MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Microsoft .NET Core Requirements, Exams 70-305, 70-315, 70-306, 70-316, 70-310, 70-320, and 70-300
by Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft Corporation
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (09 April, 2003)
list price: $169.99 -- our price: $107.09
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Reviews (15)

No vouchers
Well... It doesn't come with vouchers anymore, which is a little disappointing.I made my purchase before the comments were updated and I was very disappointed.

But that's not fair to the books.They are very good. I have yet to take an exam, though my co-worker has gone through all 5 and used these books to pass.The 70-300 book he felt was a little shy, and recommended the Exam Cram 2 70-300.

No Silver Bullet
The good thing about buying this collection of books is that it represents a worthwhile investment for someone who wants to get an MCSD or MCAD certification.The savings over buying the hardcover books individually is significant.

I'm in agreement with what seems to be a consensus among reviewers that, while these books contain a lot of good information, you'll need to go to other resources to learn everything you'll need to know to actually pass the tests.MSDN is often a great source of information - if only because it's free - for things that the books don't cover.

In places where these books are good, they present concise explanations of concepts you need to understand to be able to answer test questions.The tests often involve some reasoned problem-solving to arrive at the right answer, rather than simple factual recall.(Some cert test questions, on the other hand, are almost silly - but that's another issue.)Where lots of computer books are padded with pendanticism and lengthy, tedious sample applications, these books can often help you grasp the salient concepts in a few short pages.

Code samples also tend to be concise and illustrative (although they don't always work!).Some of the sample code on the CDs might be the best thing the collection has to offer.You can learn a lot by pasting it into Visual Studio - and then changing stuff around to see what it does.If you're like me and don't type well, the CD is great to have.

In places where they are bad, these books are bloated with fluffy chapter introductions and summaries, that are really only filler, and nearly irrevelant information.They also frequently do not reflect the emphasis that a subject area will have on the exams.If 20% of a book covers a given topic, that doesn't mean that 20% of the test questions will cover that topic.The left hand and the right hand at Microsoft just aren't all that coordinated.In this respect, these books leave much to be desired as "exam preparation" guides.

I personally felt the 70-300 book was by far the worst in these respects while the 70-305 book was quite worthwhile.The other two fit somewhere in the middle.

I went through the practice tests for two of the exams and decided they weren't worth the time it takes to go through them.After that, I gave up on those and bought practices tests instead.

In two cases, I also used Exam Cram books to prepare and agree with those who say that they are better.It really is kind of shabby that a third party can come up with better instructional materials than Microsoft itself.

Decent Way to Learn, But Not Enough for Certification
If there's anything I've learned in my years of programming, it's that you need more than one book to achieve a Microsoft programming certification.Usually MS Press (recently affliated with/purchased by McGraw Hill) books are the gospel, but their theory goes much further than their hands-on, which is far from extensive.In the past I have used Sybex's books, which have much better hands-on examples, allowing you to explore all of the features of the environment.

These books are very helpful to me, but I certified in VB5 and 6, and have been working with .NET since Beta 1.These books will not be helpful to someone who is "new" to Visual Studio languages, or new to programming altogether.

If this is your first MS programming cert, be sure to pick up other books as well to ensure you cover the breadth of material necessary. ... Read more

Isbn: 0735619255
Sales Rank: 3209
Subjects:  1. Certification Guides - General    2. Certification Guides - MCSD    3. Computer Bks - Certification    4. Computer Books And Software    5. Computers    6. Database Management - General    7. Microcomputer Application Software    8. Programming - General    9. Programming Languages - General    10. Computers / Database Management / General   

Programming Microsoft .NET
by Jeff Prosise
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (15 May, 2002)
list price: $59.99 -- our price: $37.79
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Reviews (22)

Great books save you precious time
And this is one of them. There are classic books in every area. This book is the one for .NET. If you are an experienced developer and want to jump start with .NET, this is definitely the book for you. I love it! Thank you Jeff Prosise for your great work.

Not as good as I expected
I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I felt it could have been a bit more in-depth and maybe more focused by removing the section on windows forms and concentrating purely on ASP.Net (and renaming it ASP.Net). One feature that really annoys me and is commonplace in ASP.Net books is how the author states the obvious that codebehind is a great feature and should be utilised, and nesting code in aspx pages avoided if at all possible. Then all the examples are shown as aspx pages containing nested code blocks. Arrgghh!
On the good side Jeff Prosise has a good clear writing style, his description of 'background info' is good, and the book is really well presented in choice of fonts, layout etc. Also it's good that the examples are in C# only.

