Dino Esposito
1 Good Tech. but not a good presentation and tough langauge
Its good to know the underpinnings of any technology. But my sincere suggesstion to Dino would be to consider making the presentation technique an interesting one with a complete practical exapmle for any future books he writes or perhaps a revised edition of the same book . As of now all examples are unrealistic and also just bits and pieces. Examples could be more realistic and complete, that can be applied to a more practical scenario. Even a technical description, if it goes with a good and fairly simple example that can be applied to a practical scenario, it would make the book a great success and will make more people read. To say the truth, I use this book just to glance through when I have doubts but the title means that you can use it to learn ASP.NET. Because of the language, presentation and examples used, I dont get motivated to read it continuously. But the teachnical stuff is really good. Its just the language, presentation and examples needs to be refined and improved. In general, a useful book for ASP.NET if anyone wants to get a in depth knowledge of ASP.NET.
2 Great for intermediate to advanced programmers
Unlike some of the other reviewers here, I found this book to be very approachable. Those of you who may've purchased Petzold's definitive work on winapi, this book is much like that. I wouldn't recommend either one to a newbie, but in the right hands this book is a great tool.
First, I found the reading very easy to follow. Some of the other reviewers felt that Mr. Esposito's writing was sub-par, even flaunting, but I've yet to run into anything that seemed intentionally archaic or cryptic, everything seemed to fit quite nicely.
In particular, some of the words brought up by other reviewers that they didn't like are fairly common terms in mathematics that anyone who has been exposed to lower division calculus classes should know already.
Second, I like the wealth of knowledge in this book. Most programming books aren't meant to be read from cover to cover (at least, none of the ones that cover topics in-depth), and this book is no different. If you're learning asp.net, you'll want other resources to get you started. Once you get started, use this book as a reference.
The reason I'm giving this book 4 stars is the sheer lack of examples. As one of the other reviewers mentioned, Mr. Esposito gives a wealth of information, but the examples provided are painfully short, under-documented, cryptic, and in many cases useless. Especially with the database related stuff I was forced to find examples elsewhere. Other than perhaps the first chapter or two, which have 5-10 line aspx examples, I saw no fully working examples. At the very least Mr. Esposito could have provided a CD with example sourcecode & referenced it from the book, but the book doesn't come with that luxury either.
As a companion to this book, I would recommend getting Jeffrey Richter's Applied .NET programming book, which covers the .net framework mainly from a C# standpoint. This asp.net book doesn't go into detail on a lot of the .net topics that are fairly essential in my book, especially exception handling, and Richter's book covers it nicely.
3 Dino knows (his stuff)
If you code ASP.Net, you will need this book after you go through the step-by-step books. Dino is very knowledgable regarding ASP.Net and should be considered as one of the best writers on the subject.
4 Too difficult to find useful information from this big tome
This book is an attempt to explain every detail of "How ASP.NET Works" rather than how to write application programs under ASP.NET. And a rather unsuccessful attempt at that.
Admittedly, it will be helpful to understand the nuts and bolts before taking the plunge to write an ASP.NET application, but the author's approach suggests that he simply diassembled the .NET framework using some reflector and tried to translate the diassembled code listing into paragraphs of dry discription.
Many key concepts like how code-behind works in ASP.NET is explained without any logical order.
I would also join the other reviewer in complaining that Dino, an Italian, tried to abuse the English language in a very childish fashion, thinking that he can become a good writer just by throwing in weird phrases gleaned maybe from an old dictionary. The net result is that the text in this book reads extremely strange, oftentimes you have to guess what he's driving at. It will be far better for him to write it in Italian and pay for a good translator to do a decent job.
To be frank, Dino's technical expertise is excellent, just that he doesn't know how to put them into plain English.
The bottom line: Don't buy this book, no matter what background you are from. It's too frustrating to read. Unless you want to help improve it by editing the whole tome and send it to MS Press.
5 Good book but like others have said...very meaty.
This is definitely a very technical and very comprehensive book. I haven't dealt with many others but I would suspect this is probably one of the best. Be warned: it is not a tutorial, it is an extremely dense read.
6 The real gems in this book are few and far between
Dino has a knack of making simple things complex, and I strongly believe the 1000+ pages can be reduced to less than 250 without losing any real value.
