Build Your Own ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET Review

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Build Your Own ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET ReviewThis is the first Sitepoint book I have read and the second on ASP.NET.
The book requires that you have either Windows 2000, XP or 2003 installed and requires .NET Framework Redistributable (1.1 is the version the book is written for but most examples should work in v1.0), .NET Framework SDK, IIS (Or Cassini) Web Server, a modern web browser (e.g. IE v5.5+) and an editor. (Anything from notepad to Visual Studio will be sufficient). Access (JET), MSDE and SQL Server are the databases used in the examples. Instructions are included in the book on how to install and configure IIS and how to install MSDE and Access and how to attach the example database.
No previous knowledge of ASP.NET, C#, VB.NET, IIS nor databases is required. However you will need to be familiar with HTML before reading the book.
The format of each chapter is a brief, single paragraph introduction, then straight into the subject matter with a brief summary at the end. Throughout the chapters there is a liberal sprinkling of figures and tables and extensive code examples, nearly all of which are in both C# and VB.NET. During the course of the book a complete intranet application is developed which includes a helpdesk, employee store, newsletter archive, employee directory, address book and admin tools.
Pros
Extensive code samples
A complete intranet application is developed within the book.
Superb range of subject matter.
Liberal use of figures and tables.
Excellent layout.
A good tool for learning both C# & VB.NET.
Cons
Topics covered in each chapter are not listed at the beginning of each chapter.
If you are just a VB.NET or C# programmer the duplication of code examples in both VB.NET & C# may prove to be annoying and a waste of space.
Conclusion
My own opinion is that this is not the book for a casual hobbyist but aimed more towards at least a semi-professional developer. You will get more than a basic grounding in ASP.NET but will have to put in a fair bit of effort to extract everything the book has to offer. But what a lot it has to offer. The range of material covered is excellent. Of the many highlights the chapters on Datagrids & DataLists and Datasets were particularly impressive. The author's enthusiasm for ASP.NET shines throughout the book and his narrative style kept many of the duller topics interesting. The pace of the book is never pedestrian and sometimes quite frantic but always leaving you wanting even more.
At the end of the book you should feel confident to develop your own ASP.NET web sites in either C# or VB.NET. This book is another welcome addition to my bookshelf.Build Your Own ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET Overview
A tutorial style book for absolute beginners that walks readers through an introduction to databases and programming concepts and then shows them how to build practical applications using Microsoft's technology.

Build Your Own ASP.NET Website Using C# & VB.NET guides readers through obtaining, installing and configuring all the necessary software to develop dynamic Websites. Then, it takes readers step-by-step through the process of creating full-blown, practical applications including an intranet, shopping cart with Paypal credit card processing and more. Throughout, the book focuses on best-practice code, ensuring application security and creating professional error handling routines.

Unlike most beginner books, SitePoint allow readers to choose between two programming languages, VB.NET or c#, when creating any of the applications in the book.


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HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Build Your Own) Review

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HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Build Your Own) ReviewThis is an okay book as an introduction to CSS and what would be possible in CSS-2. Unfortunately, support for CSS-2 is extremely limited, so you'll often read about some cool trick you could do if browsers supported it. While some people may like that, this doesn't help people who are looking to create practical web sites today, not in 2 years.
The book also barely scratches the surface of layout using CSS instead of tables. The author barely tells us how he did the sample site, and shows no other examples of this technique and variations on it, or ways around common problems. The book spends much more time on introducing all the specifics of using CSS for font properties instead of layout. The CSS-2 reference in the back may come in handy in 2 or 3 years when designers can actually use it.
The author's style is also not fun to read. He spends more time telling us what he's about to talk about than on the content itself. The book is honestly just a collection of lots of CSS stuff you could learn from plenty of free web sites, ...There's no originality here at all. Actually, if you read articles online long enough, you can learn much better stuff quicker than you could from this book.
Finally, the book costs [dollar amount] and is printed on regular stock paper in black and white. For ... more [money] you can get Eric Meyer's incredible book "Eric Meyer on CSS," printed in full color on glossy paper, showing examples much more clearly and step by step, and with lots of very practical and original advice. I got better information on CSS from one chapter in my beginning web design textbook than from this book.HTML Utopia: Designing Without Tables Using CSS (Build Your Own) Overview
This book is for Web Developers who want to develop or migrate existing websites from using table-based layouts to using Cascading Style Sheets, which allows for faster page downloads, easier maintainence, faster Website re-designs and better search engine optimization.

HTML Utopia covers all aspects of using Cascading Style Sheets in Web Development, and is a must-read for Web Developers designing new sites or upgrading existing ones to use CSS layouts.

This book includes one of the most comprehensive CSS2 references on the market.Jeffrey Zeldman, web design guru and co-founder of the Web Standards Project says about this book "After reading this book, you will not only understand how to use CSS to emulate old-school, table driven web layouts, you will be creating Web sites that would be impossible to design using traditional methods".


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