Best "Programming" Book on .NET
This is much more than an okay book. It's simply the very best "programming" book on .NET. Once you've learned your .NET language of choice, which really should be C#, then you need a book like this one to explore and understand the .NET Framework. Trust me, you will not find a better one. I know, I've tried at least 6 other books of this scope. Yes, it does concentrate much more ASP.NET, so much so that I consider it also the best ASP.NET book out there. It's obviously not an advanced-level book, so you'll need to explore the subject further.

The main reason I like this book is because the writing is just so crystal clear and well organized. This author knows how to teach. Concepts flow from general to details superfluously. And the examples are so well chosen that it's a pleasure to read.

After having bought, and read or reviewed a good number of books on .NET, I feel I have a good sense as to which are the very best. The following four books are what I consider to be the creme de la creme of .NET publications:

1) C# Primer Plus, should be your first read;
2) This one, should be your second read;
3) Microsoft .NET for Programmers, read this after you've explored the framework further;
4) Programming .NET Components, the deepest clearest book on .NET I've seen by far - intermediate-advanced.

There are other excellent .NET books. I could name at least 8 others that deserve 4 to 5 stars. The above 4 deserve 5 star ratings more any other, or at least I've not found any others that use C#. ... Read more

Isbn: 0735613761
Sales Rank: 28418
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    2. Computer Books And Software    3. Computers    4. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    5. Interactive & Multimedia    6. Internet programming    7. Microcomputer Application Software    8. Microsoft software    9. Microsoft.net framework    10. Operating Systems - Windows    11. Programming - Software Development    12. Computers / General   

Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference)
by Francesco Balena
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (17 April, 2002)
list price: $59.99 -- our price: $37.79
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Editorial Review

Useful for VB developers of all levels, Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET offers a massive and comprehensive guide to the new VB .NET. While concentrating on "traditional" programming techniques brought up to speed with .NET, this book also covers essential Web development, making it a solid choice for those making the leap from VB 6.

The sheer size of this volume is its obvious distinguishing feature. Weighing in at over 1,600 pages, it's easily one of the largest programming books ever published. The scope of coverage here is wide-ranging and comprehensive. The author first presents a basiclanguage-based tutorial of the new VB .NET, highlighting basic keywords, data types, and new class design features like inheritance, delegates, and events.

Patient, thorough coverage and plenty of short code examples are the guiding principles here. The tour of object-oriented features in VB .NET is among the best that you can find. Coverage of built-in .NET support for strings, math, date/time, and file I/O classes (and the like) will help you master these essential APIs. At many points, the author highlights what's new and different from VB 6. There's plenty of coverage of "traditional" VB applications, including the new Windows Forms, database programming with ADO.NET, and Win32 support including programming the Windows registry, MDI, graphics programming (with GDI+), Windows services, and the like. Later sections look at deploying VB .NET applications in assemblies.

Only in its final sections does this text turn toward ASP.NET and the Internet, with several solid chapters on essential Web Forms and new features like caching, configuration, and basic Web development techniques. By centering on essential VB .NET language features first and then covering a wide spectrum of programming APIs, this book offers a winning choice for anyone with previous VB experience who wants to work effectively with the new VB .NET. With its extremely rich range of topics, all backed up with plenty of code excerpts, this title offers a nearly unbeatable one-volume reference on what's inside the new Visual Basic .NET. --Richard Dragan ... Read more

Reviews (79)

Excellent
This book and .NET XML Web Services Step by Step by Adam Freeman and Allen Jones have answered virtually all of my questions about building production distributed database applications using XML Web services.If you're interested, you can download a sample of my working code at www.opointe.com

Everything Under the Sun
This is the most through book on VB.Net I've ever found. It's a steep read, but if there are any dark corners of VB.Net that haven't had light shed on them, then you aren't useing VB to it's fullest potential, and you haven't read this book.

The current price of this book on Amazon right now (~50.00) makes it more than a steal with the amount of information in it. Espcially compared to the avarage cost of a class in any programming language.

Though the book is written for a programmer who is at least a novice in VB6, certain versions of the book provide a CD with an eBook of the authors VB6 book (with code examples) as well as a PDF of this book.So, if you are just getting into VB.Net you'll have some place to turn when Balena starts refrencing well known VB6 syntax.

The greatest, in the whole dot-Net panoply.
Even if I don't use VB Net, I enjoy that book: a "just" view in comparisons between dot-Net and VB6 (not always at 100% in favor of VB.Net), and insight, intelligence, and inner working we don't even see often, if not at all, even in C# books! There are two major weak points: Windows Forms (I recommend Chris Sells' book) and database (I suspect Francesco didn't entirely wrote these chapters, as the style is a little bit different in those chapters than the other parts of the book, anyhow, my impression), again too superficial ( I somehow recommend the MS Press book ADO.NET by Sceppa). Even if I use C#, I often found that Francesco Balena did a much better job than what I find in other of my C# and Managed C++ reference books. NOW, my copy, of the first edition, has indeed a printed page number 1576. So why Amazon annonces 800 pages, I don't know.

