Rating: 
Summary: Excellent book! Excellent examples and sample code.
Review: Even the most complex topics are understandable. The book is targeted at programmers who have some experience in developing applications using .NET. Most of the content is not geared toward .NET beginners, but the introductions to each topic can be a good jump-start if you have previous application development experience. The book also provides a lot of advice to help determine when code generation is useful and when it is not.
Anyone implementing code generation as part of their .NET application architecture should read this book at least once to assist with planning their strategy, and then refer back top specific topics during implementation. Overall it's a good buy because the author has taken a lot of time to ensure that the content is relevant to real-world developers, and there are several real-world application examples with source code included.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book! Excellent examples and sample code.
Review: Even the most complex topics are understandable. The book is targeted at programmers who have some experience in developing applications using .NET. Most of the content is not geared toward .NET beginners, but the introductions to each topic can be a good jump-start if you have previous application development experience. The book also provides a lot of advice to help determine when code generation is useful and when it is not.
Anyone implementing code generation as part of their .NET application architecture should read this book at least once to assist with planning their strategy, and then refer back top specific topics during implementation. Overall it's a good buy because the author has taken a lot of time to ensure that the content is relevant to real-world developers, and there are several real-world application examples with source code included.
Rating:
Summary: Worth it's weight in gold
Review: I agree with the author that "code generation" will grow as a dominant force in the IT industry over the next 5 years. When you hear stories about programming tasks being shipped overseas, its not the deep, creative thinking of type work that is shipped... no, they ship the redundant, grunt type of coding which could be described by an algorithm. When you find yourself writing code falling into a predictable pattern, then perhaps you should consider code generation.
Before I read the book, I was already convinced that code generation was a valuable thing to do, but the book helped reshape how I thought of code generation in the context of a large project, or even an IT department.
Here are the main points that resonated with me:
1) Code Generation should be thought of as a step in the overall project build process.
2) The biggest payoff will be gained by generated stored procedures and middle tier components.
3) Code generation allows the architect to decouple the system meta data from the technology. (eg. I can change my data access strategy by simply modifying my template)
4) It is possible to generate UI components.
Finally, the book goes beyond code generation. You will learn other interesting tidbits about Visual Studio .NET and the .NET framework. The appendices include good primers on XML/XSLT and her Code Generation harness. The freely downloadable harness is designed to orchestrate the CodeGen process, but you really need to the book to understand how it works and how it can be extended.
Rating: 
Summary: Specialized book that is not for everyone, but very good
Review: I always respect authors and publishers who have the courage to publish highly specialized books such as this one. It will not be relevant to most of the developers doing general .NET development, for but those needing help with Code Generation this is absolutely required.
In general, when I see many classes that are nearly identical they can be designed in a much better way using normal OO constructs (base class with children if required for special cases to override). In general, if possible do not mark your classes as SEALED and mark each method as virtual. This gives other the ability to extend your work. There is nothing more frustrated then finding a class that is close to what you need and finding it is sealed to you resort to encapsulation (which many would argue is a better approach anyway and in many cases they are correct).
However when you have tedious classes that are different in fundamental ways (like a database layer) this can eliminate the drudgery of much of the effort.
In addition to a deep understanding of multi-threading this is one area the senior developer should understand and study.
Kind Regards,
Damon Wilder Carr, Chief Technologist and CEO
Rating:
Summary: Fine book on model driven generation for .NET
Review: I don't understand the viewpoint of the first reviewer. A book isn't one star simply because the content of the book wasn't what you intended. If you expected a book on reflection I'm not sure why you thought a book on code generation was going to do it for you. Perhaps you are thinking about runtime code generation, but I'm sure that would be in the title.Back to the book. I think it's great. The only flaw I can find is that it's almost too detailed in spots. She presents an entire framework for building SQL DDL, stored procedures, an ORM layer, and user interface with both WinForms and HTML from XML descriptions. She also provides a larger perspective on code generation in the context of the development cycle as well as avoiding the common pitfalls. The jovial tone also keeps it light. Anyone skilled enough to understand how code generation can revolutionize their development process should be able to handle the VB, XML, and XSLT used in the book, and either apply the principles in derivative work, or use her code directly.
Rating: 
Summary: Two Old Reviews Gone
Review: I noticed two reviews are gone, which makes the rating of this book to become 5 instead of 2.5
Be cautious!
