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Introducing Microsoft .Net, Second Edition (Pro-Developer) Review by Jim Farmelant
An introduction to .NET programming
Several years ago, I took David Platt's class on .NET programming at Harvard Extension School, and there, not surprisingly, *Introducing Microsoft .NET* was one of the main texts for the course. Some of the reviews that I have seen on this site seem to be based on confusions as to what this book is about and who its intended audience is. This book is meant to provide an overview of .NET technology, including the fundamentals of the .NET Framework, the basics of WinForms development, ASP.NET, and XML web services. It's not intended to provide a very detailed account of every feature of the .NET Framework (which could hardly be encompassed in a single book anyway). On the other hand, some reviewers on this site seem to think that this book was intended as just a technical manager's survey of .NET. Unless the technical maangers, referred to, are experienced developers, then that's not correct either. This book is clearly intended for experienced developers (providing plenty of code samples to help them master the subject) who are not terribly familiar with .NET programming.
I also noticed a few reviewers here complaining that this book does not go sufficiently in depth to please them, but please notice that this book in its very title describes itself as an introductory work. It doesn't pretend to be anything else. Indeed, when I took Platt's course, we were told up front that we would require other texts to supplement it, such as Jeff Prosise's *Programming Microsoft .NET* or Jeff Richter's *Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming*. In fact, as I proceeded through Dave Platt's course I gradually acquired a small library on .NET, accumlating texts on C#, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET. Anybody who thinks that they can learn a complex technology like .NET from a single book probably shouldn't be in the business in the first place.
The book itself is lucidly written, with sample code provided to enable the reader to better understand concepts by seeing how they can be implemented in code. The author makes strenuous efforts to provide the reader with the simplest possible examples that he can think of for each major concept. Pedagogically, that is very helpful to the reader.
Please note that this edition is meant to be read by people who are working with .NET Framework 1.1. It does not cover version 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005. Version 2.0 is discussed in Dave Platt's new book, *The Microsoft Platform Ahead*, which I have yet to read. I wouldn't pretend to know whether he intends to come out with a fourth edition of *Introducing Microsoft .NET* that would deal with .NET Framework 2.0.