best book to learn asp.net

Question

So far in my 2 yr career as a programmer I've been purely a java guy. Be it groovy or struts...i've played around with them.

I want to give .net a try and see how it is. Can the community recommend some good books for starting out with .net. Chapter on AJAX will be preferable.

Thanks!

Answer 1

The Fritz Onion books are still among the best for understanding the technology.

Answer 2

ASP.NET Ajax in Action is really good. You should try it.

Answer 3

Professional ASP.NET 3.5 Book : http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/05/06/professional-asp-net-3-5-book-only-16-on-amazon-for-a-short-time.aspx

Answer 4

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but if you're new to .NET development it might be worth looking at a book that teaches the platform in addition to a book that's targeted solely at the ASP.NET framework bits. I know very little about Java, but if I was heading that way I might find a good book on Java before learning about JSP, for example.

I think Jeffrey Richter's "CLR via C#" is quite good.

For ASP.NET books I think the Fritz Onion ones are hard to beat.

Answer 5

I found ASP .NET 2.0 Step By Step to be a perfect introduction to the ASP .NET technology. AJAX is just an extra library above ASP .NET that you will better understand if you know the technology it is built upon.

Coming from Java, you will need to master C# too (much more complicated/powerful than Java). Sorry, I have no reference for this though.

Answer 6

It's not a book, but the official ASP.NET web site has a ton of learning material: http://www.asp.net/. Be sure to check out the "Learn" section.

Answer 7

1. Essential ASP.NET With Examples in C# (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (Paperback, 393 pages) by Fritz Onion
2. Essential ASP.NET 2.0 (Paperback, 345 pages) by Fritz Onion, Keith Brown

You will need both of them, because they do not overlap - the 2.0 book assumes you have read the first one, as the author states "Volume 2, Not Second Edition". However, first read the Preface of Essential ASP.NET 2.0 because it lists a few sections in the first book that you may skip or skim.

• They teach you how to understand the ASP.NET architecture without wasting paper on details that are easy to find on the web.
• These books do not go into depth on every little class or web control -- you can find that information much faster on the Web.
• The best descriptions of the page life cycle and request life cycle that I have seen. Understanding the life cycles are critical to using ASP.NET correctly.
• Both books assume you already know C#.

Answer 8

ASP.NET By Yousef Ballan

www.drdotnet.com and it is in hebrew

Answer 9

My book is well-suited to Java developers who are moving to ASP.NET:

Ultra-Fast ASP.NET: Build Ultra-Fast and Ultra-Scalable web sites with ASP.NET and SQL Server

I don't cover the details of every control (MSDN does a good job with that). Instead, I describe how the ASP.NET runtime really works and how the various pieces of a .NET-based architecture fit together, from a practical perspective. I combine that information with performance oriented tips and tricks, to show how you can build a blazingly fast site.

Answer 10

I'm surprised no-one has mentioned Pro ASP.NET MVC Framework by Steve Sanderson. If you're new to ASP.NET today, it probably makes sense to start with MVC from the beginning. It is still built on top of ASP.NET and promotes better coding principles than the traditional webform approach.

See the great comments about the book on this thread as well: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/240905/best-asp-net-mvc-book

Answer 11

Here is one asp.net bible here

But as you told you are a java programmer .. I would like to suggest you to go through these one by one ..

C# for java developers

Beginning-ASP-NET with-C-Sharp

Mastering ASP.NET with C#

Hoping these links would help you ..

:-)