Interesting work
Good for updating your knowledge on the new features of ASP.NET,still to be improved in dealing with advanced features.
Shine with insight
Sometimes just recover the earlier ground may not be a bad idea at all, if previous coverage was good and thorough. Dino's new treatment of ASP.NET falls into this category. His earlier books on ASP.NET 1.x and ASP.NET 2 did such good job that for ASP.NET 3.5 iteration, what he needs to do is to repeat those good coverage with new material for new stuff. And I think he achieved this task hands-down.
But for a book buyer, that can pose a delima. I already had Dino's Programming ASP.NET and to this date I am still referencing it again and again, and should I just pay $40 for just the LINQ and Ajax stuff? It is a hard call.
If you are not an owner of Dino's ASP.NET programming books before, buy it and enlighten yourself with Dino's insight. If you are an owner of Dino's previous ASP.NET book, pay close attention to Chapter 19, 20 and 21. Dino's insight on what direction ASP.NET as a web programming platform move forward worths the admission. Ajax is not just a repackaged JavaScript library, it requires rethinking how web programming model should evolve, and Dino seems to understand Microsoft's long term goal.
Disapointed
This book Microsoft recomends for the new 70-562 certification. But this is not a good source if the certification is your primary objective. This is not one training kit, with CD and test simulations. There is no CD at all! I give only 2 stars becuse of this lack on certification source.
Good Book for Experienced .net programmers
It's a good book for developers who have past experience with earlier versions of .net. I have always liked referencing Dino's books.
The book itself covers most of the features available with asp.net 3.5 version. There is also one complete chapter over Silverlight programming.
Although, it would have been better if there would have been further more chapters covering Silverlight.
Also missing is any detailed chapter over "REST" feature available with Framework 3.5. Overall the book is really informative.
A hasty retread
From the opening and throughout this book, it seems obvious that this is a hasty retread of a previous ASP.NET 2.0 edition. Most tellingly, there are numerous explanations of the way that ASP.NET 2.0 improved on such-and-such a feature of ASP.NET 1.0 or 1.1, which seem of little relevance to those looking to upgrade themselves to the latest ASP.NET. Other material and examples also seem written for an earlier time.
The meat for upgrading programmers is not only somewhat obscured in the clutter of old stuff, but is very thinly sliced when found. For example, one of my principle objectives in buying the book was to understand LINQ better, but the chapter on LINQ offers little more than a summary of the LINQ notes freely available on Microsoft's web site.
On the plus side, as owner of other books by Dino Esposito I notice that his writing gets better with every book, and he is now among the most adept of authors at clearly explaining many topics. For someone new to ASP.NET, this book can be considered seriously, but a better book exists (see my reviews).
