Wanna save fifteen bucks? Buy the book with the monkey on the cover. Published just a few months apart, the table of contents of these two books is almost identical. The later one has a chapter on .NET Delegates at the end.

But I discovered a lot in the book that does make it worthwhile! Although the initial impression of the Codemaster's Library is formal (the monochrome cover photos of Japanese rock gardens help push this image), the interior of the book is pretty conversational and informal.

Here's a sample.

In the "concise code solution" dealing with the "tag property" we're treated to a six page description of how Microsoft changed their mind about whether to even have a "tag property" throughout the beta testing of .NET. If you've never been an active participant in a beta, the story is quite entertaining. It's like hearing it over a few beers in the local pub. The code example is documented like this, "… it makes sense to bolt these variables onto the TreeNode class." I looked in vain for a "bolt" method in VB.NET and never could find one. (We know, of course, that Tagliaferri is just writing the way programmers really talk. Whether you like that style or not is up to you.)

One of the great strengths of this book is that Tagliaferri's point of view is one that a lot of code jockey's are now facing: How do I get all this VB 6 code to work with .NET? The book is heavy on topics like working with COM and ActiveX components that are cranky and ill-behaved in VB.NET. And since Tagliaferri speaks the universal language of coders, coders might find it a lot easier to read and understand.

Both books come with CD's included to save you the trouble of downloading.

Applications: GDI+, ASP.NET, COM+, XML

About the Author

Matt Tagliaferri is different from most technical authors in that he has a full time day job working for just one company (the Cleveland Indians). His background is mainly writing code and books for and about heavy duty gaming.