Windows Developer Power Tools

1.10 For More Information

ASP.NET is a complex and growing web development framework. Here are some of our favorite books and blogs that are great sources of additional information:

ASP.NET books

• Programming ASP.NET, Third Edition, by Jesse Liberty and Dan Hurwitz (O’Reilly).

• Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C#, by Fritz Onion (Addison-Wesley). A new edition updated for ASP.NET 2.0 is on the way.

CSS books

• There’s only one, as far as we’re concerned (“the salmon book” to those who love it): Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, by Eric A. Meyer (O’Reilly)

Ajax booklistvs

• Pragmatic Ajax: A Web 2.0 Primer, by Justin Gehtland, Dion Almaer, and Ben Galbraith (Pragmatic Bookshelf)

• Head Rush Ajax, by Brett McLaughlin (O’Reilly)

Atlas books

• Programming Atlas, by Christian Wenz (O’Reilly). At the time this book went to press, Programming Atlas was the most up-to-date title published, reflecting changes through the July CTP. O’Reilly is promising periodic online updates.

• Foundations of Atlas: Rapid AJAX Development with ASP.NET 2.0 (Apress). One of the first books published on Atlas. Like the preceding title, necessarily incomplete since Atlas hasn’t been released yet, but still pretty good.

Must-read ASP.NET blogs

• ScottGu’s Blog (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/)—Scott Guthrie runs the team responsible for building ASP.NET and IIS at Microsoft. He often posts announcements of new projects as well as great tutorials on various ASP.NET and IIS features.

• Nikhil Kothari’s blog (http://www.nikhilk.net)—Nikhil is the Microsoft architect responsible for server controls and is continually working on cool side projects, like Script#, a C# compiler that generates JavaScript instead of IL, and the Web Development Helper.

• Onion Blog (http://pluralsight.com/blogs/fritz/)—Fritz Onion is one of best ASP.NET trainers around. He’s also the author of Essential ASP.NET with Examples in C#, mentioned earlier.