Interesting Ideas, Broken Download code

Hamish · December 4th, 2009, 12:19 AM

I've tried the download code for both C# and VB versions and they both seem rather sick.
The C# is noted as being beta quality at
http://thebeerhouse.codeplex.com/Rel...eleaseId=33900

but the VB Code has no such dislaimers and it also seems to have little problems like the links to categories of articles being busted giving the message

Server Error in '/BeerHouse35' Application.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The resource cannot be found.
Description: HTTP 404. The resource you are looking for (or one of its dependencies) could have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please review the following URL and make sure that it is spelled correctly.

Requested URL: /BeerHouse35/category-beer-related-articles

which is a fairly basic error to slip through.

Lee Dumond · December 4th, 2009, 12:52 AM

Wow, I can't believe Chris never got this working after all. That's a shame.

papalolo22 · December 4th, 2009, 10:49 PM

Hi Lee-- I'll have to agree with you. it's a shame this author does not seem to be active in supporting his readers in this community. I know he doesn't have to. But, taking the extra effort in answering some question, fixing errors in the code, makes a pleasurable learning experience for his readers. The reason I purchase this book is to learn new material. What good it is if some of the material presented in the book has some errors, and the author cannot make time to fix them. The accompanying website to the book is a shame to professionalism.

Lee Dumond · December 4th, 2009, 11:01 PM

Ideally, the application should be working when the book is published.

Seeing as that's not the case, it's certainly not too late for him to fix it now.

In fairness, he may not be reading these questions. Maybe someone could contact him on Twitter or at his contact page on his blog and let him know there are concerns.

papalolo22 · December 4th, 2009, 11:23 PM

Well Lee what can i say--I have been starting to shy away from Wrox. I pick a book on ADO.Net, LINQ, & EF from Murach--Excellent, smooth.

Lee Dumond · December 4th, 2009, 11:49 PM

I understand what you're saying. In all fairness to Wrox though, it's probably not fair to judge the whole company based on the quality of one book.

Murach is a good company, and for the most part they publish good books, but that's admittedly easier to do when you only publish two or three books a year on very narrowly-focused specialties.

And have you seen the Murach forums? That's right, they don't have any. No opportunity to interact with any authors or other readers. And they are not very responsive to reader queries. I know, I've tried to ask questions there before and gotten nowhere.

If it is any consolation, ASP.NET 4.0 Problem - Design - Solution has already been contracted, and if you are really interested you will have a chance to interact with the author, download early alphas of the code, and influence the actual outcome of the book as it is being written. Should be pretty exciting.

vantoko · December 5th, 2009, 10:43 AM

lee, you can write me down as "interested" :)

Lee Dumond · December 7th, 2009, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vantoko

lee, you can write me down as "interested" :)

Okay then. Let's see how interested you really are.

docluv · December 10th, 2009, 07:28 AM

All the latest code is on Code Plex http://thebeerhouse.codeplex.com/Sou...leCommits.aspx and the URL Rewriting works just fine.