Very inconsistent - oversite/coordination of content is a problem

I assumed I would like this book a lot, as I've enjoyed books and articles by many of the authors. Perhaps part of the problem is too many authors - and no primary editor (or one with too many projects.)

Some of the sections are strong, but many key concepts are not mentioned at all. I'll focus on data access as an example.

I realize any book on VB quickly becomes huge, and this one comes with 1000+ pages. But that's 1,066 pages with no mention of TableAdapters, a key new data access object in .NET 2.0. Perhaps the author of the section believes that use of a DataAdapter is always a better choice; if so, TableAdapter weaknesses should be described so that readers are aware of them. Microsoft believes the object is so fundamental that it is the first topic described on MSDN - after "Getting Started with Data Access" and before "Connecting to Data in Visual Studio." I don't understand why this new object, which is used to fill datasets and datatables, is not mentioned in a section titled "ADO.NET 2.0 enhancements to the DataSet and DataTable".

All aspects of data access, a fundamental part of almost any application, are covered in 48 pages. Twenty of those pages comprise a section "Building a Data Access Component" that includes many errors. None of the errors reported to the publisher two months ago are yet included in the errata.

In a related area, I could find no mention of the new BindingSource class or BindingSource component, key new features to support Windows Forms data binding.

This may have been one of the first books released on VB 2005, but whatever your level of experience, it's certainly not the best.

Other Reviews

• Very inconsistent - oversite/coordination of content is a problem
• An awful lot of stuff in one book.