This article will hopefully be the first in a series of book reviews of Microsoft Press titles.
Although I am not a programmer, I was drawn to this title. I manage web sites and I am intrigued by the development process and making the web pages do more than just display static images. The goal of this book is to help aspiring web developers create state of the art web sites.
The book contains thirteen chapters and 304 pages which take the reader from an introduction to the Visual Developer environment to creating a web site, using master pages and server controls, building data driven web sites, and finally deploying the web site. Chapters on HTML, Javascript, and Cascading Style Sheets are also included. Chapters build on previous code examples so you get to see how each part fits in the overall process of creating a web site. Code samples are available on the accompanying CD or web site.
This book is ideal for beginning web developers, hobbyists, or even IT Professionals (like me) wanting to expand their horizons. Since Visual Web Developer Express Edition and SQL Server 2005 Express Edition are a free downloads, the only other thing you would need is access to a Windows server based web site. If you use XP Professional or Vista (Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions), Internet Information Services (IIS) is already included and can be used as your local web server for testing.
| At a glance:
Title: Microsoft® Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition Step by Step |
I am thinking that an errata may be on some web site that a search engine like Google will point to. I do not think that this is asking too much of Microsoft when one considers the amount of hassle users of the book report related to making the examples work correctly or seeing them coordinate with the accompanying disk.
Mickey,
Microsoft Press provides a web site where you can search for errata on their titles.
http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/support/search.aspx
Just enter the ISBN for the book and this site will bring up any correction for that title. If nothing comes back, Microsoft Press has not issued any corrections.
So in this case using the book’s ISBN and that site we learn the errata are here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/961288
So far there are just two corrections.
As a keen learner, I started working through this book. Although there are two corrections in the support.microsoft library, I’ve started to find a number of things that don’t work. I’m stuck with either waiting for an update or a lucky google strike where someone has found that error also.
As I paid £27 for this book, I’m very disappointed with support, shouldn’t books that propose to be a step by step guide work? and if they don’t, doesn’t that mean the book isn’t “fit for purpose” and I should be eligible for a refund?