapters in a separate book. Rather than reading about classes and technologies that you already know, just give me what's new. That is exactly what Introducing .Net 4.0 With Visual Studio 2010 is, for the most part. The book is based on the Beta version of .Net 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 so some things may change by the time of actual release, however those changes are likely to be quite minor.
After a very brief introductory chapter Introducing .Net 4.0 delves straight in with what's been changed, added etc. to Visual Studio 2010. After all, this will (in all likely) be the tool you will use to take advantage of what follows in this book. From there we're off to a couple of chapters detailing changes to in the actual languages (this book is mainly geared towards the C# developer although the author does point out differences in VB.Net as well) and the underlying Common Language Runtime environment. Alex Mackey provides numerous examples liberally sprinkled around the chapters when introducing the new features to show you how they work and how to take advantage of them.
One thing that rather surprised me about this book is that Alex Mackey covers all the bases. It's not just a book for Windows Client developers or Asp.Net developers etc. He has included what's new in the .Net framework for all the technologies even including Silverlight. As an added bonus, the last chapter of the book covers the new Windows Azure framework. Whilst strictly speaking this isn't really part of .Net 4.0, there are tools built into Visual Studio 2010 to help take advantage of the new Azure framework and so it does fit in nicely with the purview of the book.
The book has a nice flowing feel to it and is surprisingly easy to read. Some technical books read more like an SA or university thesis whereas this one reads more like a novel. Packed with information regarding only the new additions and changes to the .Net Framework and Visual Studio.
If you are looking for a book teaching you how to program using Microsoft .Net technologies, then this isn't for you. If you are looking for an all-in-one reference manual on .Net 4.0 then again this book isn't for you. However if you are already a Microsoft .Net programmer and are looking for a book that details only what is new and changed in the upcoming .Net 4.0 framework, give yourself a head start with what's coming around the corner, then this book is for you and comes recommended.

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The release of .NET 4.0 this year brings in a wide range of changes to the .NET Framework across a broad front ranging from C# to Silverlight, from WPF to ‘Oslo'. Many familiar technologies are being over-hauled, best practices are being changed and developer methodologies altered. With so many new ideas appearing developers are finding it hard to keep track of the opportunities that are opening up.Introducing .NET 4.0 crystallizes their options and provides them with a roadmap to the new releases. It clearly maps the whole range of changes, showing what's new, what's changed and what has stayed the same. Crucially, it provides clear-cut examples of best practice and shows how the technology can be put to work. This massively reduces the amount of time readers need to spend in understanding how the new releases are going to affect them and gives them a head-start towards seizing the opportunities that are opening up.

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Professional ASP.NET 4 in C# and VB Review

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(More customer reviews)When this book was delivered I was in shock at the 1400+ pages, I've been reading on the book since and am several chapters in but I feel I know the book enough to give a fairly decent overview of how it was written and how it will hold up.
This book takes a great in-depth look at every aspect of ASP.NET 4 and gives clear and clean examples in both VB and C# (the authors seem to favor VB however.) Therein comes a warning, if you're new to ASP.NET, C#, or programing in general I strongly suggest you take a different book, this one is more to expand your existing knowledge not to build you from scratch. This book primarily covers the api of ASP.NET and how to effectively use it, it also covers topics such as LINQ, it does not cover language semantics or System Architecture. However, it does make up for neglecting those two subjects in covering Visual Studio 2010 in-depth, including diagramming.
Overall some of the content is a bit dry, this is a professional level book after all, but should be easy enough to read through once you get into your own pace. Don't let the 1400+ pages fool you or dissuade you from picking up this book, the length is partially due to screen shots and also because all code in the book is duplicated between VB to C# also the appendices take up quite a large section, however also keep in mind this book has 36 chapters covering Server and Client Controls to Deployment.
Summary:
Pros- Complete, direct, covers multiple languages (VB and C#,) easy enough to read.
Cons- Paperback only, can be overwhelming if you just open the book, alot of duplication between C# and VB that not everyone may be interested in.
Sideline - If you are new to C#/VB and .NET I would recommend using a language primer and probably the Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer) book by Wrox (Note the ASP.NET 4 version is due out soon.) Afterwards attacking this book will most likely get you where you need to be to compete for jobs/contracts/etc in .NET space.

