Customer comments on this selection.
 Comprehensive To Say The Least
If you are looking for brevity in 'MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-505): Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5-Windows Forms Application Development: Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 Windows Forms Application Development' you won't find it. Clocking in at a whopping 750+ pages, this guide to Windows Forms Development covers all the basics, and then goes far beyond it. I would usually give 5 stars for an effort like this, but for Exam prep, give me everything I need, nothing I don't. Also, give it to me in the smallest form possible, so I can get to taking the test instead of cramming for it.
Having said that, this book does what it needs to. Chapters in the book are:
01. Windows Forms basics
02. Creating the User Interface
03. Advanced Controls
04. Tool Strips, Menus, Events
05. Connecting to Data
06. Working With Data in a Connected Environment
07. Working With Data in a Disconnected Environment
08. Data-Bound Controls
09. XML
10. Printing
11. Advanced Topics
12. Enhancing Usability
13. Asynchronous Programming Techniques
14. Creating Windows Form Controls
15. Deployment
If you need a book to help pass the 70-505 test, this will certainly help you do that. Its a bit long in the tooth, but that shouldn't stop you from buying this at all.
**** RECOMMENDED
 Tedious reading
I bought this book in hopes of getting a solid understanding of Winforms 3.5. Unfortunately, this book is mostly step-by-step tutorials which really slows down the knowledge transfer (and makes for a large book). I have to go through a 4 page tutorial just to find the 10 lines of relevant code that will be on the test. It would have been better if the relevant code snippets where extracted and explained and the remainder was removed.
A good exam guide for the MS Training Kit family, lacking in some areas, but written in a good style
I'll keep this short: The book doesn't cover everything, nor does it cover the included topics in depth. However it's strongest attribute is that it's written in a style that keeps the information concise.
The target-audience of the book is a developer who has at least a year's experience in WinForms--so much of the book should be review for you. This book does a good job of being fairly up-front with indicating whether you should be reading a lesson in-depth or skimming over it.
My only warning to readers is that you should at least read the description of *every* Excercise at the end of the lession. The Lesson text doesn't always tell you the list of what the excercises cover, and in some cases (esp. with the very short lessons) the excercises contain additional info that's useful. As always test takers should also pull up the exam guidelines of Microsoft Learning and make sure you are aware of the topics at the time of your testing.
 A well-written, nearly-comprehensive training kit
This book is an excellent high-level review / introduction (depending on your experience) of Windows Forms Application development under the .NET Framework 3.5. The topics covered are vast and reasonably detailed, and I felt that it accurately reflected the exam and its requirements. Combined with the training exam to prompt some additional research, the entire kit is very well-rounded.
The book itself has very few typos and no grammatical errors that come to mind. All but one or two examples are completely correct, without any misleading information. Each chapter covers a related set of topics in fair detail - the first half of the book is more of a blitz review of all the controls and events, whereas the remainder covers most details and intricacies quite well. The only topics I felt could have used more coverage were LINQ, WPF (and deployments), and permissions (at least a review of them). While these are each major topics in other books (LINQ in ADO.NET and WPF & security & deployments in WPF), at least a minor review would have been helpful in sorting out some of the details and making things clearer.
Aside from those minor points - which were taken care of with a quick review of some permissions online - the book text is sufficient to pass the exam. The coverage of DataSets may seem cursory, but such detailed functionality is a topic more suited to ADO.NET, not this exam. Again, the coverage suits the exam. The permissions issues tend to revolve around installation and UAC (in Vista) issues that aren't covered or explained thoroughly. Printer permissions are covered quite well, but most others and the tools involved are not and could use more coverage; if the security models from the 70-536 exam are still in your mind, you'll be fine.
The preparation exams compliment the book very well, pointing out areas that need focus and are not examined thoroughly in the book. For example, the book covers various ToolStrip controls and the exams ask implementation-based questions. The same is true of handling events. Many questions in the preparation exams are very close in substance or intention to the real exam questions. I recommend iterating through the exams several times - more and more interesting or obscure questions will surface as you take them, most of which will prompt a little reading. The one glaring issue I draw with the exam is that it asks how to handle thread exceptions and claims that the AppDomain.UnhandledException event can handle them - this is false, as a little reading on MSDN will show.
In all, I feel this book continues well with most others in giving readers another piece of Microsoft's grand .NET Framework 3.5 programming model. Understanding how rich Windows Forms Applications can be and how to use them is very important, even in the days of WPF. This ties together some of the pillars of .NET 3.5 and provides what I feel to be very good coverage of the topics - more than enough to improve your applications.
Slow Delivery but Excellent Condition
It took almost a month for me to get this item. That being said, it was in excellent condition and I would do business with seller again.
|
