My New Project

Now that Amazon has spilled the beans, I might as well tell you what the new project is that I am working on, and why it has been so quiet for some time on my own web site.

I am currently working on a new book called Beginning ASP.NET 3.5: in C# and VB. This book, targeting the beginning programmer interested in building ASP.NET web sites with Visual Web Developer 2008 will be the successor to the popular Wrox book Beginning ASP.NET 2.0, written by a team of great Wrox authors.

So, I am facing a great challenge here: I have to be at least as good as they have been, and I have to do it on my own.

But so far things are going great. I am making good progress and I am still on schedule. Working with the new Visual Studio 2008 release has been a great pleasure so far and I can't wait to get the final RTM version of it (so I can start looking at the next release of Visual Studio after Orcas, called Texel, Terschelling or Vlieland, or whatever island black-op code name they are going to give it this time ;-) They'll probably stick to Hawaii though)

Writing the book is keeping me pretty busy (as I also have my job as technical director at Design IT) so I don't really have the time to write for this web site. As soon as the dust settles, I'll start writing some articles again.

Oh, and if you want to know when the book's done, I'll answer with a quote from my favorite game development company (id software): "it's ready when it's done". although Amazon seems to have a firm believe the book is available in March 2008. Stay tuned......





Where to Next?

Wonder where to go next? You can read existing comments below or you can post a comment yourself on this article.



Feedback by Other Visitors of Imar.Spaanjaars.Com
On Saturday 8/25/2007 3:38:56 AM Jim Arthur said:
Knowing very little about 3.5 I am looking forward to your new project -- the sooner, the better!

On Saturday 8/25/2007 6:23:39 AM Navdeep said:
Great news Imaar !

Good luck with your new project.

On Saturday 8/25/2007 4:15:56 PM x said:
I purchased Wrox's Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 with C#.  So you're writing the successor to *that*?

Please, PLEASE don't make the same mistake and test your examples, and make sure that what you're describing in the text matches the code and screenshots.  The 2.0 book is a *huge* mess and its forum on the Wrox site proves it.  Have a beginner read through it from cover to cover before it's published, and if he comes across something he thinks doesn't make sense, then it needs to be fixed.

Figuring out Beginner book problems is *extremely* frustrating for, well, beginners, because they'll suspect they're the ones making mistakes.

Of course mistakes happen, but in this particular case I found it downright amazing that some of the errors that exist haven't been caught.

On Saturday 8/25/2007 4:24:51 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Anonymous comment?? Hmmmmm, I wonder why??

Anyway, I am working with a great team of reviewers, so I'll do whatever I can to avoid errors in the book.

Imar

On Wednesday 9/5/2007 3:30:09 PM Jeff Allen said:
Coolnees! Congrats on the new book Imar!!! I think Wrox made a stellar choice for Author!

I also know Wrox has folks hired to do code reviews for you but every error you can catch prior to turning over the completed manuscript for printing has to be a good thing...

And hey, like Anonymous said, having a beginner review it isn't a bad idea... and if you want/need someone to test out your code I'll happily volunteer...  virtually free of charge... all I'd ask for is a copy of the book signed by the author once its released...

That would just be totally cool!

On Tuesday 9/11/2007 3:49:28 PM Tahir said:
Hi,

I am working with ASP.NET 2.0 and I am just wondering whether I will be able to migrate with 3.5 with your book. You mentioned that your book is a successor of Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 book, so does that mean there is little difference in 2.0 and 3.5?

I look forward to read your book of course and best of luck with your project.

Tahir

On Tuesday 9/11/2007 6:55:30 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Tahir,

Yes, youll be able to migrate to 3.5 with my book.

Why would writing a successor mean there is little difference between .NET 2.0 and 3.5? Do you think there was little difference between Terminator 1 and Terminator 2? Have you noticed the major differences between the older (but beautiful) Volvo 850 and its successor the V70 and its successor the Volvo XC70? Dont you agree there was a major difference between Windows 3.11 and Windows 95?

So, no, it does absolutely not mean there is little difference between the two. Of course there is still a lot that works the same as it did in .NET 2.0, but there is also a lot of new stuff. Keep an eye on the books page on Amazon or search Google for ASP.NET  3.5.

Cheers,

Imar

On Tuesday 9/11/2007 7:04:20 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the offer; however, I am already too far in the process to hire new reviewers. Besides, you read and used my N-Layer articles so I don't think you qualify as a beginner anymore.... ;-)

Imar

On Tuesday 9/11/2007 7:53:09 PM Jeff said:
Imar, thanks for the vote of confidence... but I'd do it anyway... I still find a number of things I have questions about so I find I am always going back to the books I have to try and figure things out.  

Had I known you were writing a new book sooner I'd have volunteered sooner...  because at present I am in the midst of trying to develop an ASP.NET website with C# and a MySQL backend, somewhat similar to one you did in Instant Results except my will have user selectable skins. Needless to say I am using a lot of what I learned in your NTiered series but who knew working with Databases would be so confusing...

Keep me in mind for next time though... I'd be happy to help.

On Tuesday 9/11/2007 9:38:48 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Jeff,

I will.... Thanks for the offer.

