A Developer's Notebook is just what it claims to be: the often-frantic scribbling and notes that a true-blue alpha geek mentally makes when working with a new language, API, or project. It's the no-nonsense code that solves problems, stripped of page-filling commentary that often serves more as a paperweight than an epiphany. It's hackery, focused not on what is nifty or might be fun to do when you've got some free time (when's the last time that happened?), but on what you need to simply "make it work." This isn't a lecture, folksit's a lab. If you want a lot of concept, architecture, and UML diagrams, I'll happily and proudly point you to our animal and nutshell books.

If you want every answer to every problem under the sun, our omnibus cookbooks are killer. And if you are into arcane and often quirky uses of technology, hacks books simply rock. But if you're a coder, down to your core, and you just want to get on with it, then you want a Developer's Notebook. Coffee stains and all, this is from the mind of a developer to yours, barely even cleaned up enough for print. I hope you enjoy it…we sure had a good time writing them.

This book is written for programmers who are already familiar with previous version of C# (C# 1.0 or 1.1) and who have used a previous version of Visual Studio .NET (either 2002 or 2003) to build Windows (Windows Forms) or web-based (ASP.NET) applications. My aim is to introduce you, through a series of hands-on labs, to the new features of the C# 2.0 language, the .NET 2.0 Framework, and the Visual Studio 2005 developer environment.

This book is a tutorial, both on C# and on writing .NET applications with C#. If you are a proficient C# 1.1 programmer, and all you want to know is what is new in C# 2.0, put this book down, and buy Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook (O'Reilly Media, Inc.). If, on the other hand, you want to brush up on your C# skills, or you are proficient in another programming language like C++ or Java, or even if this is your first programming language, then this book is for you.

Programming C#, Fourth Edition, was written for programmers who want to develop applications for the .NET platform. No doubt many of you already have experience in C++, Java, or Visual Basic (VB). Other readers may have experience with other programming languages, and some readers may have no specific programming experience but perhaps have been working with HTML and other web technologies. This book is written for all of you, though if you have no programming experience at all, you may find some of it tough going.

If you're migrating from C, C++, VB 6, or Java, the following sections should give you some basic comparisons with C#. More importantly, keep an eye out for notes specifically for you throughout the book.

This book is aimed at intermediate or experienced programmers who have started on their journey toward ASP.NET development and who are already familiar with XML. While I do introduce the reader to many new ASP.NET 2.0 concepts in Chapter 2, this book is not intended as a first port of call for the developer looking at ASP.NET, since there are already many books and articles covering this area. Instead, I cut straight to the heart of using XML within ASP.NET Web applications. To get the most out of the book, you will have some basic knowledge of C#. All the code examples will be explained in C#.

In a similar vein, there are many books and articles that cover the XML technologies that you will need to use this book. I assume a general knowledge of XML, namespaces, and XSLT, and a basic understanding of XML schemas.

This book explores the array of XML features and how they can be used in ASP.NET for developing Web applications. XML is everywhere in the .NET Framework, from serialization to Web services, and from data access to configuration. In the first part of this book, you’ll find in-depth coverage of the key classes that implement XML in the .NET platform. Readers and writers, validation, schemas, and XML DOM are discussed with ASP.NET samples and reference information. Next the book moves on to XPath and XSL Transformations (XSLT), XML support in ADO.NET and the use of XML for data display.

InnerWorkings .NET Training provides practical, self-paced training for .NET  developers. Using hands-on coding challenges, you learn about key .NET techniques in a realistic learning environment.

With this sample, you get one hour of FREE hands-on learning material on the LINQ to SQL functionality available in .NET Framework 3.5.  You will learn to generate strongly typed LINQ to SQL data context and entity classes using the ORM designer, and use them to retrieve data from a database. You’ll also learn to create, retrieve, update, and delete (CRUD) database data through a strongly typed LINQ to SQL data context and its associated entity classes.

All the training is fully integrated with Visual Studio 2008 and ready for you to use right away. As the offer is available for a limited time only, why not check it out today!

Download InnerWorkings LINQ Training

Head First C# is a complete learning experience for object-oriented programming, C#, and the Visual Studio IDE. Built for your brain, this book covers Visual C# 2008, Visual Studio 2008, and the .NET Framework 3.5, and teaches everything from language fundamentals to advanced topics including garbage collection, extension methods, and double-buffered animation. You'll also master C#'s hottest and newest syntax, LINQ, for querying your data in .NET collections, SQL databases, and more. By the time you're through, you'll be a proficient Visual C# programmer, designing and coding large-scale applications. Every few chapters you will come across a lab that lets you apply what you've learned up to that point. Each lab is designed to simulate a professional programming task, increasing in complexity until-at last-you build a working Invaders game, complete with shooting ships, aliens descending while firing, and an animated death sequence for unlucky starfighters. This remarkably engaging book will have you going from zero to 60 with Visual C# in no time flat.

The Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation provides the foundation for building applications and high–quality user experiences in Windows Vista. WPF blends application user interface, documents, and media content to provide richer control, design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs.

Author Matthew MacDonald shows you how WPF really works. His no–nonsense, practical advice will get you building high–quality WPF applications quickly and easily. MacDonald will take you through a thorough investigation of the more advanced aspects of WPF, and its relation to other elements of the WinFX stack and the .NET Framework 3.5, to complete your understanding of WPF and C# 2008.

WPFs functionality extends to support for Tablet PCs and other forms of input device, and provides a more modern imaging and printing pipeline, accessibility and UI automation infrastructure, data–driven UI and visualization, as well as the integration points for weaving the application experience into the Windows shell.

If you think you're well versed in ASP.NET, think again. This exceptional guide gives you a master class in site building with ASP.NET 3.5 and other cutting-edge Microsoft technologies. You learn how to develop rock-solid web portal applications that can withstand millions of hits every day while surviving scalability and security pressures — not just for mass-consumer homepages, but also for dashboards that deliver powerful content aggregation for enterprises. Written by Omar AL Zabir, co-founder and CTO of Pageflakes, Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 demonstrates how to develop portals similar to My Yahoo!, iGoogle, and Pageflakes using ASP.NET 3.5, ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Workflow Foundation, LINQ and .NET 3.5. Through the course of the book, AL Zabir builds an open source Ajax-enabled portal prototype (available online at "www.dropthings.com"), and walks you though the design and architectural challenges, advanced Ajax concepts, performance optimization techniques, and server-side scalability problems involved. You learn how to: Implement a highly decoupled architecture following the popular n-tier, widget-based application model Provide drag-and-drop functionality, and use ASP.NET 3.5 to build the server-side part of the web layer Use LINQ to build the data access layer, and Windows Workflow Foundation to build the business layer as a collection of workflows Build client-side widgets using JavaScript for faster performance and better caching Get maximum performance out of the ASP.NET AJAX Framework for faster, more dynamic, and scalable sites Build a custom web service call handler to overcome shortcomings in ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 for asynchronous, transactional, cache-friendlyweb services Overcome JavaScript performance problems, and help the user interface load faster and be more responsive Solve scalability and security problems as your site grows from hundreds to millions of users Deploy and run a high-volume production site while solving software, hardware, hosting, and Internet infrastructure problems Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5 also presents real-world ASP.NET challenges that the author has solved in building educational and enterprise portals, plus thirteen production disasters common to web applications serving millions of users. If you're ready to build state-of-the art, high-volume web applications, this book has exactly what you need.

If you want to learn how to build killer user interfaces for Windows and the web, then this book is for you. It arms you with the tools and code you'll need to effectively utilize the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). From creating appealing graphics and animated structures to enhancing performance and security, you'll be programming in no time.

First you'll explore the WPF framework and learn how to develop basic applications with ASP.NET or Visual Basic(r). Next you'll discover how to build more sophisticated WPF interfaces using Microsoft(r) ExpressionBlend and then progress to more advanced programming techniques.

Throughout the book, you'll find best practices for enterprise architectures using the WPF and its underlying technology. All this will help you quickly learn how to develop next-generation applications on the .NET 2.0 platform using the WPF.

What you will learn from this book
• How to write applications with identical UIs on both Windows and the web
• Tips for collaborating design and code development with Microsoft(r) Expression Blend
• All about the object models, built-in server controls, HTML markup, code-behind, and the coordinative structure of each file
• How to migrate Win32 applications to WPF
• Techniques for integrating special effects and custom controls into an application
• Advanced development concepts, including building workflows and a WCF service

InnerWorkings .NET Training provides practical, self-paced training for .NET  developers. Using hands-on coding challenges, you learn and practice key .NET techniques in a realistic learning environment. With this sample, you get 2 hours of FREE hands-on learning material on VS 2008 and .NET 3.5.  It's fully integrated with Visual Studio 2008 and covers the important new features in C# 3.0 and VB 9.0.  

As the offer is available for a limited time only, why not check it out today! 

Download InnerWorkings Visual Studio 2008 Training

The deep integration of IIS 7 and ASP.NET provides both IIS 7 administrators and ASP.NET developers with new and exciting programming tools, techniques, and approaches that were not possible with earlier versions of IIS. With this book, Dr. Shahram Khosravi presents you with the only resource to focus exclusively on the key features of this exciting integration.

Packed with detailed code walkthroughs and in-depth analyses of numerous real-world examples—all written and tested with Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, ASP.NET 2.0, and ASP.NET 3.5 (Visual Studio 2008)—this book provides in-depth coverage of all the major systems that make up the IIS 7 and ASP.NET integrated infrastructure to help you gain the skills, knowledge, and experience you need to use them in your own applications and extend them to meet the requirements of your application.