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This book was written to introduce you to the features and capabilities that ASP.NET 4 offers, as well as to give you an explanation of the foundation that ASP.NET provides. We assume you have a general understanding of Web technologies, such as previous versions of ASP.NET, Active Server Pages 2.0/3.0, or JavaServer Pages. If you understand the basics of Web programming, you should not have much trouble following along with this book's content.
If you are brand new to ASP.NET, be sure to check out Beginning ASP.NET 4: In C# and VB by Imar Spaanjaars (Wiley Publishing, Inc., 2010) to help you understand the basics.
In addition to working with Web technologies, we also assume that you understand basic programming constructs, such as variables, For Each loops, and object-oriented programming.
You may also be wondering whether this book is for the Visual Basic developer or the C# developer. We are happy to say that it is for both! When the code differs substantially, this book provides examples in both VB and C#.
This book explores the 4 release of ASP.NET. It covers each major new feature included in ASP.NET 4 in detail. The following list tells you something about the content of each chapter.

Chapter 1, ″Application and Page Frameworks.″ The first chapter covers the frameworks of ASP.NET applications as well as the structure and frameworks provided for single ASP.NET pages. This chapter shows you how to build ASP.NET applications using IIS or the built-in Web server that comes with Visual Studio 2010. This chapter also shows you the folders and files that are part of ASP.NET. It discusses ways to compile code and shows you how to perform cross-page posting. This chapter ends by showing you easy ways to deal with your classes from within Visual Studio 2010.

Chapters 2, 3, and 4. These three chapters are grouped together because they all deal with server controls. This batch of chapters starts by examining the idea of the server control and its pivotal role in ASP.NET development. In addition to looking at the server control framework, these chapters delve into the plethora of server controls that are at your disposal for ASP.NET development projects. Chapter 2, ″ASP.NET Server Controls and Client-Side Scripts,″ looks at the basics of working with server controls. Chapter 3, ″ASP.NET Web Server Controls,″ covers the controls that have been part of the ASP.NET technology since its initial release and the controls that have been added in each of the ASP.NET releases. Chapter 4, ″Validation Server Controls,″ describes a special group of server controls: those for validation.

Chapter 5, ″Working with Master Pages.″ Master pages provide a means of creating templated pages that enable you to work with the entire application, as opposed to single pages. This chapter examines the creation of these templates and how to apply them to your content pages throughout an ASP.NET application.

Chapter 6, ″Themes and Skins.″ The Cascading Style Sheet files you are allowed to use in ASP.NET 1.0/1.1 are simply not adequate in many regards, especially in the area of server controls. This chapter looks at how to deal with the styles that your applications require and shows you how to create a centrally managed look-and-feel for all the pages of your application by using themes and the skin files that are part of a theme.

Chapter 7, ″Data Binding.″ One of the more important tasks of ASP.NET is presenting data, and this chapter looks at the underlying capabilities that enable you to work with the data programmatically before issuing the data to a control.

Chapter 8, ″Data Management with ADO.NET.″ This chapter presents the ADO.NET data model provided by ASP.NET, which allows you to handle the retrieval, updating, and deleting of data quickly and logically.

Chapter 9, ″Querying with LINQ.″ The.NET Framework 4 includes a nice access model language called LINQ. LINQ is a set of extensions to the .NET Framework that encompass language-integrated query, set, and transform operations. This chapter introduces you to LINQ and how to effectively use this feature in your Web applications today.

Chapter 10, ″Working with XML and LINQ to XML.″ The .NET Framework and ASP.NET 4 have many capabilities built into their frameworks that enable you to easily extract, create, manipulate, and store XML. This chapter takes a close look at the XML technologies built into ASP.NET and the underlying .NET Framework.