Cheers,

Imar

On Wednesday 9/12/2007 11:40:54 AM Tahir said:
Hi Imar,

Sorry but I have not seen Terminator 1 and Terminator 2, I have also not seen Volvo 850 and its successor the V70.

What I meant was that have things changed between 2.0 and 3.5 or are things only added in 3.5. Probably I should have asked, can we migrate our projects from 2.0 to 3.5. There always are great promises by Microsoft that we 'can' but well in practice that is not 100% true. Are the differences in .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.5 as many as .NET 1.0/1.1 and 2.0

However, I must say that if one follows a good design (e.g. like the one you showed in your N-Layered Architecture articles) then it helps a lot when migrating.

I am sure you would have a structured your book appropriately, but I would like to see some material regarding the differences/additions between .NET 2.0 and .NET 3.5.

By the way, after you have completed the book can you let everyone know through your web-site that it is complete. I come here more often than Amazon :).

Tahir

On Wednesday 9/12/2007 7:11:30 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Tahir,

Yes, as soon as my book is done, you'll be the first to know through this site.....

Imar

On Wednesday 10/17/2007 11:51:45 AM IronRuby said:
Dear Imar, Things have changed a lot since you must have started writing this book. DLR and MVC are new Hot Topics as well as most important topics. As with DLR you can write asp.net in many ways than just C# and Vb.Net. O.K. lets keep DLR aside, but the most important FACT is MVC has taken everyone with a storm. After the a CTP in few months and a final MVC pattern in March 2008, the whole asp.net community is going to shift to the MVC way. It would be nice of you to talk to the authors and add few important chapters on MVC as well. I think Asp.Net MVC deserves a book of its own and you could do wonders with it. With this topic and book you can give us another great book like instant results with many working examples The third idea would be Instant Results the MVC way. Asp.net MVC is going to become a revolution and you can take my words for it. Thanks

On Tuesday 10/23/2007 1:47:45 PM Jeff said:
Hey Imar, any idea when the new book will be available? Also do you know if they are going to put it out as a PDF release?

On Tuesday 10/23/2007 2:56:20 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Jeff,

Did you read this:

Oh, and if you want to know when the book's done, I'll answer with a quote from my favorite game development company (id software): "it's ready when it's done". although Amazon seems to have a firm believe the book is available in March 2008. Stay tuned......

Don't know about an e-book version yet....

Imar

On Friday 11/30/2007 5:54:44 AM Leo4life said:
I look forward to this project, as I love the Instant Results and your article on tier development.  I hope you go in a similar direction with this project.  Thanks!!!

On Friday 6/6/2008 10:44:52 PM Sreedhar said:
Hello Mr. Spaanjaars, I am a faculty at one of the public universitiy in US. I looked at your book last month and after looking at a pool of books including microsoft press books, I am impressed with your book and wanted to adapt it in my class. I tried to get an ebook from the publisher but the rep. told me that it is not available. Is there a chance that I can get a copy of ebook so that it will help me in preparing my class material (powerpoint slides). Please let me also know if you have by any chance some instructor material which I can use in my class.

Thank you in advance

On Saturday 6/7/2008 11:22:43 AM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Sreedhar,

Sorry, no, I don't have an eBook version of my Beginning ASP.NET book either. However, the book's available from many stores, including on-line stores like Amazon: http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/WroxTitle/productCd-047018759X.html

Maybe Wrox will release chapters from my book as "Chapters on Demand": http://www.wrox.com/WileyCDA/Section/id-321040.html but so far I haven't seen it listed.

Finally, you could try requesting an instructor's copy: http://professor.wiley.com/CGI-BIN/LANSAWEB?PROCFUN+PROF1+PRFFN13+FUNCPARMS+CWIL(A0010):N+LANG(A0010):0+ISBN(A0090):47018759X

Cheers,

Imar

On Saturday 6/7/2008 5:41:29 PM Sreedhar said:
Hello Mr. Spaanjaars, Thanks for your reply. I have a hard copy sent to me as an evaluation copy from wiley. But you know with out the instructor material or an Ebook where we can copy the required material to the powerpoint slides, it takes a lot of time scanning the required pictures on to the slides. So I was just curious if I can get one I can convince my department on using this book. Please let me know when an ebook or Chapters on demand is available so that I can ask my wiley rep. to send one for me.

Thanks again

On Sunday 6/8/2008 5:43:30 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi Sreedhar,

The decision to offer the book in a digital format is made by my publisher, most likely without me knowing it in advance.

So, your best bet is to keep an eye out on the book's details page for any news on a digital version.

Sorry I can't be of much help; I also only have the paper version.... ;-)

Imar

On Thursday 6/12/2008 11:43:18 AM atheeq said:
Howto Create a Hit Counter Using a Database in ASP.NET 2.0 with C#
i need the code for this rather than in asp.net 1.x

On Thursday 6/12/2008 12:05:14 PM Imar Spaanjaars said:
Hi atheeq,

How is this related to the topic of this article?

Imar
On Wednesday 7/23/2008 9:54:59 PM ajit said:
I have a copy of your book at the time of this writing.Till now i have a very good experience.

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