Who Is This Book For

Who Is This Book For?

To avoid beating around the bush, let me state clearly: this is not a book for novice developers. This is not the appropriate book if you have only a faint idea of what ASP.NET is or if you are looking for an introduction to ASP.NET technology. If you are a novice and looking for step-by-step instruction, start with Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Step By Step, by George Shepherd (Microsoft Press, 2005). Once you have grabbed hold of ASP.NET principles and features and want to apply them, this core reference is the book for you.

Here you won't find screen shots illustrating Visual Studio 2005 wizards or any mention of options to select or unselect to get a certain behavior from your code. Of course, this doesn't mean that I am against Visual Studio 2005 or that I don't recommend using Visual Studio 2005 to develop ASP.NET applications. Visual Studio 2005 is a great tool for writing ASP.NET 2.0 applications but, from an ASP.NET perspective, Visual Studio is merely a tool. This book, instead, is all about the ASP.NET technology.

If you already know Visual Studio 2005 and its wonderful set of tricks and time-saving features and feel ready to learn more about the underlying machinery, this is the right book for you.

I do recommend this book to developers who have read and digested Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Step By Step or have equivalent knowledge. This book is certainly a useful reference for your library; it's just not the book to begin with.