This is partially due to his poor command of the English language, but what's so irritating is his frequent use of uncommon terms and phrases to show off his "mastery" of the language (especially the word "orthogonal"). The editor must have slept on the job as well.
The whole book tastes like sand, but there are occassional insights that can help recover the cost of it, and that's where the 2 stars come from.
Another bigger complaint against this title is that it doesn't show you how to build a real world application; just snippets of code here and there, with no clue at all about how to piece them together.
It seems that Dino is far more keen on impressing his readers than delivery of value.
7 Misleading Title
This book bills itself as THE book for ASP.NET. It will be a mistake if one buys this book in order to learn ASP.NET. This book is a good book only for the slim minority of the people for whom it is marketed. It is more appropriate for this book to qualify its title by something like "... for advanced Web Programmers", "Mastering..." but then it wouldn't sell as much.
The table of contents presents a clear, logical organization but the text within those chapters does not. So here we have another item of (...). It's as if the publisher wrote the TOC and the expert Mr. Esposito just dictated a stream-of-consciousness text into his dictation machine... with a strange version of the English language.
I suspect intermediate to advanced level ASP.NET developers would benefit from the book. At that level, lack of teaching ability may be more tolerable and Dino Esposito's fame as the expert in the subject may become the book's redeeming value. I gave it the third star on that expectation only.
8 not a good book to learn / reference
I read two books of this author, and I find he try to make simpel thing complex. This book is very dry, even you feel thursty sometimes. No real examples or code, just explanations. And over 1000 pages, the exaplanation is still there. I find most of the thing is from MSDN, and not worth the money. I will throw it away. Never buy it.
9 A very good book
As always, Dino's book is insightful. If you are looking for basic how to program asp.net, this book is not for you. If you become an asp.net expert, read this book.
10 Confusing at first
I'd recommend getting this book if you are new to ASP.NET, even though this book is not for the newbie to ASP.NET. This isn't a quick reference book for little problems, this is a concept book, that goes into great detail of how things work in ASP.NET.
I received this book right after starting to use ASP.NET, and it was basically useless to me, as most of the content went over my head. After I got much deeper in my knowledge of ASP.NET, this book started to make much more sense. Most every advanced concept behind ASP.NET is covered here in depth, all at your fingertips, I find it amazing that Dino knows all this stuff!
They only cons I see is that it is a little dry to read, and you won't find any vb.net examples. Other than that, I recommend getting this book
11 Lots of info, but doesn't separate practical info
Although he does a good job of providing a lot of information about ASP.NET, Esposito neglects to separate details of the .NET framework's internal workings from the practical information that developers need to know to build real apps with ASP.NET. This makes for some very dry reading and it can be difficult at times to figure out how to accomplish the day-to-day tasks needed in web application development.
12 Impressive, my new ASP.NET bible
First off, I think Hari Thummalapalli's review nails it on the head. My review is not intended for beginners. In my job, I've come across some aggravating issues in .NET. This book breaks down ASP.NET to its nuts and bolts, and that is crucial knowledge when you have to design new objects.
Personally I think you get the most out of this book if you read as much as possible rather than treat it like the dictionary. Not an easy task, for this is the biggest book I own. However, the book is very readable and the author is good at taking you from Point A to Point B. Some Wrox .NET books have plenty of good pointers, but it becomes an Easter egg hunt, for it's tucked amongst pages of beginner material.
I'm going into a C# shop and I'm still going to use this because it covers .NET so thoroughly, language differences shouldn't matter as much. Moreover, the author points out differences between VB.NET and C# I haven't seen covered anywhere else.
13 An in-depth learning experience.
I had stumbled across this book at the time Wrox sold out. I was hooked on the publisher (about 20 books) The editorial staff wasn't below the 3rd grade level of English, like Addison-Wesley. (Hated everyone one of their books I bought. I read some of the books twice to make sure I hated them, despite the reviews.) I had liked some of the Microsoft Press books, in particular, the Resource Guides because of their "deep" content. So I gave their programming books a try. This book is nothing short of phenomenal. It is well written. The reader is lead thru the concepts as they unfold and expand. The theory of the code presented makes it an excellent source of knowledge. It is not for the beginner at heart. I had to read this book 2 times because there is NO fluff - just excellent, concise writing that flows.
