[Review] Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation

MCTS Self Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation
Author: Tony Northrup
ISBN: 0735626197
Price: $145.00

At first look, Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation sounds like it would just cover the basics of application development in .NET, and one would need to look elsewhere for further information. However those who have looked at the exam description will realise that the “Foundation”  description is rather extensive, ranging from using basic types and collections, through to using the Cryptography classes to secure your applications.

This book is an official training kit designed to teach, or at least push developers to pass the 70-536 Microsoft .NET Framework – Application Development Foundation exam. Whilst you will find plenty of new information about new technologies like Silverlight 3.0, or the changes coming in .NET 4, it is crucial that as a developer you have a solid understanding of the foundations of .NET.

To cover the broad range of content that the exam looks at, the book has been written to cover each topic quickly, but with enough information so the reader either understands, or has enough knowledge to search further, either online or in other books, to expand their knowledge. For example Generics, a powerful aspect of .NET, is covered in about 4 pages, however in those four pages you get to understand what Generics are, how to use them in their most basic form, and for a beginner, this is conveyed in a way that is easy to understand.

You will notice that the title of the book is not specific about which language the book covers, this is because all code samples in the book come in both VB.NET and C#, so whichever language you use, this book will still apply to you. This also lets the book demonstrate the cross-language capabilities given by the .NET platform.

I found that the author wrote very clearly, covering the topics well in the small amount of space he used for each. Each topic basically consists of a short description paragraph, and then a piece of sample code in VB/C#. However whilst the pieces are short and cover the topic well, I found the code samples, which describe how to use each feature, did not have much in the way of comments; generally a single line comment indicating what is happening next, and then a block of code.

If you are looking for a very quick run through the foundations of .NET, or you are a beginner to .NET, this book is very good. It will set you up perfectly for further learning into the areas you want to focus on, and if you ever need the other aspects of the framework, you at least know the basics and have a starting point to learn more. The book comes in at around 700 pages, covering 16 major areas of the .NET framework.

You can buy the book from Microsoft Press using this link.