I collected these recommendations from my academy teacher and classmates.
Books
There aren’t too many books out there yet covering Whidbey, either the Framework or Visual Studio 2005. But there are a few. A few of the ones I know about are:
First Look at ADO.NET and System Xml v 2.0 (Addison Wesley)
by Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, Mark Fussell
· This book appears to have a sequel available soon, with new and updated information.
ASP.NET v 2.0 – The Beta Version (Addison Wesley)
by Alex Homer, Dave Sussman, Rob Howard
· Good first look at some of the new features available for ASP.NET.
The Microsoft Platform Ahead (MS Press)
by David S. Platt
· A great book, by a fun to read author, covering a small subset of things to come. A good read, but only provides a taste of the great stuff in the Framework 2.0.
Introducing ASP.NET 2.0 (MS Press)
by Dino Esposito
· I haven’t read this book yet, but it looks like it might be pretty good. Plus, it’s Dino Esposito, and he does a great writing job!
Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers (MS Press)
by Kris Horrocks, Sean Campbell, Derek Hatchard, Peter Bernhardt, Scott Swigart
Working with Visual Studio 2005 Team System (MS Press)
by Richard Hundhausen
· Well, what can I say? This book offers a breadth look at Visual Studio Team System’s capabilities and benefits
ADO.NET 2.0 Advanced topics (MS Press)
http://www.microsoft.com/MSPress/books/7720.asp
Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 core reference (Esposito, Dino)
Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 step by step (Shepherd, George)
Others …
· MSDN magazine (Microsoft Press)
· Core C# and .NET (C# 2.0), Stephen C. Perry, Prentice Hall.
· ASP.NET 2.0: A Developer's Notebook, Wei-Meng Lee , O'Reilly.
Web Sites
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of Web sites out there with some information about the 2.0 version of the Framework. Some are better than others. I’m going to recommend just a few here, and throughout the course as we discover new ones, we’ll add to this list.
Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005 site
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio
Microsoft’s 2.0/2005 MSDN site
http://msdn2.microsoft.com
ASP.NET
http://www.asp.net
· This site has a great daily article on some technology dealing with ASP.NET. Lately many of these articles have dealt with ASP.NET 2.0
WindowsForms.NET
http://www.windowsforms.net
· This site is the Windows version of www.asp.net, and like it has great daily articles. But also check out the Windows Forms 2.0 section
GotDotNet
http://www.gotdotnet.com
· A good all around site, with many code gallery workspaces of interesting products and add-ons
DotNetRocks
http://www.dotnetrocks.com
· Carl Franklin and company do a great job evangelizing the various tools and technologies surrounding the 2.0 Framework on the air– and it’s fun.
DotNetToTheMax
http://www.dotnet2themax.com/DotNetBrowser/ShowAssemblies.aspx
· A great online repository for .NET developers. Includes many useful downloads, such as the assembly browser that allows you to see all the assemblies, namespaces, classes, properties, methods, events and enumerations of the new Framework. Plus see which are new.
http://www.only4gurus.com/v3/index.asp
· A site with common practices and guidelines for C# and covers a lot of the microsoft products
C# .Net Fun
http://www.dotnetfun.com
ReportViewer Control in Visual Studio 2005
http://www.gotreportviewer.com
Microsoft TechNet
http://technet.microsoft.com
CodeGuru
http://www.codeguru.com
Windows Workflow Foundation
http://www.windowsworkflow.net
MSDN .NET Framework
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework
Microsoft Learning Visual Studio 2005
https://www.microsoftelearning.com/visualstudio2005
There are literally hundreds of others! I welcome your feedback on your favorites, so they can be included on the class list!
Blogs
Perhaps the best tool for finding out interesting features of any new technology is the blog. Despite the reputation of blogs as being ‘online diaries’, they often have excellent insights into technology. The blogs covering .NET are no exception. Since your second assignment is to discover a good blog covering some topic in the new Framework (or related technology), I’m only going to point you to several good areas to start your search, not any particular blog.
Feedster
http://www.feedster.com
· An excellent, if a bit slow, blog search tool. Unlike Google, MSN or other traditional search engines, Feedster primarily indexes blogs. It’s a great starting point to finding blog entries on a particular topic. (HINT: This is a great place to start for your second assignment…)
MSDN
http://blogs.msdn.com
· There are several good blogs on MSDN, all of them quite technical. Another good place to start.
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com
· They also have a good blogger community, although many of their bloggers have now moved to MSDN.
Visual Studio 2005 Team System Blogs
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem/community/blogs
ASP.NET Blogs
http://weblogs.asp.net
GotDotNet 2.0
Code Project
http://www.codeproject.com
C# Corner
http://www.csharp-corner.com
Thinktecture
http://blogs.thinktecture.com
Don Box
http://www.pluralsight.com/blogs/dbox
Soma’s
http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/
· Book: Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics (Paperback)
From the reviews, this books seems to be a must have, with code samples in C# and VB.NET, and really clear explanations. This book has a good rating at Amazon.com as well as bookpool.com.
· Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/netcfteam/
This weblog is a collaborative work by the .NET Compact Framework team.
Book: Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming by Jeffrey Richter
Web site: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms178124.aspx
Blog: http://davidhayden.com/blog/dave/archive/2005/01/27/804.aspx
Book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0735621632/ref=sr_11_1/103-0545732-7108623?ie=UTF8
blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ericgu
• Book: Presenting Windows Workflow Foundation – The first book that I read about WWF.
• Web site: http://channel9.msdn.com/ -- A cool site with a lot of useful information about MS technology.
• Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/ -- Just find it from technorati.com J
• Web site: http://wintellect.com/Articles.aspx
• Blog: http://www.wintellect.com/Weblogs/
Book: Programming ASP.NET by Jesse Liberty, Dan Hurwitz Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference by Dino Esposito
Websites:
http://www.worldofdotnet.net/
http://www.dotnetexperts.com/
http://www.aspnetpro.com/
Blogs:
http://weblogs.asp.net/
http://www.ondotnet.com/pub/a/dotnet/2003/11/24/longhorn_01.htm
Amazing about ASP.Net 2(all new features)
http://quickstart.developerfusion.co.uk/quickstart/
Contains useful links for many different helpful related sites
http://www.csharpfriends.com/News/DevRssFeeds.aspx
Working with Visual Studio 2005 Team System – it is very basic, but it is a good introduction to all the features VS 2005 Team System has for each role in the team.
Visual C# 2005, Developer’s Notebook – goes directly to all the new features in C# 2005, good although don’t expect too much detail.
Windows Forms 2.0 Programming – Nice book, I use it for a personal proyect that involves special requirements like custom controls, databinding, GDI+, etc.
Web site:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/default.aspx
Blog:
http://forums.asp.net
1. Working with Visual Studio 2005 Team System: It seems that this book is a good beginner guide for VS 2005 Team System.
2. Pro Visual Studio 2005 Team System by Jeff Levinson and David Nelson: Just got this book. It tells more features and insight of Visual Studio 2005 Team System.
Blog: I suggest you to have a look at Eric Lee’s blog.http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlee. He’s the product manager of VSTS. If you got questions about VSTS, I think this is the right place to ask for help.