This book rates as one of the best with me. The others are "Beginning Java Programming" from Wrox by Ivor Horton or the automotive engineering books by Author W. Judge, published by Bentley Press in 1966. (This dates my years of reading reference books.) I subscribed to MSDN magazine because of his writing skills, his knowledge, his ability to develop concepts and ability to aid the reader in developing an understanding of the material presented. Dino Esposito is a deep thinker so get ready to bury your mind!
This book is good for the intermediate ASP.NET programmer before they go on to tackle the tough stuff i.e. Component Controls. Don't get this book if you are not willing to invest the time or do not want to really understand ASP.NET. (P.S. this is the first review I have written.)
14 Dino does it again
Once again, I have to admit that I have a strong bias here... I read Dino's articles in MSDN religously, and love his stuff. I bought his book based on his name alone and as I expected, it's great.
The style of this book is exactly the same as his stuff in MSDN. If you aren't familiar with it, I mean that advanced users will love it b/c it's always interesting and practical, but if you are a newbie, it's clear and understandable so it'll be great for you too.
If you aren't an ASP.NET developer, then there's a lot to learn. ASP.NET represents a fundamental shift in thinking (what in .NET doesn't?) but if anything, it's much simpler and intuitive than ASP ever could be. I've played with all of the code in this book and everything compiled and worked as expected. The examples are all things that you'll probably confront in your day to day development and Dino gets right to the heart of the issue.
He's unquestionably one of the greatest minds in .NET and he is a superb communicator. One of the best features of this book is that it never gets boring and it never skips important details that leave you wondering how to do what he's talking about. I know this sounds petty, but coming up with real examples that aren't silly or overly complex (and always relevant) takes a lot of skill.
If you don't read his articles in MSDN - then start, you'll be glad you did. If you don't own this book and want to learn ASP.NET, But it - you'll be glad you did.
15 Disappointing
I purchased this book based on the rave reviews it has gotten, but have been grossly let down. Although the author seems to be knowledgeable on the topic of .NET internals, his explanations and book structure are reflective of someone who just wants to show how much he knows, not help you learn. Additionally, good examples are severely lacking.
This book is not a good learning book, and at best a mediocre reference book.
16 Pretty good, but I prefer the o'reilly
I found the book to be generally decent all round. But find myself picking up the o'reilly more often.
I guess I'd like the book if I hadn't seen another. I bought the book because I assumed that a MS Press book should have a lot of detail. However I found that it went over the basics well but didn't offer a lot of detail. I feels like the book expects you'll be looking up MSDN for detail. Also, even though there is a "real life" section in the book, I found that the examples, while decent, didn't offer as much insight into the practical use of things like controls. I'm not a very creative person and examples that go a little beyond the literal use of a feature helps a lot in giving me insight into the many ways I can use it.
Like I said, decent book. I'd like it if I didn't have something to compare it against.
17 Best asp.net book and 1 of best computer books overall
This is one of the best computer books I have ever encountered on ANY subject in nearly 15 years of doing software development. The topics are presented in a chronological order that is excellent for learning. Dino goes into the details that any expert needs to know about what is going on under the hood. If you read and truly understand every page of this book, you will be an ASP.NET expert. You'll know what you need to architect AND develop highly scalable, fast performing real-world web apps. You'll have enough understnading on what ASP.NET is doing under the hood to diagnose any problems you encounter.
This is how books should be written, but very few are. I made the mistake of buying the O'Reilly book on the subject (and I usually like O'Reilly books), and it is nothing but a lightweight (and often imprecise and inaccurate) overview compared to this book.
My advice -- don't fool around with other amateurish books on the subject -- go straight for the definitive expert treatise and get this book.
18 A good book for experienced programmers
This book covers a lot of in-depth information about ASP.NET 1.1. Its well-organized information is very useful for us to save precious time in searching and exploring. Thanks a lot, Mr. Dino Esposito.
Suggestions for the author:
(1) Use more graphical presentations if possible (could be more concise and organized)
(2) Please add more real-world code samples!!! - a bit boring to read dry descriptions
19 Not so great
I purchased this book because it is from MS Press. But this book really disappointed me. There is no logical flow . There is a lot of text in this book but it is very hard to keep your interest in this book. Sometimes I felt that even English wasn't good. I tried to read this book at different times of the day ,morning ,evening,before dinner, after dinner, on weekends ,during weekdays but nothing changed.I want to 'donate' this book to someone. My personal advice is 'don't buy this book unless you have read a few chapters at the book-shop'. In fact Jeff Prosise's book on .NET has better material on ASP.NEt than this book.
