Sebastopol, CA--When Microsoft unveiled the .NET platform at its Professional Developers Conference last year, they set many seasoned developers scrambling for information about how to build applications for the new .NET environment. Thuan Thai and Hoang Lam, coauthors of the latest release from O'Reilly, .NET Framework Essentials (US $29.95), were among those who saw both the potential and the challenges of Microsoft's new strategy. As Thai remarks, "PCD 2000 was one of those memorable conferences, because it revealed many new technical solutions to today's development problems. There were so many fine, technical traits within the .NET Framework that I had to draft a short course on .NET to spread the news." Since that time, Thai has presented a series of lectures explaining the .NET Framework to programmers and software developers, lectures that later became the basis of this new book.
In the years to come, it is predicted that more than six million developers of Microsoft-based software will build their applications using the .NET Framework, described by Microsoft as the infrastructure for the overall .NET platform. Coauthors Thai and Lam provide a concise and technical overview of the .NET framework to help programmers make the transition to the world of .NET programming. .NET Framework Essentials covers all the topics .NET developers will need to understand, from the underlying Common Language Run-Time (CLR) and Base Class Libraries to the specialized packages for ASP .NET, Web Forms, Windows Forms, XML, and data access (ADO .NET). The authors survey each of the major .NET languages, including VB .NET, C#, and Managed C++, as well as MSIL, the intermediate language understood by the CLR.
.NET Framework Essentials is also one of the first books to cover the Beta 2 version of the .NET Framework, released at Microsoft's Tech-Ed Conference in June, 2001, which coincides with the release of this book. "There are many differences between Beta 1 and Beta 2," Thai explains, "But we took great effort to ensure that '.NET Framework Essentials' conforms to Beta 2."
Specifically written for intermediate to advanced VB, C/C++, Java, and Delphi developers, .NET Framework Essentials will also be useful to system architects and leaders who are assessing tools for future projects. As Thai explains, "While this book is for any person interested in learning about the .NET framework, it targets seasoned developers with experience in building Windows applications with Visual Studio 6 and Visual Basic and C# languages. Java and C/C++ developers will also be well prepared for the material presented here. To gain the most from this book, you should have experience in object-oriented, component, enterprise, and web application development."
About the Authors:
Thuan Thai is author of Learning DCOM (O'Reilly, 1999) He has been giving technical presentations on the .NET platform to CrossTier clients since announcement of the initiative in July 2000.
Hoang Lam is a senior developer at CrossTier.com and an instructor in web development at Georgetown University. At CrossTier.com he specializes in developing B2B web sites using Microsoft tools.
Online Resources:
Chapter 6, "Web Services," is available free online.
O'Reilly Network's newest online developer center is dedicated to the exploration and analysis of Microsoft's .NET strategy as it unfolds. It covers new and evolving .NET technologies, including C#, Visual Basic .NET, and Active Server Pages (ASP).
More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples.
A cover graphic in jpeg format.
.NET Framework
Essentials
By Thuan Thai and Hoang Lam
June 2001
ISBN 0-596-00165-7, 320 pages, $29.95 (US)
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1-800-998-9938
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