Database Programming with Visual Basic.NET 
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Author Carsten Thomsen
Publisher APress
Length 504 pages
vbRad Rating: 4 fingers up. (4 out of 5)
Reviewed by Robert

First of the inevitable stream of ado.net books, this one sets a pretty high standard. The reading is pretty easy and the language is surprisingly clear -- not a small feat, given that the author is not a native english speaker. It reads like a pretty interesting reference book, a departure from the style of Apress founder Dan Appleman, who peppers his books with amusing anecdotes. Conforming to the usual high quality of Apress books, the author quickly goes through the database & ado concepts and then moves on to the meat.

This tome actually covers more than ADO.NET - there are chapters on how ADO.NET works with MSMQ, ADSI, etc… If you are only interested in ADO.NET and how it works, then you'll probably want to stick to two rather large chapters: 3a (for the connected layer) and 3b (for disconnected). The rest of the book explains technologies conducive to working with ADO.NET (data bound controls, stored procs, views, etc…) and various .NET techniques like the obligatory chapter on structured error handling.

Before this book I didn't know much about ADO.NET - now I have a clearer picture. Keep in mind that this is an instruction/reference book - it is not a book on better techniques, tips or tricks.


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