Understanding .NET (2nd Edition) (Independent Technology Guides) (Paperback)

Having worked with the .NET platform since the pre-beta, I was curious to see what kind of overview David Chappell would bring to the table. I found this book to be an excellent introduction to the important changes that .NET brings, particularly geared to the professional developer. The book is much more technical than I expected, but Chappell's writing style is clear and easy to follow even on difficult concepts.

This is not a "how-to-code" book, although there are code examples here and there. Instead, it serves basically 2 purposes. One, it introduces the new features and capabilities that the .NET framework brings to development. Two, it speaks to the paradigm shift for a developer to move from a Windows DNA (VB 6, C++) method of programming to programming in .NET.

There are several things I really liked about his book. One, there are many margin notes that cover the basic idea of each paragraph or section, making it easy to skim and find relevant information, especially for someone in more of a management role. Two, there are a number of "side-note" articles that further explain certain concepts or talk about certain frequently asked questions, such as "VB.NET or C#," "Is ASP.NET too hard?" or the inevitable comparisons to Java. In fact this book does an excellent job at bringing up similarities and differences between the .NET framework and Java. It is the author's view that it is beneficial to the development community, assuming .NET catches on, to have 2 strong platforms competing and making each other better.

Overall, this book is right up there with what I feel is the best VB migration book (Moving to VB.NET by Appleman) in providing a clear roadmap to the many developers taking the plunge into .NET. It is much more broad in scope, but strikes a good balance between technical information, commentary, and a teaching spirit. If you or your team is starting to look at the .NET framework and want to know what you are getting into, this is a great place to start.