Introducing .NET - Softcover

WROX Development; Conard, James; Francis, Brian; Glynn, Jay; Harvey, Burton; Hollis, Billy; Ramachandran, Rama; Schenken, John; Short, Scott; Ullman, Chris; Dengler, Patrick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861004893 ISBN 13: 9781861004895

Publisher: WROX Press Ltd, 2001

Synopsis

Offers a preview of .NET--Microsoft's visionary development environment for the Web.

About this title

Review

Introducing .NET provides a guide to the emerging set of technologies and standards that will be a part of the Microsoft .NET platform. Ideal for any programmer (or IT manager) who works with Windows, this title gives a worthwhile preview of a compelling set of technologies and new ways to program for the Internet.

Apart from browsing the current .NET beta and documentation from Microsoft, it's somewhat difficult to understand all of the various aspects of .NET. The authors of this book have done the legwork for you and packaged their discoveries in a concise volume that examines numerous APIs and tools that developers will be using in the next year or so.

After a quick overview of .NET, the book looks at the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which allows different languages (like VB and C#) to interoperate on .NET. This focus is ideal for programmers who want to understand the future of programming. The book handily summarises what the new C# language will offer, explaining in detail how Visual Basic 7 will differ from early versions of the language. In case you haven't seen the beta of the new Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, you get a tour of its features and interface. Other sections delve into the actual .NET classes you'll be using for development. (These APIs can be accessed from any programming language.) Material on the new Windows forms and Web forms shows the future of building user interfaces on the Windows platform. Other sections look at the new ASP.NET (for creating dynamic Web pages) and ADO.NET (for database programming).

Another compelling reason to read this book is its discussion of Web services, a potentially winning concept for a new generation of software. Using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), an XML standard for describing services, .NET programmers can call remote Web services almost as easily as local functions. The authors provide a remarkably simple example (which packages weather information on a custom Web page). Clearly, this is a core technology on .NET, and the book does a good job of explaining its potential.

Introducing .NET provides the blueprint for understanding what's to be included in the new NET. Despite an understandable amount of "cheerleading" for Microsoft's new platform, this is good nuts-and-bolts information that's timely and just what developers need to understand the future of computing on Windows. --Richard Dragan

Synopsis

.NET is a platform, built on open Internet standards, that is both an evolved version of the Windows DNA platform and a whole new way of developing the next generation of Internet applications and services. .NET is in one sense an evolution because Microsoft are releasing new versions of established technologies and products to fit into the .NET framework, these include: ASP+, ADO+, Visual Studio.NET, Exchange Server 2000, and SQL Server 2000. However, .NET is more than just a new name for Windows DNA. It also encompasses a number of significant innovations that recognize the fact that the Internet is now central to all business activity and that the focus shifting from individual web sites or devices connected to the Internet, to constellations of computers, devices and services that work together. At the core of this new innovation are "web services" that help to provide genuine personalization and control over how, when and what information is provided. .NET is a platform built with the web at its very heart and not making something old fit something new.

Edition details

• Publisher: WROX Press Ltd
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1861004893
• ISBN 13: 9781861004895
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400