Developing Applications with Visual Studio .NET

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm a big fan of both the DevelopMentor series (from Addison Wesley) and Richard Grimes' previous books, so I was very anxious to read this book. It was all the more disappointing, then, that I didn't particularly like it.

Mr. Grimes' previous books were very straight-forward and task-oriented. I'm constantly lending my copies to other programmer's to reference how to implement something in C++/COM. This book is not task-oriented (not that there's anything wrong with that). However, it didn't really work for me as a theory-oriented book either. Often, it seems to dive down into obscure detail on some feature that I didn't feel had been adaquately introduced. I would have preferred shedding some detail on some of the more obscure topics in favor of more complete examples.

I managed to make myself read the first 500 pages or so (always thinking that things would become better in the next chapter), but it was like pulling teeth. Finally, I set it aside and moved onto a different book (the excellent "Essential ADO.Net").

Rating:
Summary: Good book if you can choke down "Managed C++"
Review: I've read Richard Grimes' other works published by WROX, and eagerly looked forward to this one. While i found it technically very informative, the book claims to be targeted at "C++ Win32 Developers" but the vast majority of examples are C#. In spite of what everyone seems to think, the languages are not interchangeable, and I expected much more of a C++ angle. Am I the only C++ developer who feels C# is being rammed down my throat whether I like it or not?

Rating:
Summary: Great content -- questionable structure.
Review: If you've done some C++ and COM programming in the past and want to gain a subsential knownledge of the .NET Framework, this book is the one you should choose. Of course this is not an absolute requirement! You can start right away with this book but it will be difficult!

Richard Grimes is giving us very good information about how things work, and how to leverage the quality of your code to its maximun by giving good examples and trics. It is not a easy book, but if you're ready to work hard during one one week or two you can go throughout this book and you'll gain everything you need to start with .NET and even more.

I really liked the chapter on .NET remoting, which was clear and full of good insights that help me understand what was going on when calling a method remotly with the .NET framework. This is not an How To book, but a Why book :) Why things work like as they do, so you can use things very efficiently.

The book also explains some part of the IDE of VS.NET to help you exploit the power of this new and very exciting IDE.

The book use C++ and C#, no VB.NET which is I think a good decision because to much isn't better than to less and there's plenty of good VB.NET books out there.

So, if you've read and appreciate the deep coverage and quality information given in Beginning ATL 3 COM or Professional ATL COM programming from WROX, which were writing by Richard Grimes, you'll definitly like this book. He has a good writing style and has the ability to focus on important things.

Rating:
Summary: Best book so far on Managed C++, VS.NET and how it all works
Review: Richard is a long time respected author in the Microsoft world and he does not disapoint with this very well written, consise and well targeted book. I have been working with .NET for over 2 years now but there are a lot of mysterious areas still. Richard sets the tone right away "I have diliberately decided to C++ Win32 developers. This book has no VB.NET code and the barest minimum of ASP.NET. I also make no excuses about the fact that this book is packed full of details, and in places it touches on tough concepts." Yes! Finally! Not another book on what C# and VB.NET is and a rehash of the existing documentation, this book is a detailed dig and exploration in the vital areas of the runtime, interop, managed C++, and VS.NET among others. The book starts with a drilling down into the .NET Runtime. There is a lengthy investigation of the Framework Class Library in Chapter 2. The next chapters on Contexts and Remoting, and Interoperation and COM+ are utterly brilliant with detailed information that you need to know to use these technologies. The next two chapters focus on VS.NET. There is some run-thru of the environment and the menus, but Richard covers the atomation model that has been exposed and add-ins and even VSIP. This is stuff that I have not seen in any other book. Chapter 7 is the heart and soul for me on Visual C++.NET. The discussion of the changes in ATL 7 are perfect and something I have next to my desk every day as I develop. The best part is the rationale and clear explanation on Atrributes. Then, the sections on Managed C++ are very clear and detailed.

This book has spent the whole week open next to my work computer as I have used the VS.NET and Chapetr 7 chapters. This book is a must have if you are a hard-core .NET developer in C# and MC++.