I would have give only four stars, but since I find very hard to find a book of my liking about dot-Net in general, I cannot than praise that book for an extra star. ... Read more

Isbn: 0735613753
Subjects:  1. BASIC (Computer program langua    2. BASIC (Computer program language)    3. Basic (Programming Language)    4. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    5. Computer Books: Integrated Systems    6. Computers    7. Hardware - Personal Computers - General    8. Interactive & Multimedia    9. Microcomputer Application Software    10. Microsoft Visual BASIC    11. Programming - General    12. Programming Languages - Visual BASIC    13. Computers / General   

Programming Windows with C# (Core Reference)
by Charles Petzold
Average Customer Review:
Hardcover (19 December, 2001)
list price: $59.99 -- our price: $37.79
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Editorial Review

Aimed at aspiring C# programmers of all levels, legendary Windows expert Charles Petzold's Programming Windows with C# provides an extremely in-depth and intelligent tutorial to the APIs underpinning Microsoft's .NET Framework.

For a generation of programmers, Petzold's Programming Windows: The Definitive Guide to the Win32 API provided a virtual bible on how to get started with Windows development. This massive, handsomely bound hardcover edition attempts the same breadth of coverage for Microsoft's new C# language and the new .NET. With several examples clearly inspired by the earlier C title, this book demonstrates the author's keen eye for showing off and explaining the capabilities of low-level APIs to good effect.

The book first outlines basic "Hello World" examples for both a console and Windows Forms. Next, there's coverage of basic support classes (like points and rectangles) before turning toward using these structures in extensive sections on graphics programming. Petzold's traditional strengths as a computer author are in ample evidence here, with many short examples that exercise the capabilities of the new .NET APIs.

Veteran readers will recognize the basic shape of the early Win32 title in the organization of this (completely rewritten) C# version in the flow of topics from graphics, keyboard, mouse and timers, and the like. (One production note here is that the order of later chapters does jump around somewhat, circling back to graphics topics several times instead of presenting related APIs in order.)

The sections on graphics transforms and how to manipulate images are worthy of note. There's excellent coverage of the possibilities of working with text and fonts output in .NET. Nifty working samples for several types of clocks and shape-drawing demos will let you explore graphical APIs in detail.

Several chapters cover basic Windows Forms control programming with buttons, labels, and edit controls and then splitters, ListView, and TreeView controls. This volume closes out with references to files and streams, and math and string APIs. For any developer who wants to create state-of-the-art, "traditional" client-side software, this book is sure to be required reading for its in-depth look at graphics and other leading-edge .NET features. It proves once again that learning low-level APIs in detail is still a good way to learn Windows programming. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview of C# and .NET Windows programming fundamentals; a "Hello World" console application; C# language and object basics; a simple Windows Forms application (creating a main window and handling the paint events); basic .NET structures (including rectangles, points, and colors); text output and scrolling; exploring .NET system information; in-depth tutorial for GDI+ programming: pens, lines, rectangles, and polygons; keyboard processing (plus a custom class for caret processing); graphics transformations (including scaling, linear transforms with matrices); mouse processing (plus processing the mouse wheel); text and fonts (TrueType and OpenType fonts, antialiasing, measuring text); using timers; date and time APIs; a sample code for clocks; drawing and transforming images (displaying JPG and BMP files); simple animation; basic control programming (buttons, labels, scroll bars, and track bars); exploring Bezier curves and splines; menus (basic and custom); graphics paths and regions; clipping techniques; basic dialog box programming (modal and modeless forms); edit, list, and spin controls; font transforms and special effects, using toolbars and status bars, printing techniques (including print dialogs), splitter, TreeView, and ListView controls; programming with the clipboard, drag-and-drop support, reference sections on APIs for programming with files and streams, math functions, and strings. ... Read more

Reviews (68)

Book for GUI developers
This book was a huge disappointment. It seems that Mr. Petzold thinks that GUI is all that Windows programmer should know about. Well, surely this is all you will learn from this book - almost 1300 pages on how to draw shapes and display various kinds of buttons.

On the other hand, people who really code GUIs for living might find this book very interesting as it contains a LOT of information on this topic.

I give it 3 stars for being comprehensive on one topic (GUI?). Took two away for the misleading title.

Great book on Windows Forms
This book provides a good, short introduction to C#.It was my first book on C#, and I did not feel like I needed another after reading it.

