Rating: 
Summary: rocky does it again
Review: As usual, Rocky has shown his skills as a master programmer and teacher through this book. I believe that readers will have much more than their money's worth in this solid "classroom in a book". I was deeply, deeply impressed with the simplicity, the depth, the conciseness and the detail of this masterpiece. Many thanks to a respected author for another job very well done. Great. Simply great. Yes, go ahead and quote me. David
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Summary: A well written book about a well thought out architecture
Review: Being new to .NET when I bought this book (a year ago), I was looking for architectural guidance. I wanted a layered architecture that fit well with object oriented programming. This book clearly hits the mark. The topic (Rocky's CSLA architecture) is great. It's based on some really sound principles, and has a noble goal: namely, smart business objects. And it gives good detail. While CSLA centers on the business layer, Rocky does a good job of explaining how it fits in with other layers. Perhaps the thing I like best is the writing. Rocky is an excellent author. He stays on track, he's organized, and above all he is clear. He forsees many of your questions and answers them up front. And Rocky puts his money where his mouth is. He addresses questions about the CSLA framework in the MSN email group on a daily basis. Let me see: a free architecture (he isn't selling a product, you're free to use the CSLA architecture in your work), an excellent book, and an author who's accessible and keeps working to advance the architecture in his free time! If you have any lingering doubts, then go to a book store and pick up a copy and read the first two chapters. He does a fantastic job of explaining what he was trying to accomplish and how he went about it and the various design trade-offs that he encountered and how and why he chose to address each of them. If even skimming the first two chapters doesn't convince you it's worth the read, I'd be very surprised. Finally, I would like to comment on an earlier review suggested that Rocky was retrofitting CSLA for VB.NET. I would like to respectfully differ. I think that CSLA fits BETTER with the .NET framework than it did in VB6. In VB6, he required several work arounds to problems that have been resolved in .NET, and these are clearly mentioned in the book. p.s. The book was so highly sought after in the development community that he has written a C# version of it too, for those who are interested. It may be out already.
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Summary: Some good info, but won't make you a better developer
Review: Experienced developers know that there is a certain set of practices which aids in better n-tier development. For example, encapsulation of business rules, design for scalability and reuse and usage of design patterns. The first few chapters of this book do a good job of introducing these concepts in a way that makes them accesible to developers who are unfamiliar with them. For the rest of the book, Lhotka describes the CSLA framework; a toolset he developed which is intended to hide many of the implementation details just discussed. While there are situations where his framework has it's uses, Lhtoka describes it as if it were the Swiss-Army knife of business development. Unfortunately, it isn't. What Lhotka has really discovered is a good way to build applications that works for *him*, but he seems determined that *all* developers would be better off if they all worked similarly. Pro-golfers know that there is no such thing as a perfect swing. Every golfer is different, and the ultimate swing for one is completely different from the ultimate swing for another. Business development is the same. Each project and even each combination of developers will benefit more from coming up with a style that suits thier particular situation best rather than force-fitting a generic solution, such as CSLA, to thier individual effort. Lhotka is an accomplished developer. Therefore this book would have been better positioned as a career-autobiography. In other words it's central message would have worked as: "I'm a successful person, and here's how I accomplished it". Instead, the message it delivers is "If this framework worked for me, it must work for everyone". Any pro-golfer (or experienced business developer) will tell you that this simply isn't true. In case you're unaware of it's history, this book is meant to be Lhotka's update of his CSLA framework for .NET. Unfortunately, the fact that it wasn't designed for .NET handicaps it severely. For example, in several places, Lhotka uses "tricks", such as reflection to compensate for what he calls limitations of the .NET framework. In reality, what Lhotka is compensating for in these areas is simple poor design, especially the aforementioned fact that it doesn't really fit with the .NET framework design. This is unfortunate, because what it really shows is that CSLA would benefit more from a complete, ground-up redesign for .NET instead of an ill-conceived retrofit. A much better framework could be developed by embracing certain features of the .NET framework instead of trying to thwart them. Inexperienced developers will probably pick up some good n-tiered component development practices from this book, but they will probably also pick up some bad ones, and unfortunately, being inexperienced, won't know which is which. Experienced developers will read this book, shrug, and move on to a more insteresting one. Someone from either group who is interested in learning more about n-tier business development would do better to pick up a book on pure theory, or dedicated to solving his or her specific business problem. Unfortunately, since this book tries to be both things, it ends being good at neither.
