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 | Professional ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB (Programmer to Programmer)
Author: Bill Evjen, Scott Hanselman, Devin Rader
Publisher: Wrox
Binding: Paperback
Released: 2008-03-04
Sales Rank: 2646
ISBN: 0470187573
Edition: Pap/Onl
Cover
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 2008-07-18 - Get a phonebook instead; it's free
I find it hard to believe the other reviews aren't plants by the publisher, or by people accidentally reviewing a similarly titled book. The introduction is full of documentation probably dumped from MSDN about obscure directives and their obscurer attributes. It reads like a phonebook. Writing the samples in both C# and VB is just another tactic to fill up 1600+ pages; here's one of the "gems" from the first chapter:
VB
If Page.IsPostBack = True Then
'Do Processing
End If
C#
if (Page.IsPostBack == true)
{
//Do Processing
}
As if the " == true" is not enough of a WTF, the book then goes on to say "In addition to checking for a true or false value, you can also handle postbacks like this," and gives the following example code:
VB
If Not Page.IsPostBack Then
'Do Processing
End If
C#
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
//Do Processing
}
So the target audience of this book is interested in reading a list of the public key tokens of the assemblies referenced by default in a "web.config" file, but they don't know how to negate a boolean value without someone holding their hand?
 2008-07-18 - Not the best book for ASP.NET 3.5
This book is basically a re-branded ASP.NET 2.0 book. It covers a LINQ and IIS 7 just fine. When reading the book the authors spend too much time covering old 1.1 and 2.0 material instead of digging in deeper to the 3.5 topics.
Buy this book in you need an overview of ASP.NET 2.0 with some 3.5 topics as well but there are better books out there. Usually Wrox book are great, this one just doesn't deliver with ASP.NET 3.5
 2008-07-12 - Excellent reference book for ASP.NET 3.5 (despite typos)
Having read Imar Spaanjaar's Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: In C# and VB, I was expecting a number of good things from this book.
Imar's book is really great in that he shows you how to build a Web application with ASP.NET 3.5. However, with Professional ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB, you instead get 1500+ page reference book.
Now that's not necessarily a bad thing, but that does mean that if you want to get started with ASP.NET, pick up Imar's book first, or better still, too.
That said, this also means that if you're the type to read a book from beginning to end, you'll have a real 'joy' reading this book. That's because after a few chapters you'll notice that the author's clearly intended for people to skip around the book. This is evident because they'll discuss something in one chapter, and then reiterate it at the beginning of the next in such a way that suggests they assume you didn't just read this in the last chapter. But, that is good if you consider this as a reference book.
The other thing that will strike you is the number of typos in this book. I wasn't keeping track of all of them, such as words melding together, hard returns where there didn't need to be, incorrect figures, etcetera, but I did make note of, and submit, 29 errors in this book (25 of those from page 579 on - I wasn't keeping serious track before then). If you hear that they've done a special edition of this book, or a second edition, just spend the (extra) money and pick it up. Luckily, the code seems pretty clean.
Having said all that, I still think Professional ASP.NET 3.5 is an excellent reference book, and one that I'll be keeping on my shelf. Almost every one of the 34 chapters had at least one valuable thing in them, and in most cases, they had many. While some topics are skimmed over, they give a very indepth look to existing and new features, providing sources to further reference as needed (most of which are free Microsoft references online).
Together with Imar's Beginning ASP.NET 3.5 In C# and VB, I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in ASP.NET 3.5. I would also recommend this reference book (last time, I promise :) ) to anyone who's worked with previous versions of .NET, and just needs to know how to advance their skills.
2008-07-06 - Encyclopedic about elements, but not enough substance
Short commentary: The book is good and worth for your money.
Long commentary: The book is good, however, it is not excellent. They have tried to mention all the relevant elements of ASP.NET 3.5, and they have succeeded; never the less, it is more or less just list of an elementary examples.
The glue that would put all of them to real world use is not here, for such a book you will have to search other titles. I have also that kind of book, and - it has its own weaknesses. The best would be to have both books. Or one really big and complete book which would be twice thicker and about 4000 pages :-)....
Still it is a good read and for lot of people this will be really enough. Anyway, it all depends on how much you work when you put the book aside.
 2008-07-03 - Web Developer
Recieved book in excellent condition! The book is very organized and very constructive in teaching me what I need to learn in a step-by-step manner. I very much recommend this book!
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