After those couple of chapters, it provides rather wordy coverage of Windows Forms and drawing graphics with .Net.The title should reflect this more clearly, in my opinion.The book does not talk about programming Windows in general (assemblies, threading, XML, etc.); it focuses solely on the graphical aspects, with some brief look at file I/O.

The coverage of Windows Forms and drawing is great, if a somewhat verbose.

WOW!
I'm not sure why I've seen so many good reviews for this book.......I see it as 1200+ pages of wasted paper.Microsoft recommends this book as study material for their exam? Rest assured..... this book doesn't cover anything but drawing pretty little circles, lines, text, and who could forget the cute little spiral, lol!This book contains a lot of useless information regarding the many, let me emphasize that MANYMANYMANY ways of drawing shapes.
Unless you plan on writing applications that produce arrays of wonderful shapes on your screen, this book is not for you!Take the time to head down to your local book store and review the content before wasting your money. ... Read more

Isbn: 0735613702
Subjects:  1. C# (Computer program language)    2. Computer Bks - Languages / Programming    3. Computer Books And Software    4. Computers    5. Interactive & Multimedia    6. Microcomputer Operating Environments    7. Microsoft Windows (Computer fi    8. Microsoft Windows (Computer file)    9. Object-Oriented Programming    10. Operating Systems - Windows    11. Programming - Object Oriented Programming    12. Programming - Software Development    13. Programming Languages - General    14. Computers / Programming / Software Development   

Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming
by Rob Vieira
Average Customer Review:
Paperback (01 December, 2000)
list price: $59.99
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Editorial Review

When it comes to selecting computer books, deciding which book to buy can sometimes be even more confusing than the software it is written about. However, if you are looking for a book to instruct you on the use of SQL Server 2000, Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming is an excellent choice.

In addition to providing a thorough treatment of SQL Server 2000 development, Rob Vieira's extensive reference also devotes quite a lot of space to covering SQL in general and issues relating to database design. Included is a complete introduction to Transact-SQL and an excellent chapter on normalization that will help demystify an over-referenced but much misunderstood database design concept. There is also in-depth information on the new features of SQL Server 2000, including indexed views, user-defined functions, and support of XML. Sadly, there's no accompanying CD-ROM, but source code for the book can be downloaded from the Wrox Web site.

While you don't need any knowledge of SQL Server or database administration to make the most of this book, you will need a reasonable understanding of programming fundamentals. That said, the author's down-to-earth style makes it possible for anyone with some programming background, and the will to learn, to really get comfortable with SQL Server 2000 development. If you are looking for a book that combines rich content with clear explanation, look no further. --Peter Lunn, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Reviews (67)

Best Book By Far....
I've read the MSPress Certification book, BOL (SQL server Books Online), and neither come close to the under standing this book gives.Things I've read 5 times over in the other aforemenioned book and still didn't get an understanding, I read once in this book and understood right off.

I wished I had this book before taking the admin exam (I passed, but caught heck doing it).

aaron@aaronford.com

Best sql server programming book
This is a very good book for sql server programmers. Not like the other books where you find lots of cut and paste from BOL. I feel every sql server programmer should reed this book. Lots of insight and very good information on sql server. Only a person who loves sql server can write a book like this. A must read!!

Complete and readable guide to programming SQL Server...
Occasionally I have the need to leave my IBM/Lotus programming platform and interact with data stored in Microsoft SQL Server 2000.I even have it running on my laptop as a higher-end alternative to Access.I found that the book, Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming by Robert Vieira (Wrox) is a very good reference for manipulating data in that environment.

Vieira concentrates specifically on the programming aspects of SQL Server 2000 as opposed to teaching you how to administer the server.He does touch on an administration overview in chapter 30, but it's not something you'd read in order to pass an administration exam.Although the title does say "Professional", this does not mean you have to be a veteran SQL programmer to benefit from it.The earlier chapters cover the fundamentals of RDBMS technology, as well as how SQL is used in a SQL Server 2000 environment.The further you get into the book, the more you'll find subjects that are either more advanced or cover techniques you'll use in application development, such as how to build triggers and stored procedures.While you will learn all these skills within the SQL Server 2000 platform, the core technologies are transferable to just about any RDBMS.Time spent with this book will continue to pay off regardless of what database system you need to use at any given time.

While the content is technical, the writing style is conversational and approachable.It's actually quite easy to read the material and digest the concepts without trying to fight against the author's style.If you have need to work with SQL Server 2000 from a development standpoint, this is definitely a book to consider to guide you along the way. ... Read more

Isbn: 1861004486
Subjects:  1. Computer Bks - Data Base Management    2. Computer Books: General    3. Computers    4. Database Management - General    5. Database Management - SQL Server    6. Database management    7. Programming - General    8. Programming Languages - General    9. Programming Languages - SQL