Programming .NET 3.5

Appendix A. Epilogue

Jesse happens to hate epilogues. He thinks, and sometimes I agree, that they are a waste of time. Mostly, no one ever reads them. However, our editors at O'Reilly disagree, and without them our children might go hungry. So, on the off chance that you'll take a look, I've written one for you.

In this book, we have given you a complete tour of .NET 3.5. You have seen how it increases your productivity on a wide range of systems, from your desktop to the data center. By now, you should have a deep appreciation that .NET 3.5 provides a solid foundation for building connected and appealing applications.

In our opinion, the features you will find most compelling in .NET 3.5 are as follows:

• Deep integration of Language INtegrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness

• Support for Web 2.0 AJAX-style applications and services in ASP.NET and WCF

• Full tooling support for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflowenabled services technology

Hopefully, you have come away with the sense that this book is a great introduction to each of the "silos" that make up the .NET 3.5 platform. If you're ready to dive deeper into the areas that interest you most, we suggest the following titles (also from O'Reilly):

Programming WPF, by Chris Sells and Ian Griffiths

Learning WCF: A Hands-on Guide, by Michele Bustamante

Programming WCF Services, by Juval Lowy

Programming C# 3.0, by Jesse Liberty and Donald Xie

Programming Silverlight 2, by Jesse Liberty and Tim Heuer

Programming ASP.NET MVC, by Alex Horovitz ...