Page 80 - it's explaining how to set up the database for an SQL Server Provider... is this a 'design discussion' as implied by it's position in the chapter, or is it an 'instruction' I should be following?? (similar for the caching description)

When I skimmed through the ensuing pages I found no clear direction to create/ sort out a database. Yet when I downloaded example for chapter3 - a database is clearly there & lots of other stuff too.

I have assumed that I only need to carry out the coding tasks in the Design sections - but now I'm confused??

This is not a step-by-step book, so you'll get into trouble if you try to build the website by following the book in exacting detail. The book is mostly advice and examples, with the main point being the overall architecture and design issues.

If you get the code download you can study the details of the whole project.

I've only recently finished 'Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with C#', so I'm having to go slowly through this (more advanced) book, but find it an excellent follow up - seeing the application of techniques & great explanations of design.
When working through ‘Beginning ASP.NET’, it was clear to me from the innumerable typos, wildly incorrect English, and code errors that: the book had in fact been generated by that famed experiment to see if a room full of monkeys can reproduce Shakespeare. ‘A midsummer’s night at the PC’… ‘Twelfth Application’…’Much ADO.net about nothing’!
So thank god for Marco Bellinaso! (MB)… lucid, insightful & great English.

However one gripe: The grey box on page 109 is a good example of MB's occasional habit of really key information given too brief attention. I know I’ve a lot to learn yet, and the emphasis on P-D-S rather than hand-holding over basics is excellent, but I had to take 3 hours out to scavenge internet info on dll's/ bin/ assemblies/ "does 'build' = compile in VS2005" etc. before I had a clue what page 109's little grey box was on about...? This is made worse by the fact that it's so essential to creating the site - so I can't skip.
It would have only taken a few explanatory sentences (incorporating libraries/assemblies is not a newbie topic) to point me in the right direction.
Gripe 2: (gotta get it out...) I'm starting to have a sneaking suspicion that not all the task I have to do are in the ‘Solution’ section?
e.g. ‘Setting up the Dbase’ on page 80 as mentioned above.
I understand where englere is coming from when he says it’s not that kind of an instructional book. I understand that. But MB states early on page xvii… (paraphrasing) “This book teaches how to write a real-world web site from scratch to deployment” - which is what I’m trying to do for maximum learning.
Some of us are mortal.

Overall very impressed though.

I think if you study the back page it says that the book is for experienced ASP.NET developers (I don't have the book handy right now to see the exact wording). This book assumes you know the basics of .NET, at least to the 1.x level. Given this target audience, it does tell them how to make a real-world website.

The words "from scratch" do not mean that the developer has no knowledge at the begining. The book doesn't pander and tell people things they already know. There's only 600 pages, so this can't possibly be a "Step by Step" book because that would end up needing over 1500 pages.

I'm NOT trying to offend anyone here! You can still learn a ton of stuff, and just for the record, my home page is google.com and I spend a great many hours a week with google.

This book might be a little over the level you can understand right now. But if you put forth the effort to figure out the things you don't already know (using google and MSDN), then you'll advance to the next level and the knowledge will be burned into your brain. It won't be over your head for very long.

Eric

I think you have to remember the book has a fantasy mission. When I was in college I was a member of a group we called "The Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Night Drinking Club". Believe me we didn't spend our time writing learned articles about drinking or subscribe to a newsletter to keep up to date on the latest drinking developments.

TBH fantasy is a wrapper around a collection of useful routines which may or may not cohere logcally for any one real site. For example the rating sub system is used by every site that is derived from TBH - even those sites that don't have articles. Most advanced MBH sites found it useful to drop the theme changing sub system. Some keep the store. Some drop the polls. At a smorgesborg you choose what you want.



http://weboperahouse.com