Rating:
Summary: Quality book that offers a lot of insight into .NET
Review: The book really comes from the perspective of a Win32/C++ developer. I would not recommend this book, unless you have come from this background, or really want to understand some of the internals of .Net (and are really willing to spend some time in it). It also only really covers Visual C# and Visual C++.Net (managed and unmanaged).
Overall it is a quality book that offers a lot of insight into the world of .Net. It requires one to read it a few times through to really get the details as Grimes has a tendency to dig deep into details that may not make sense at the time.
The organization is fair but could use a lot of work as the chapter layout seems a little disjointed. There could also be many more examples in the book. The book provides an adequate number of examples, but could use more.
The first few chapters really spend a lot of time digging into the framework. Many times Grimes leads one deep down a path (such as boxing and unboxing) and others he refers to another chapter later (such as exception handling etc). It's a decent overview of .Net but requires one to read it over a few times. Many times it delves into the inner workings of .Net that might not be easy to grasp the first time through.
The second chapter starts looking at the framework classes, and gives a healthy overview of .Net's offering. Chapter 3 gets into .Net remoting and context. Overall I think chapter 2 and 3 are probably the best of the book.
Chapter four concerns itself with COM interop and COM+. This chapter is a good overview of what was done before and how it works in .Net. It is a necessary chapter, but I for one kinda glossed over it. The price of interop tends to be fairly high and to be avoided wherever possible. I think this is a great chapter, though, as I am sure I will need to do this at some point and this will be a good reference.
Chapters 5 and 6 concern themselves with Visual Studio .Net and how to build applications. Pretty good chapters, especially if you have not become familiar with the IDE yet. The section on tools and external tools are very important.
Chapter 7 is all about Visual C++.Net (managed and unmanaged). I think this is really a highlight as there are not many good books on Visual C++.Net. Grimes does an excellent job of describing the enhancements to Visual C++ and some features that have been widely ignored (ATL Server and Visual C++ unmanaged).
Chapter 8 provides an excellent overview of application development. Unfortunately the book does not cover ADO.Net or ASP.Net, but it makes up for it by covering many tricky areas of development like localization, and logging mechanisms.
Chapter 9 covers debugging. I wish this chapter was actually longer, but It does a good job of showing debugging techniques for .Net. This chapter is an absolute must read for any developer, as debugging techniques can not be over stressed.
Overall I think the book is very detailed and it should be in any serious developer's library. This is definitely not a beginer's book and does not cover many aspects of .Net development that are almost essential. Windows Forms, Remoting are covered lightly but really almost requires a book in and of itself to describe it correctly. I recommend this book, but be careful to do a self evaluation before you dive in. I have seen many senior developers read this book and not understand any of it. It is very clear about it's target audience being of a Visual C++ background, and it is not lying. I think it provides the best book for introducing those developers into .Net. Hope you enjoy this book, too. -- Reviewed by Mathew U.

Rating:
Summary: C# No, C++ Yes
Review: The difficult thing about this book for me is that I do hope that I can avoid C# all of my life and C# and C++ are given about equal time throughout this book. As the author points out on page 561, "C# is a wonderful language, but it often leaves you wondering if you can do more, and when you discover that you have reached the limits of the language, you realize it is time to get back to C++." Haven't we had enough of Visual Basic, and Java? Now C#? Why not C++? Why do we have to wade through explanations for both C# and C++ on every subject. If we spent as much time on a real language like C++ as we have spent over the years becoming multilingual we could be C++ masters. I always remember that, other things being equal, faster is better. And I have never seen any other language except Assembler come close to the speed of execution of C and C++. This book would be better if it were two different books - one addressing C++ only and one addressing any other would-be language.

In the Summary of Chapter 7, Mr. Grimes states that "All in all, C++ is the language for .NET development, and I hope that you, like me, will recover from a brief flirtation with other .NET languages and return to the best language for the job: C++."

In Chapter 8, Application Development, Mr. Grimes elects to disregard his own advice and gives every single example in C#. How quickly hope for a return to sanity was dashed!

Rating:
Summary: C# No, C++ Yes
Review: The difficult thing about this book for me is that I do hope that I can avoid C# all of my life and C# and C++ are given about equal time throughout this book. As the author points out on page 561, "C# is a wonderful language, but it often leaves you wondering if you can do more, and when you discover that you have reached the limits of the language, you realize it is time to get back to C++." Haven't we had enough of Visual Basic, and Java? Now C#? Why not C++? Why do we have to wade through explanations for both C# and C++ on every subject. If we spent as much time on a real language like C++ as we have spent over the years becoming multilingual we could be C++ masters. I always remember that, other things being equal, faster is better. And I have never seen any other language except Assembler come close to the speed of execution of C and C++. This book would be better if it were two different books - one addressing C++ only and one addressing any other would-be language.

In the Summary of Chapter 7, Mr. Grimes states that "All in all, C++ is the language for .NET development, and I hope that you, like me, will recover from a brief flirtation with other .NET languages and return to the best language for the job: C++."

In Chapter 8, Application Development, Mr. Grimes elects to disregard his own advice and gives every single example in C#. How quickly hope for a return to sanity was dashed!

Rating:
Summary: Gem of a book - pays for itself in days
Review: This is a gem of a book that is packed with insights not readily found elsewhere. Chapter 3 ('Context & Remoting') perfectly distills the subject in about 90 pages with clear code snippets. Chapter 2 on the FCL was well done (over 120 pages) with good code examples. The chapters on VS (IDE) was not extraordinary but acceptable. The frosting of the book was Chapter 7 on Managed C++, quote "It is time to return to my true love, C++". Ditto.

Rating:
Summary: Gem of a book - pays for itself in days
Review: This is a gem of a book that is packed with insights not readily found elsewhere. Chapter 3 ('Context & Remoting') perfectly distills the subject in about 90 pages with clear code snippets. Chapter 2 on the FCL was well done (over 120 pages) with good code examples. The chapters on VS (IDE) was not extraordinary but acceptable. The frosting of the book was Chapter 7 on Managed C++, quote "It is time to return to my true love, C++". Ditto.