Customer comments on this selection.
 Not a good book
I am really unhappy with this book. As stated in other reviews, there are no examples anywhere, just discussion of different topics. For example, there is a chapter on the various controls that are available to add to a page, but no example. Yet, I didn't see that what he said about the control was so earth shattering, that it could not be known elsewhere.
Dino does preface his book, that it is not for beginners. But then, he goes on to "introduce" VS 2005. He "introduces" many of the controls, and what they do. But then, no examples. Excuse me? In a book that **is** for beginners,a control is introduced, its behaviour is described, and then there is usually an example. You get everything Dino gives you, PLUS an example that you can see the control in action.
In my opinion, he talked alot and said a little. Fluff, pure and simple.
I would *not* recommend this book, for anyone.
Terrible Book - Don't Waste Your Money
WAY TOO MUCH FLUFF. Buried in all of this filler text are obfuscated details of the language. There are no real examples that can be followed. I wish I could get a refund because I really feel like I wasted my money.
 Great!!
Even though I haven't finished this book (not enough time in the year), it's a very well written book. Not too hard to read, but complete and covers a ton of information. Highly recommended.
Disappointing
Learning to program is a hands-on activity. The best teaching texts are those that provide example programs which the student can reproduce, tinker with, and observe, to learn the concepts illustrated thereby.
Unfortunately this book does not take that pedagogical approach. The textual descriptions are high-level, supplemented by abstract and simplified diagrams, as well as tables that list in exhaustive (and exhausting) detail the various classes, their methods, properties, &c. One looks in vain however for a good program to illustrate how an actual ASP.Net website might work (I gave up looking after Part I).
The author advises that this book should not be the first to be read on the subject of ASP.Net 2.0. Accordingly, I read a more basic text on the subject, which, through well-constructed sample programs, gave me a firm grasp of the basics and whetted my appetite to learn more advanced techniques I could use to build practical websites. I hoped this book would supply those techniques, but I was disappointed.
This book might be of use to a developer who already knows the essentials of ASP.Net 2.0, and needs a desk reference for use in day-to-day programming tasks. As a learning tool, it is about as useful as trying to learn a foreign language by reading a dictionary.
Errors and omissions
The discussion on how to use the new SqlCacheDependency class is wrong. The book claimed (in page 623) that "with SQL Server 2005 no setup work is needed and no external objects must be added to the Database.". In reality, you need to setup several permissions in the database side. In addition, you have to make sure that the compatibility level of your database is set to 90.
The source code example in page 622 will not work. The reason is that the SqlCacheDependency object was created after the command was executed. SqlCacheDependency must be created and linked to the command object BEFORE executing the command.
Further, the book made no mention of the requirements of the SQL statement of the command to be linked to the SqlCacheDependencyObject (e.g. you cannot use *, and table names must be qualified with its owner). If you do not follow these SQL rules, caching using the SqlCacheDependency will not work.
I have not finished reading the book; I don't think I will have motivation to do that. I'm not very confident that what I'll be reading is accurate because of the above errors and omissions.
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