Rating:
Summary: Really really cool
Review: I bought this book a while ago and it's been republished. If you have been a VB developer for any amount of time, you've definitely heard of Lhotka and he's been a wonderful friend of any VB Programmer. He takes a really interesting approach to business objects and it's not the same old stuff. It's definitely geared toward somewhat advanced programmers, although I think everyone will find relevant information in there. I'm biased, I'm a big fan of Rocky, but I think this book is quite typical of his first class work.<...
Rating:
Summary: Really really cool
Review: I bought this book a while ago and it's been republished. If you have been a VB developer for any amount of time, you've definitely heard of Lhotka and he's been a wonderful friend of any VB Programmer. He takes a really interesting approach to business objects and it's not the same old stuff. It's definitely geared toward somewhat advanced programmers, although I think everyone will find relevant information in there. I'm biased, I'm a big fan of Rocky, but I think this book is quite typical of his first class work.
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Summary: Rocky Does it again.
Review: I bought this book because I follow a lot of his work. I've conversed with him in newgroups and have always been impressed with his command of the subject matter. Everyone going to .NET talks about N-Tier and sepearating logic but most folks don't seem to really understand what that means. If you read this book , you won't have that problem.
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Summary: Rocky does it again!
Review: I developed a number of apps. utilizing Rocky's architecture for VB6, so, when I was learning VB.NET and noticed Rocky had a book out on his CSLA architecture in .NET, I knew I had to buy it. As is the case with all of Rocky's books, they are the best value out there. He explains the stuff extremely well, (yes, I have to read a few of the chapters a couple of times, but, this is some difficult stuff) and follows up his explanations with solid, correctly executing code. I learn best by examples, and loading his projects and stepping through them provide me with an invaluable learning experience. I cannot wait for his C# book on CSLA. I have already been on his website and downloaded the beta code in C# and started working on some C# projects so when his book comes out, I will have already tackled the material.
Rating:
Summary: Rocky does it again!
Review: I developed a number of apps. utilizing Rocky's architecture for VB6, so, when I was learning VB.NET and noticed Rocky had a book out on his CSLA architecture in .NET, I knew I had to buy it. As is the case with all of Rocky's books, they are the best value out there. He explains the stuff extremely well, (yes, I have to read a few of the chapters a couple of times, but, this is some difficult stuff) and follows up his explanations with solid, correctly executing code. I learn best by examples, and loading his projects and stepping through them provide me with an invaluable learning experience. I cannot wait for his C# book on CSLA. I have already been on his website and downloaded the beta code in C# and started working on some C# projects so when his book comes out, I will have already tackled the material.
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Summary: You must buy this book!
Review: I have bought many book, most of them have been worthless. This is not one of them. I have read this book twice and it was worth it. The author actually responds to postings at his website. If you really want to think about what you are doing when you are creating business objects, You must buy this book. The material is somewhat complex and there were alot of time I did not understand how it worked. Once I got it to work I was very impressed. I am thinking about buying the book again, because my copy is so worn and so full of marks. When was the last time you bought a book twice. It is that good!
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Summary: From intermediate to advanced
Review: I have spent the last 12 months getting up to speed on .Net programming and read about 10 books. This one is by far the best.
What sets Rockford's book apart is that he solves problems by setting an objective, discusses approaches and highlights pros and cons, delves into the coding structure, walks through the solution in the chosen programming language, and gives adequate information/description on the steps in the IDE. Other books I have read focuses on how Microsoft has implemented the technologies and libraries. Rockford puts it to use for a corporate programmer. Many advanced programmers may disagree with his solution and point out weaknesses, but so does Rockford. The enormous benefit here is learning problemsolving with some advanced thinking and forethought, EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE with Rockford's answers and solutions!!! The biggest value you'll get is learning to solve problems. BETTER YET, there are active discussions online at www.lhotka.net (Rockford's website) on solving real problems using his solution - even enhancing and adapting it. Using .Net, the framework presented can be used in other languages for application development. Hence, you can learn to use the framework and progress in your professional work. I'd say this is the book that brings you up a notch or two in the programming world. Real experience put to real use in the real world is the gyst of this book. If you are not a VB programmer, get it anyway. If you are a C# programmer, get this VB version and buy the C# version to be released in May 2004!! It's not easy to reach Rockford's level, but this book sure gets you going! It will move you from intermediate to advanced in a month of dedicated work! A book for anyone who is serious about their professional career! As you probably know from this review I give it 5 stars and top rating!
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