Understanding . NET : A Tutorial and Analysis

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Microsoft has already invested billions of dollars in .NET: Thousands of programmers have been working on it, many for several years. It's their biggest "bet-the-company" gambit since Windows. But what is .NET? Is it the world's best platform for building advanced web services, or just more marketing hype? Is it a common foundation for tomorrow's best programming languages? Or just the latest temptation to lock yourself into the Microsoft monopoly? Is it thoroughly standards-based, or Microsoft's bid to make the Internet its proprietary fiefdom, or both?

Which parts of .NET are natural transitions from existing Windows technologies? Which parts are more difficult than they look? Which parts are warmed-over legacy technologies, with the .NET brand glued on at the last minute? Which parts require the most painful transitions, and are they worth it? Which parts aren't ready for prime time?

If you're asking questions like these, you owe it to yourself to read Understanding .NET: A Tutorial and Analysis. Author and consultant David Chappell has been advising organizations on Microsoft enterprise technologies for years; he's keynoted conferences throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Now, he's distilled his independent insights into .NET into an outstanding primer for every developer and decision maker.

This is not a book about coding: It's a high-level look at what .NET means to you as a developer or IT manager. The core narrative is as close to objective as anything we've seen, and it's spiced with sidebars where Chappell offers his own useful (and occasionally provocative) opinions.

In a discussion about how ASP.NET is far harder than its predecessor, Chappell observes: "Classes, events, inheritance, and a host of other more advanced concepts will descend on unsuspecting ASP developers like fog on a San Francisco evening." Might you run Java under .NET, and get the best of "both" worlds? Well, yeah, there's a J#.NET, but "people who believe that Microsoft is truly interested in building a first-class environment for building new Java applications might also wish to examine their beliefs about Santa Claus."

Don't get the impression that this is a flippant book. Chappell has thought longer and harder about .NET than most other commentators, and his points have been sharpened through presentation to thousands of developers and decision makers.

For instance, in just 30 pages, he nails down the benefits of web services with exceptional clarity, presents a simple model for understanding them, illuminates each key standard, and shows how they all fit together in real application scenarios. In his chapter on .NET's Common Language Runtime, Chappell takes on the key questions: Will MSIL code be fast enough? (Answer: For most applications, probably yes.) Do assemblies really end "DLL hell"? (Answer: If you're reasonably careful.)

Chappell spends a good deal of time on the .NET Framework Class Library, drilling down in somewhat greater technical detail, to help developers understand exactly what they're in for. There's a lot of new stuff in the Framework Class Library, most of it extremely valuable -- for example, the extensive XML support to be found in the System.Xml namespace. Chappell also points out a few significant flaws; for example, the implementation of COM+ services as a wrapper around Microsoft's old code.

While some elements of .NET (like the so-called .NET Enterprise Servers) offer little new technology, others -- notably ADO.NET -- are far newer than their "evolutionary" names would apply. Chappell offers exceptional insight into ADO.NET (including a great explanation of why Microsoft keeps changing data access technologies, and a concise look at ADO.NET compatibility with non-Microsoft databases).

He concludes with a preview of one of the newest elements of .NET, Microsoft's My Services tools for storing and accessing personal information on the Web. If My Services (a.k.a. Hailstorm) works out as Microsoft intends, it could lead to an entirely new class of automated web applications. But, umm, there is that ol' devil security...

In barely 300 pages, Chappell successfully reviews and evaluates pretty much all of .NET, mining insights that will be invaluable to every Microsoft IT shop. It's not just a tour, it's a tour de force. (Bill Camarda)

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey–based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.

The .NET platform represents the biggest single set of new technologies that Microsoft has ever presented to its technical customers. This guide for students, developers and technical managers provides a broad overview of the major .NET technologies and describes how they work together. Coverage includes, for example, the Common Language Runtime (CLR), accessing Web services using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and the .NET Framework class library. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)