Beginning ASP.NET 4.5.1: in C# and VB (Wrox Programmer to Programmer)

Pros: Code is available in both VB and C#, the P2P message board is great when it's actually working. The author does explain the code, albeit not very thoroughly and after the code listing itself.Cons: Way to high difficulty level, badly needs updating to .NET 4.7.What attracted me initially to this book was the fact that it is one of the few ASP.NET book that shows code in VB. Apparently Visual Basic is the red-headed stepchild of .NET programming, I don't understand why most books insist on C# which is way more complicated.In any event, the book started out well, and pretty simple but when it got to style sheets and on to database, it got VERY complicated VERY quickly. Read: THIS IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS! The author takes you through some extremely complex examples as though you're already an experienced coder. On top of that, this book hasn't been updated in a few years, which means that a lot of it is probably out of date. A specific example is that in one chapter I couldn't get anything to work. So I copied the author's downloadable code from the end of the previous chapter, ensuring everything was fine up to that point. After re-entering the current chapter's code exactly as instructed, I was still getting compiling errors right and left. Functions that the author told us to type were not defined, code that they said would work did not do what they said it would do. And then he moves on from there as if everything's perfect.I will say that all the code is downloadable and there's a free message board where you can ask questions and the author is pretty good with getting back to you quickly. But that site also is difficult to post on and goes down quite frequently so you have little recourse to turn to for help.In conclusion, I believe it's my duty every time I give less than a 4* to say what would bring it up to 51. I would suggest that the level of the book is too high and the pace too fast. You need to slow things down and not hop from one control to the next. We cannot be expected to develop professional websites in a beginner's book. Explain and comment the author's code more clearly so I actually know why I'm typing what I'm typing, don't wait until after, tell me "how it works" WHEN we're typing it.2. Check the code from bottom to top against the newer versions of .NET. I think that's responsible for much of it.3. Have an easier way to ask questions. Hire some assistants if you have to. It's very frustrating when even typing word for word and uploading the author's own code still crashes, and you can't turn anywhere for answers.What I mean by my title here is that the book is written for experienced .NET programmers. I like the fact that it has VB examples which is rare

I've been floundering trying to make a web site that does what I need it to do. I am not a professional programmer although I've had some experience over the years in now archaic programs, like PL1, COBOL, dBaseIII, Borland Pascal. I couldn't keep up with the changes on an intermittent basis--when Borland introduced OOP I totally lost it. Now I'm trying to get some competency back in order to create a particular web site and I've purchased books on Javascript, HTML & CSS and PHP. But I found I needed to get into asp.net and this book has been an eye opener. I had previously installed Visual Studio without a clue how to use it. This book explains that, from the beginning, thoroughly, simply, and in great detail. After only a few chapters, I feel I am well on my way to being able to accomplish what I need to do. It is, for sure, for beginners, but that's where I'm at and it will help me to advance. It is totally direct and logical and does not assume anything. Thank you Mr. Spaanjaars.

Overall, I think this book is ok in that it has a lot of good exercises to help you get acquainted with ASP.NET. However, the book desperately needs some minor restructuring to make those exercises much more effective. With each exercise (referred to in the book as "Try It Out" exercises), it has you do a long series of steps, some very detailed with increasing complexity, however, it doesn't tell you why you are doing those steps until after you complete the exercise. When you've finally completed the exercise it then describes "How it Works" in paragraph form and does a fairly good job of it. The problem is, and it's a big problem, this segmented approach makes it very hard to comprehend the purpose of each of the steps since you don't know why you are doing them, and requires a lot of time and effort to go back and forth to synch up the two mentally. The book would be MUCH better if the author simply integrated the How It Works text inline with the Try It Out steps. It would be tremendously valuable to know why I am doing the step when I am doing it, and would save a lot of time. Several times also, the author goes into great detail about subjects only to then say.. "but this approach is considered outdated and no longer used" -- It sure would have been nice to know that at the beginning of the section/chapter. I would recommend shopping around for other books.

Having a C++ and PHP background, which I haven't utilised in quite some time, I found this book exceptionally good. All the code worked, and I found myself immersed in developing my C# and ASP.NET skills. The book also explains how to use Visual Studio which you can obtain freely, and there is entire sections on how to use this tool effectively, which is an added bonus. Never having used AJAX and jQuery, the 2 chapters describing it gave me enough knowledge to use these going forward.For complete programming beginners, I would recommend you look at introductory tutorials/books before jumping into this book, while it does talk about how programming is structured, you probably don't want to get half way through this only to discover that you don't have the patience or can't get your head around programming in general.

Being a VB programmer for many years, I have wanted to incursion into ASP.NET for a long time now.I went through many different books that will teach you all the techniques used in ASP.NET in detail: HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, LINQ, etc.I felt overwhelmed and feeling that I was going nowhere.This book takes your by the hand from beginning to end.After I finished it, I know now how to create a web site.I can now go back to the specific books and expand my knowledge on those subjects.This author is very good at being sure you don't miss a step.He consistently warns you when you're about to find something unexpected.He also gives you plenty of references to dig into specific areas.I definitely recommend this book to any beginner interested into ASP.NET.

Brilliant step by step for beginners and experienced developers. Fodd text and examples.

Probably the best tutorial/e-learning if you want to start with ASP.NET.

Great book! I'm a newbie but its all coming together.

Good read with good illustration

Die ASP.NET-Literatur ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei. Moderne Literatur gibt es fast gar nicht, und auch dieses Buch ist zwar bezüglich ASP.NET einigermaßen neu, verwendet aber in den Beispielen Visual Studio 2013, mit VS 2017 kriegt man die Beispiele nicht immer hin, da VS2017 immer fordert, dass eine Projektdatei angelegt wird, was im Buch ausdrücklich nicht gewünscht ist. Deswegen ein Punkt Abzug. Ansonsten kann man auch alle Beispieldateien direkt herunterladen.Ansonsten ist das Buch didaktisch hervorragend aufgebaut und verzichtet auch nicht darauf, auf HTML (HTML 5) und CSS ausführlich einzugehen. Wer entsprechende Vorkenntnisse hat und die Beispiele nicht unbedingt selber durchspielen muss, um sie zu verstehen, kann das Buch auch einfach durchlesen. Wegen des guten didaktischen Aufbaus ist auch das ein Gewinn.Microsoft hat eine vorzügliche Dokumentation zu ASP.NET veröffentlicht mit mehr als 2200 Seiten, die sich aber vorwiegend an erfahrenere Entwickler wendet, die Visual Studio verwenden. Man sollte diese aber unbedingt mit berücksichtigen, wenn man anfängt, professionelle ASP.NET-Seiten und -Plattformen zu entwickeln.