Chapter 11, ″Introduction to the Provider Model.″ The provider model is built into ASP.NET to make the lives of developers so much easier and more productive than ever before. This chapter gives an overview of this provider model and how it is used throughout ASP.NET 4.

Chapter 12, ″Extending the Provider Model.″ After an introduction of the provider model, this chapter looks at some of the ways to extend the provider model found in ASP.NET 4. This chapter also reviews a couple of sample extensions to the provider model.

Chapter 13, ″Site Navigation.″ Most developers do not simply develop single pages—they build applications. One of the application capabilities provided by ASP.NET 4 is the site navigation system covered in this chapter.

Chapter 14, ″Personalization.″ Developers are always looking for ways to store information pertinent to the end user. After it is stored, this personalization data has to be persisted for future visits or for grabbing other pages within the same application. The ASP.NET team developed a way to store this information—the ASP.NET personalization system. The great thing about this system is that you configure the entire behavior of the system from the web.config file.

Chapter 15, ″Membership and Role Management.″ This chapter covers the membership and role management system developed to simplify adding authentication and authorization to your ASP.NET applications. This chapter focuses on using the web.config file for controlling how these systems are applied, as well as on the server controls that work with the underlying systems.

Chapter 16, ″Portal Frameworks and Web Parts.″ This chapter explains Web Parts—a way of encapsulating pages into smaller and more manageable objects.

Chapter 17, ″HTML and CSS Design with ASP.NET.″ Visual Studio 2010 places a lot of focus on building a CSS-based Web. This chapter takes a close look at how you can effectively work with HTML and CSS design for your ASP.NET applications.

Chapter 18, ″ASP.NET AJAX.″ AJAX is an acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. In Web application development, it signifies the capability to build applications that make use of the XMLHttpRequest object. Visual Studio 2010 contains the ability to build AJAX-enabled ASP.NET applications from the default install of the IDE. This chapter takes a look at this way to build your applications.

Chapter 19, ″ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit.″ Along with the capabilities to build ASP.NET applications that make use of the AJAX technology, a series of controls is available to make the task rather simple. This chapter takes a good look at the ASP.NET AJAX Control Toolkit and how to use this toolkit with your applications today.

Chapter 20, ″Security.″ This chapter discusses security beyond the membership and role management features provided by ASP.NET 4. This chapter provides an in-depth look at the authentication and authorization mechanics inherent in the ASP.NET technology, as well as HTTP access types and impersonations.

Chapter 21, ″State Management.″ Because ASP.NET is a request-response–based technology, state management and the performance of requests and responses take on significant importance. This chapter introduces these two separate but important areas of ASP.NET development.

Chapter 22, ″Caching.″ Because of the request-response nature of ASP.NET, caching (storing previous generated results, images, and pages) on the server becomes rather important to the performance of your ASP.NET applications. This chapter looks at some of the advanced caching capabilities provided by ASP.NET, including the SQL cache invalidation feature which is part of ASP.NET 4. This chapter also takes a look at object caching and object caching extensibility.

Chapter 23, ″Debugging and Error Handling.″ This chapter tells you how to properly structure error handling within your applications. It also shows you how to use various debugging techniques to find errors that your applications might contain.

Chapter 24, ″File I/O and Streams.″ This chapter takes a close look at working with various file types and streams that might come into your ASP.NET applications.

Chapter 25, ″User and Server Controls.″ Not only can you use the plethora of server controls that come with ASP.NET, but you can also use the same framework these controls use and build your own. This chapter describes building your own server controls and how to use them within your applications.

Chapter 26, ″Modules and Handlers.″ This chapter looks at two methods of manipulating the way ASP.NET processes HTTP requests: HttpModule and HttpHandler. Each method provides a unique level of access to the underlying processing of ASP.NET, and each can be a powerful tool for creating Web applications.

Chapter 27, "ASP.NET MVC." ASP.NET MVC is the latest major addition to ASP.NET and has generated a lot of excitement from the development community. ASP.NET MVC supplies you with the means to create ASP.NET using the Model-View-Controller models that many developers expect. ASP.NET MVC provides developers with the testability, flexibility, an...

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