Anne Boehm
Joel Murach
September, 2005
ISBN: 1890774367
Mike Murach & Associates just might be in the wrong business!
It could be that software project management is what they do best since they take a unique approach to publishing (Really! It is different than any other publisher I have even heard about.) that is more like planning and developing a software project.
A Book Developed Like A Software Project
- They have development standards that result in a uniform, quality controlled result
- They hire full time "developers" (actually, writers, since this is a book) who remain with the company for the next project rather than contracting with "one-off" consultants. (Wrox Press also used this approach a lot. It was one of the things I liked most about the 'old' Wrox before they were sold to Wiley.)
- They even have a publishing version of "object oriented design" since topics are all presented in page-sized "objects". It works for them for some of the same reasons that objects work in code. It keeps things simple, direct, and understandable.
In comparison, some of the other books you will see seem like a book version of run-on spaghetti code.
If you took my advice and invested in one (or more) of the previous Murach books (see my review The Power of Three! you already know about their unique internal organization and content that is designed into all their books. They use a concept they call "paired pages". Throughout the book, the left hand page contains the text and the right hand page shows you syntax, examples, and guidelines for the left-hand text. And you have seen how about half of the topics of every book start with the words, "How to ..." If you're interested in knowing "how to" do some programming task, you may read all or part of the left-hand page for a topic and then skip over to the right-hand page where you'll probably see the code to do what you need.
The ASP.NET 2.0 Upgraders Guide (VB Edition) is for people who need a book that is direct, clear, easy to understand and gets to the point. The writing style in Murach books is helps you learn; it doesn't get in your way. The information is what you need; it's not every detail possible.There's a pro and a con to that approach.
For example, here's Murach's explanation of ASP.NET 2.0's new partial classes:
"... the new model uses a new feature of Visual Basic 2005 called "partial classes, which lets you create a class that's defined by two or more source files. So now, the control declarations are placed in a separate file that's compiled together with the code-behind file to create the final code-behind class."
Now, for comparison, here's the same topic discussed by another new ASP.NET 2.0 book:
"Version 2.0 of the CLR provides support for partial classes, where the same class can span multiple files. ... Partial classes have introduced the new Expands keyword, indicating that this class is not self-contained ... For the content page, the compileWith attribute defines the physical file containing the code to compile along with the content page, and the className attribute indicates the name (including the namespace) of the class. When the className attribute of the content file and the namespace and Class of the the code file match, code for both files is compiled into a single class."
I know which one I think is easier to read and understand. Murach, right?
But the other book provides details that can't be found at all in Murach. The "Expands" keyword isn't in the Murach index and I can't find it in the book. Some authors think that partial classes and the "Expands" keyword have created a whole new programming model they call "code beside" that actually replaces "code behind" for many applications. You won't find any of these considerations confusing (or perhaps "expanding" ?) the straightforward ideas presented in Murach, however.
If your need is to develop an interactive shopping site, Murach could be exactly the book you're looking for because they use a consistent "shopping site" (The Halloween Superstore) throughout the book. This makes the book both an excellent reference if you're developing a similar site, as well as a great textbook for a class because the Halloween Superstore example would give the class continuity and it helps bind the topics together. At the same time, the authors have done a great job of making sure that each topic stands on its own as much as possible. This makes it a reference that you can dip into anywhere and figure out "How To ..." do something.