20 Very impressive
I was really impressed w/ this book. It is high quality and very well-written.
It covers all of the core issues w/ ASP.NET
21 The asp.net book I've been waiting for
When I saw this book in the bookstore I thought it would be another introduction to asp.net but after flipping through it I realized it was much more. This book picks up where the others leave off. It explains the entire asp.net application architecture and the page and control life cycles. It also points out the differences with IIS 5 and 6 interaction. Every thing about asp.net is covered. Don't just read this book. Study it!
22 another great Dino Book
Although I still think Dino' english is a problem somhow,but actually I got all Dino's Book.This one is very complete reference and technical guide for asp.net development.Dino's book actually contain perfect practical code sample.That help me a lot.
23 Excellent reference for Intermediate/Advanced users.
This book is the perfect reference for any Intermediate/Advanced ASP.NET programmer. It may not be as helpful if you are a beginner because the coverage is too wide and too deep to keep the interest of a beginner. But it is a must-have as a desk reference when you get past the beginner stage.
We looked at many books on the general subject of .NET and the specific subjects of VB.NET, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET to learn how to successfully create Web Applications that users love. There are a lot of books out there on .NET that are more confusing than helpful. And most books - just touch the basics, don't give detailed explanations, or don't have sample code that works. There are a few exceptions and this book is one of them. It doesn't have any of the above mentioned problems.
What is most impressive about this book is the readability of the material. If you are interested in the details of how something works in ASP.NET, you will find that once you pick up this book and start reading it, it is difficult to put it down. The explanations are clear, concise, yet detailed and the different topics are all very neatly interconnected.
If your primary interest is in finding a book with code to modify for your own project situation, this is NOT the book. There are other excellent books for that purpose. 'ASP.NET Developer's Cookbook' by The ASP Alliance is one that we prefer(despite most claims, the code in this book does work after you find workarounds to Visual Studio .NET problems first).
The book being reviewed here can be best used for accomplishing the purpose of gaining a COMPLETE working knowledge of ASP.NET. It will obviously take many months of dedicated effort (at least 10-15 hours a week) to master this subject. And there isn't a better book in the market that is so effective in the long run. This is the preferred Desk Reference that all of us use at our company.
One more thing - doing a price comparison, we found that this book also offers the best value since it's priced around the same range as most ASP.NET books but covers the subject end to end while the others only addres a few topics. The high price of .NET books has been a disappointment to us especially due to their general low quality.
Enjoy this complete desk reference to programming in ASP.NET! You will really see the return in a few months.
24 Finally a good ASP.NET book
I'm still recovering from a really bad asp.net book, and Esposito is restoring my faith in the technical writer.
this book is the best if not only asp.net book you'll ever need to read. the style is very reference-oriented, which means it dumps voluminous amounts of knowledge in your lap (1,000+ pages), all well organized, and with enough tutorials and code samples so it's not like reading a dictionary.
i did some research before buying this book, and i've been delighted with it. no fluff, no meanderings, just hard-core learning. when you're finished, you can use it like a reference, which is how *all* programming books should be, except maybe the beginner-level books.
warning: this book is not for programming beginners. you should have some prior asp experience as well as some object oriented experience in something like Java, c#, c++, etc., or you'll be completely lost, because the material is meat, very little milk.
25 A Must Have
Did you ever have this problem with your datagrid, in the edit mode, the width of the Boundcolumn textbox automatically became so big that made your table or even your page changed size just to satisfy the stupid textbox. All right, this book even has answers for this kind of questions.
26 A perfect ready for the geek who wants to know-it-all!
Excellent writing by Dino Esposito, yet again. He starts our light - moves to some intense technical insight into IIS and the .NET framework - and continues on into the most authoritative learning tool / reference, ever written on the subject.
27 A perfect ready for the geek who wants to know-it-all!
Excellent writing by Dino Esposito, yet again. He starts our light - moves to some intense technical insight into IIS and the .NET framework - and continues on into the most authoritative learning tool / reference, ever written on the subject.
