Overall, I found
this book to be well organized and very readable. In fact, it is one of the most
readable technical books I have ever read. ASP.NET Web Parts are an exciting
and powerful technology and it takes a well written and technically complete book
such as this one to unlock the hidden secrets for you. This is not a book for
the true beginner, however. You should be familiar with the concepts behind
n-tier applications and interfaces, since the sample application uses both. A
background on these is outside the scope of the book and the author makes no
attempt to define them (examples and definitions abound on the Internet). The
examples in the book use Visual Studio 2005, and although you could use Visual
Web Developer Express for these examples, some of the screens would look
different.
In addition to
the print version, the publisher offers a PDF version from its website.
Chapters 2 and 9 are available from the publisher's website as well, so you can
literally try before you buy. The purchase of the book allows you access to
online forums on the publisher's site as well.