Exploring ArcObjects (Two Volume Set)

Rating:
Summary: A must have for ArcObject programmers
Review: Although this book is available in PDF format for free on the ArcGIS CDs from ESRI, the paper version is worth the price -- the 2 large volumes are difficult to use online and I prefer to browse through them. It's a must have for anyone doing serious ArcObjects programming. It's really more of a reference set, but also provides an overview of how to use the extensive ArcObjects model.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely useful
Review: If you are developing with ArcObjects these books are indespensable. I am a core developer at ESRI on the ArcMap team and I very frequently consult "Exploring ArcObjects" for areas of the software I am not so familiar with.

Rating:
Summary: Extremely useful
Review: If you are developing with ArcObjects these books are indespensable. I am a core developer at ESRI on the ArcMap team and I very frequently consult "Exploring ArcObjects" for areas of the software I am not so familiar with.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent resouce for both learning and reference
Review: This new edition is a major improvement over the first incarnation called ArcObjects Developer's Guide. While this book is very large with over 1400 pages it really is an excellent survey of ArcObjects. Nearly every object and interface is discussed, some more so than others. However, it still lacks critical examples for building real world applications. For example, there's no example for building featureclasses from code. In fact, there's no complete application presented at all so the user is left with having to piece it all together.
Also some chapters are better "explored" than others. For example, there's a great deal of information on Composing Maps while there's very little details on using networks in chapter 11. This is probably a result of having different authors for each chapter. The inconsistencies showed.
As a result of these limitation, the practitioner is left with having to use the ArcGIS help and related documentation to complete all the missing pieces. Regardless this is a major improvement. Perhaps a new book should address the issues of building applications using this large object model.