If you want a book that is going to get you up and running with some applications, then this is a good one to add to your library.

If you want a book that is going to get you up and running with some applications, then this is a good one to add to your library.

Beginning ASP.NET using VB.NET by Wrox is a very helpful introduction to web building using the .NET technology.

I have been building web sites using standard ASP for 5 years. I am finding this book (I'm half way through it) to be a great place to start moving on to ASP.NET. It is easy to read. New technical concepts are explained without the authors trying to impress you with techno-babble. The book lays a good foundation and then builds on that. I recommend it.

Beginning ASP.NET using VB.NET by Wrox is a very helpful introduction to web building using the .NET technology.

I have been building web sites using standard ASP for 5 years. I am finding this book (I'm half way through it) to be a great place to start moving on to ASP.NET. It is easy to read. New technical concepts are explained without the authors trying to impress you with techno-babble. The book lays a good foundation and then builds on that. I recommend it.

The breakdown of the book of this book is not good and did not help me as a beginner

Great book. It got me going in a matter of days

Great book. It got me going in a matter of days

This is my first WROX book, but it will probably be my last. It is hard to concentrate on the topic when there are so many misspellings and grammar errors. The content appears like it is the authors' rough drafts. If I am going to pay $[money] for a book, I expect it to be professionally done. It makes you wonder whether you are actually being taught by people who know what they are talking about...

We used this book for a class that we were running for work. I would say that it is a decent book considering the time it was written, but now there should be better books out there. It doesn't cover code behind until very late in the book which is a fundamental improvement that should've been covered much earlier. Also, there are some errors in this book that are not addresses in the eratta, and the Visual Studio .NET IDE is not covered in this book. The authors use archaic techniques to do things that a VS .NET developer would do in the IDE, like compiling a library file via the command prompt instead of using the IDE to make that library file. Also, it could use some more information in Web Services since this seems to be the main way that Microsoft wants you to create Enterprise solutions.

As an ASP developer of 2 solid years, with a little VB6 experience, I was wary and hesitant to begin learning VB.NET but ready for the challenge. I picked this book up mainly to get a good feel for the syntax and techniques ASP.NET offers. And having gone through almost 18 of the 19 chapters so far, I have to say this book is a great place to start if you need a crash course in ASP.NET as I did.

That being said, I do have a couple of warnings for possible buyers and readers:

1. Grammatical errors and typos abound. In general, you can figure out the correct spelling and meaning, though some of them may through you off briefly.

2. The myriad of authors do not use a uniform approach in naming and coding conventions. Once you get used to a certain chapter's style, the next chapter will do it differently. For an advanced book this could slide, but I don't think it's instructive in a beginner's book.

Yet despite these two problems, this book will get your feet wet enough to begin your venture into ASP.NET. If you're like me, you'll be buying some advanced books. I've bought Professional ASP.NET 1.0 Special Edition (ISBN: 1861007035) and Programming Data-Driven Web Applications with ASP.NET (ISBN: 0672321262). But there are a myriad of websites you can utilize to further your knowledge after this book. I don't think I could have progressed into the advanced topics, or learned by piecemeal examples on said websites, without the foundation this book builds.

SUMMARY: If you are comfortable with coding and web development this book is a good first foray into the ASP.NET.

I bought is book because I feet, as an intermediate programmer and web developer, that it would be a solid intro to ASP.NET.

A great deal of time setting a solid foundation in many of the background technologies which is helpful for understanding how ASP "works." All too often, regrettably, this tends to over simplification. The basic elements of programming are not covered in enough depth and with enough respect to consider this book a primer on programming.

Anther point of contention is that the book is fraught with misspellings, mistypings, and other general errors. In my experience the errors did not affect the quality of the examples, but the frequency was a distraction. After reading other posts about Wrox book's the editing problem seems to be rampant, making one wonder about their level of professionalism.

Being an experienced developer, this book was a little too basic for me; however it still covered items that I needed to familiarize my self with in my transition form asp to asp.net.
The examples in this book were well written and every step was explained. I actually like the way the examples are set up in this book better then the next book in this series (Professional ASP.Net 1.0). Unlike other books I have read in the past, EVERY EXAMPLE PROGRAMM IN THIS BOOK WORKED!
I would highly recommend this book to any one who is interested in developing in ASP.NET.

If you're new to vb.net or need a quick refresher then this book is for you.