development

As a programmer, I get a lot of books, esp. when looking at new technologies, like .NET. From my viewpoint, right on the bleeding edge, this book is a bit too simplistic. If you have been working with .NET since the PDC beta, this is probably not the book for you either.

Now, before you step away, let's put this in context. Mr. Platt has not written a book for those of us who have been on the bleeding edge of this technology for the past year (well, almost). This book, instead, is written to give a good overview of .NET for those who are just starting out.

Who is this book for? This book is aimed for anyone who wants a 20,000 foot view of the .NET Framework. While there are code samples, this is not designed to be a tutorial as much as an overview.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a nice overview. As much of the information in the book is overview, most of this one, unlike the MSDN books recently released, will still be applicable in a few weeks. Looking at the MSPress site lately, even Microsoft is embarassed at the MSDN books, as even an ISBN number will not pull up the books.

Unfortunately, even some of the info in this book may change before the gold release of .NET. One good sign, is the fact that the author points out which sections are likely to change. This type of honesty is unusual in the seemingly cutthroat business of computer book publishing.

Summary: This book is definitely a beginner's book. If you are already developing .NET applications (playing with .NET), you will not find a great deal of new information. If you are looking for a developer's book, pass on as well. If you would like to know more about what .NET is, however, this is a good choice.

My Rating: I feel this book is a 4 in context with the audience it is aimed for. For developers, I would subtract a star. For those already working in .NET, I would take off two. For those who have really worked through .NET, I would say 1 star is about all of the value you will get out of it.

If you are manager looking for a high level technical overview of .Net this is a good book. If you are a non-Microsoft developer looking for an overview this book will also probably be useful to you. However, if you are even the least bit familiar with .Net concepts and have done a little ASP programming then this book is just to simplistic to be worth your time. I also think that the author's humor is overrated (although the book is out of date Woody Leonard's "Windows 3.1 Programming for Mere Mortals" is the definitive example of how to write a technical book with humor)!

From the foreword: "a high level and easy to understand overview of a subject with some code...funny to read and very informative, with lots of interesting code...about teaching you the mindset of .NET."
As a hobbyist/beginner programmer I found Platt's book very interesting and very easy to read.
One question I've had is just what is this '.NET thing' and what does it hold for the future of computer usage/programming?
.NET has been for me an elusive something that even Microsoft seems to have difficulty defining in an easy and succinct way.
Platt has provided just that, an entertaining and informative overview of the .NET mindset. He provides an introduction to .NET objects and the good code needed to run on various platforms and solution architecture, IL and JIT and .NET Namespaces, OOP features and memory management.
ASP.NET pages, web controls, and secuirty. .NET Web services--writing web service clients and the WSDL file. Windows forms--controls and events, hosting ActiveX controls are all looked at in easy to understand--hey that makes sense to me!-- language.
Platt uses a problem background--what problems does MS.NET solve? and solution architecture with simplest example method of exploring the 5 topics covered. He covers a single topic from the top down in each chapter, starting simpler and then progressing into greater technical detail with a minimum of jargon and a maximum of wit. Platt uses many detailed diagrams and analogies and clear explanations along with code samples--written in VB.NET--more samples are provided on the book's web site.
When I finished this 200 page easy to read book I learned enough about this development platform to understand a little better the future of software as a service and what this '.NET thing' is.
Let me recommend this book as an excellent introduction to the 'mystery' of what .Net is all about.