Matthew MacDonald is a science and technology writer with well over a dozen books to his name. He's particularly known for his books about building websites, which include a do-it-from-scratch tutorial (Creating a Website: The Missing Manual), a look at cutting-edge HTML5 (HTML5: The Missing Manual), and a WordPress primer (WordPress: The Missing Manual). He's also written a series of books about programming on and off the Web with .NET, teaches programming at Ryerson University, and is a three-time Microsoft MVP.
As far as technical books go, this was one of the better ones. After 900 pages, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on ASP.NET, a language that I had no prior experience with. While usage is really the only tool that will solidify book knowledge, I now possess a lot more knowledge about ASP.NET than before, and I also have a great reference to help in my future development endeavors with the language. I found the author's writing style to be a bit more lively than many other technical books. Or, perhaps I'm growing more used to them.
The one area this book did not cover was Web Services. Web Services is becoming more widely used, and I was hoping to learn more about it. Apress offers a Pro-level ASP.NET book that I might also read through.
I am knocking a star off the book for the numerous grammatical errors found throughout it. I wonder if an editor even looked over the text.
The Best to learn about ASP.NET on .NET Frame Work 4.0 but you must have a good knowledge about C# in older platforms (.NET 3.5 or .NET 3.0) or you will have some hard times with some codes :)
Bottom line this is one of the best learning books i ever managed to have :)
Poorly written book, far too technical for a book on the fundamentals of learning a language. There were too many snippets and not enough complete programs to assist in understanding how the language worked. It also lacked a references for language keywords and their main syntax. Mr. MacDonald may have a passion for this language, but this is far from his best book, "Access 2010: The Missing Manual" was a far far cry better and much more readable.
Book excellent describe ASP.NET 4. Also it includes a lot of information which helps start adventure with website development. We could read about AJAX, Databases, XML, Data binding, LINQ, and many many more. It is great start for non experienced who want to become developer. Also people which have some projects finished could learn new things from so much big material.