CodeNotes for .NET

Rating:
Summary: Michelin Guide to .NET Capabilities For Serious Developers
Review: ...

Like the two-day tour in a travel guide book, the book takes you to the most significant points of interest in the entire .NET platform, which includes the Framework with its classes, the Common Type System, the common Intermediate Language, the supported languages, Windows Forms, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and Web Services. You should be at least a mid-level developer/programmer with good familiarity with at least one OO language since the author assumes you have no need to be briefed on the Windows OS, HTML, the basics of LANS and the Web, and programming language features common to C++, C#, VB.NET, and Java. While there are numerous code fragments in C#, VB.NET, or C++, the book speaks to broad architectural issues, and Java programmers also will have no problem following the text.

The book permits one to kick the tires and explore the boundaries of the .NET platform. After one full day of reading answer questions such as: What are the features of .NET and how are they tied together? Where does .NET advance the state of the art? What are the limitations of .NET? How do I bring older technologies, like COM, into .NET? When items are addressed in some detail, they are advanced topics such as the use of delegates and events in C# and VB.NET.

While most useful for developers needing their first intelligent look at .NET, the book would be good preparation for a designers and architects wanting to be sure that .NET can be used for implementation of the design and for Java programmers who want to see if Bill's new dog has fleas. Since it's a brief high-level tour of capabilities, the book is not intended as a programming reference and does not cover the low level things that we understand but sometimes forget.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book
Review: As a developer (in non-Microsoft technologies) I found this book absolutely great (in terms of being able to get an understanding of Java technologies).
I managed to do this in about 4 hours (cannot think of anything more productive).

Rating:
Summary: I guess...
Review: I expected a brief succint book about creating web services and possibly other components with .NET. Instead, much of the book is an introduction to .net framework. I'd recommend "CodeNotes for VB.NET" instead. This book seems to have been renamed. Although "CodeNotes for .NET Component Developers" is how it is listed by Amazon, the book cover now reads "CodeNotes for .NET". I suspect the change was a marketing decision by someone.

By the way, the "CodeNotes" series, in general, is quite good. However, I'd skip this one. I rate it "4" since, as an overview of .NET, it's not bad (although the VB.NET book is better.)

Rating:
Summary: Brought me up to speed in .NET in one Night
Review: It's a useful idea - to offer something between an excecutive review and a mighty detailed 1500-page code packed manual. This is what Codenotes does - it offers a good general overview of the .NET platform and the technologies included - not a programming manual, just enought information to get you started, if you knew how to program before. The book also includes helpful online resources that are referred in a handy way in the middle of the less detailed content, making the book a handy tool for tackling some common problems you are likely to face when dealing with .NET.

As for the flipside, the book just isn't very well written - there are occasional errors in the code, the focus is divided unequally between topics, going into slightly too many details of some specific topics like Assembly Versioning and sliding over others. Some paragraphs are just plain confusing, some examples don't back up the claims they are supposed to clarify and so on. It's not catastrophic, but it sure is annoying.

In short I believe Random House has hit the bull's-eye with the CodeNotes' tight and coherent format, but the .NET guide just lacks in editing. Better luck next time.

Rating:
Summary: Major Inacuracies
Review: This book was written during the VS.NET beta 2 timeframe, and there are several major inaccuracies and some outdated content. This book was a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Major Inacuracies
Review: This book was written during the VS.NET beta 2 timeframe, and there are several major inaccuracies and some outdated content. This book was a disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Developer
Review: This is an excellent overview -- and quite a bit more -- for .NET (which itself is not a 5 star thing.)

If it were literature it would get only 2 stars. And if it were the same topic and 800 pages I'd give it 3. But in comparison to the blank or pompous mountains of sludge that pass for technical writing (thinking) in computing, ...