|
Active Server Pages 3 Weekend Crash Course (with CD-ROM)
 |
Author: Eric A. Smith
List Price: $24.99
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0764547569
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (15 January, 2001)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 298,468
Average Customer Rating: 3.44 out of 5
|
Customer ReviewsRating: 2 out of 5
An Good Book that needs revisions
ASP 3 Weekend Crash Course by Eric A. Smith is a good book to teach a beginner how to get started with Active Server Pages. The early chapters do a good job to ease the reader into ASP and provide him or her with a good foundation to build upon. Unfortunately this book has fallen victim to a number of typos, which can frustrate the reader. The approach of the book is to build up one's skills and then utilize each in an application (called eOrganizer). Unfortunately there are problems with some of the code and even the application that can be downloaded from the web site needs to be tweaked to work right.In summary- I feel that this book needs to be corrected and reissued. If all revisions are done, this book will be an excellent resource and worthy of more than 2 stars.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Bad book in a good series
I already had good success learning HTML and Javascript from other Weekend Crash Course books and put it to use at work. So I expected the same from this book. After 23 chapters of things I already knew about HTML and Visual Basic, Mr. Smith begins his application. Like another reviewer here, I was absolutely lost. (The errors in the book don't help.) I loaded his eOrganizer example from the CD, changed the connection to the Access database I built according to chapter 22, and I can't get any further. His insistance on structured programming is the death of his lesson. I know the value of structured programming, but structure has no value if I can't write a program. The basics should be taught before forcing style upon the reader. I need to connect web pages to databases. Sorry, Mr. Smith, I'll have to buy a different book to learn how.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Not for the Beginner!
Perhaps the words "Crash Course" in the title are just a bit to seductive for the newbie to ASP and VB Script. As a reader of many programming and application books over the years, (but in no way a professional programmer), I flipped through the book at the store and was pleased to find a "spoonfull" approach to the coverage of material. As a professional trainer, this was really a good sign so I bought the book.First the good news. For someone who needs a brief yet understandable introduction to HTML, SQL, and Database design, this book was up to the challenge. The explanation of the role ASP plays in Web development was also clear. So I entered the material on VBScript with high hopes. That's when things began to go downhill. First, if I had not had some knowledge of what a function or subroutine is I would have been totally lost. As it was I was stretching to understand. When I hit the section on "structured code" I really hit the wall. Here I was, coming from learning HTML and some JavaScript, being presented with the idea of generating all of my pages in ASP! (I don't dispute the advantage of this approach but this was not the place to put this material! (Just looking at all the "Write Lines" stressed me out! I then began to run into many instances where I think the author assumed I knew concepts and terms. A whole bunch of information on server variables, "includes", and error handling blew me away, so by the time I got to databases and the application piece (eOrganizer)it was all over. Nothing really hung together at all. Objects, methods, collections, includes, etc.,all fogged my brain. How do they work together? In all fairness, my rating is based on how the book met my needs as a non-professional programmer with limited experience in writing code. I was interested in learning the concepts involved in creating database driven web pages for training and educational purposes. I had a basic working knowledge of HTML,exposure to Javascript and Access, and WYSIWIG editors like FrontPage, so I wasn't completely ignorant. I believe learners like me would benefit from a more comprehensive book that adequately covers the vocabulary,concepts,proceesses involved in developing ASP. I would also suggest an approach that builds an actual application throughout the book (similar to Paul Wilton's excellent book "Beginning Javascript". I just don't think the "examples" throughout the book are robust enought to teach a concept. I am convinced that there is no way for the "beginner" be ready to do anything productive after reading a "crash course"type book. They may be fine, however, for developers who already understand quite a bit about application development. I know the siren song of titles like "learn in a weekend" or "21 hours" may be smart marketing ploys but not very effective as training tools.
Similar Products
· XML Weekend Crash Course (with CD-ROM)
· SQL Weekend Crash Course (With CD-ROM)
· ASP in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition
· Sams Teach Yourself E-Commerce Programming with ASP in 21 Days (Teach Yourself -- 21 Days)
|