Rating:
Summary: Bold step forward in the art of code generation
Review: I thank the author for this fantastic book on code generation. Contrary to what I have read on the web this is not a hard book. It is the first truly creative book on .NET I have read. The code, that is downloadable, includes both C# and VB code. While this is not a book for developers learning .NET it will prove invaluable to developers who have already started getting tired of writing or adapting the same repetitive code project after project. This book while introducing a truly unique way of using the tools in .NET is also a good read. The author's writing style is engaging and not the usual mindless .NET prose found in many books. I have used my own `brute force' code generation since 1998 in VB6 to generate classes and forms. When I started porting my code generation to .NET I soon realised that I would have to redesign and rewrite to fully utilise ADO.NET and started looking for a new application. After trying all the generation tools out there in the hope of finding a replacement for my own application I was disappointed to see that they all had a `philosophy' that one had to embrace to use their tools and that all the tools were inflexible from a developer's viewpoint. Even the templates only give the developer the functions in the `Black Box' without the option of extending the functionality. This book takes a bold step forward in the art of code generation giving developers the tools to extract information from a database structure and to then generate custom stored procedures and classes from this metadata using XSLT. The book's main focus is on using XSLT templates but also discusses the use of brute force and CodeDOM for code generation. As the developer controls every aspect of the code generation and the system is extendable it is guaranteed to enhance the creativity and productiveness of developers. The book includes an excellent appendix on XML, XPath and XSD that will get you up to speed on these technologies quickly. In this book I have found what I could not in any of the code generation products, total control of the process and extendibility. An ideal companion book to get is Expert One-on-One Visual basic .NET Business Objects by Rockford Lhotka. As the templates in the book are based on Mr Lhotka's CSLA framework his book will make extending and understanding the templates easier. Amazon makes it extremely easy for buyers to compare books and to have access to all the information needed to make an informed purchase. I am always amazed by reviews from people who did not understand what the book they bought was about. This book's title is self explanatory and easy to understand. If you do not want to learn how code generation can make your life as a developer easier and more enjoyable then do not buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Bold step forward in the art of code generation
Review: I thank the author for this fantastic book on code generation. Contrary to what I have read on the web this is not a hard book. It is the first truly creative book on .NET I have read. The code, that is downloadable, includes both C# and VB code. While this is not a book for developers learning .NET it will prove invaluable to developers who have already started getting tired of writing or adapting the same repetitive code project after project. This book while introducing a truly unique way of using the tools in .NET is also a good read. The author's writing style is engaging and not the usual mindless .NET prose found in many books. I have used my own 'brute force' code generation since 1998 in VB6 to generate classes and forms. When I started porting my code generation to .NET I soon realised that I would have to redesign and rewrite to fully utilise ADO.NET and started looking for a new application. After trying all the generation tools out there in the hope of finding a replacement for my own application I was disappointed to see that they all had a 'philosophy' that one had to embrace to use their tools and that all the tools were inflexible from a developer's viewpoint. Even the templates only give the developer the functions in the 'Black Box' without the option of extending the functionality. This book takes a bold step forward in the art of code generation giving developers the tools to extract information from a database structure and to then generate custom stored procedures and classes from this metadata using XSLT. The book's main focus is on using XSLT templates but also discusses the use of brute force and CodeDOM for code generation. As the developer controls every aspect of the code generation and the system is extendable it is guaranteed to enhance the creativity and productiveness of developers. The book includes an excellent appendix on XML, XPath and XSD that will get you up to speed on these technologies quickly. In this book I have found what I could not in any of the code generation products, total control of the process and extendibility. An ideal companion book to get is Expert One-on-One Visual basic .NET Business Objects by Rockford Lhotka. As the templates in the book are based on Mr Lhotka's CSLA framework his book will make extending and understanding the templates easier. Amazon makes it extremely easy for buyers to compare books and to have access to all the information needed to make an informed purchase. I am always amazed by reviews from people who did not understand what the book they bought was about. This book's title is self explanatory and easy to understand. If you do not want to learn how code generation can make your life as a developer easier and more enjoyable then do not buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: interesting
Review: Much of this book is obvious - use of XSLT to to generate code files, how to consume sql metadata. But the author does a GREAT job of presenting the information in useful context. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Basilio
Review: Not so good. This book definitely deservs 3 stars as max. But those promoters gave 5, then I give 1. Just to be honest.
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