This is a book designed to appeal to the broad market. "If you're currently a working … developer, this book will help you …" So it starts with the proverbial "Hello World" application and goes from there. Actually, there are three "Hello World" applications - one for the console (DOS box), one in a Windows form, and one in a browser - with ASP.NET code. And it works! There's a lot that you can get out of "Hello World" if you work it hard enough.

Dave also uses a lot of "lists" in the book. Need a chart that lists every language code from Afrikaans to Uzbek? This book has it. At the same time, the book is not large (about 450 pages) for a tech book and sometimes just quits when a topic starts to get interesting. The section on GDI+, for example, simply ends in another list rather than explaning the things I really wanted to see. The source for the examples is downloadable at the O'Reilly web site for the book.

Applications: ASP.NET, ADO.NET

Dave Grundgeiger is an up and coming consultant in the heartland of America and this is his second book. His first was focused on the more specialized topic, Developing Mail and Messaging Applications. Expect to see more from Mr. Grundgeiger!