| brian on Jan 5, 2009 at 9:40:59 AM (# 6) I picked up Silverlight 2 Unleashed just before Christmas and from what I've seen it is pretty good - the code, screenshots and keywords are in colour and is very reasonably priced, ISBN 0672330148 I think I paid about 20 pounds sterling for it new from Amazon, RRP is 32.
LINQ - not bothered with it yet.
AJAX: with about 2 days work my team (me and one other guy) converted an app to use AJAX with little or no serious issues without any books. It is fairly easy to follow and if you look at the samples on the www.asp.net site, you'll see you don't need a book for most things - I am sure there are complications in there somewhere but for what I am using it for I never needed anything more than the docs and help...we also had the complication of not using .NET 3.5 so you have to install the libraries and convert the web.config to have the correct references and so on. Anyway, I suspect the ASP.NET 3.5 Unleashed will probably cover AJAX - the unleashed books are generally useful.
brian on Jan 5, 2009 at 9:52:25 AM (# 7)Just stumbled upon this: there's links to a couple of sample PDF books here. http://introducinglinq.com/
They may do the job. Covers silverlight, ASP.NET 3.5 and LINQ. It's not complete, just a couple of chapters...but it may help you decide if they're any good.
Monte on Jan 5, 2009 at 10:09:49 AM (# 8)Not a bad thought! I'll check those out.
Yeah, I've actually downloaded and burned all of the MS AJAX videos (as well as the Silverlight ones). Seems relatively straightforward, but even then, certain things aren't covered, that I may need/want to do.
I'm doing the "Look Inside" feature on Amazon for that Silverlight book you suggested.
Thanks for the suggestions!
brian on Jan 6, 2009 at 1:02:15 AM (# 9)It's also worth noting that if you're also a teacher or student, you can get all the Microsoft development tools free from the Dreamspark program. I was doing an Open University Maths course to brush up on my maths for work and was allowed to sign up, and got studio 2008, 2005 pro, sql 2005 and 2008 and the blend studio tools for the cost of buring to 3 dvds and 4 cds.
Monte on Jan 6, 2009 at 4:22:12 AM (# 10)I can't do that. I'm not a teacher or a student.
I have the Express Editions. That's about as close as I get.
ChrisRickard on Jan 6, 2009 at 5:24:19 PM (# 11)Monte are you self-employed these days or working "the man"? Either way you should look into getting an MSDN subscription. for ~$1000 USD (you have to find the right reseller) you get almost every Microsoft Product licensed for development use and updates for a year. This is something you can pitch to a boss as something that would save money in the long run. If you're self employed it's a tax writeoff.
Monte on Jan 6, 2009 at 7:10:36 PM (# 12)Right now, I'm working at a company, although I wouldn't mind having my own software shop one day, even if it's "on the side".
I don't really have the $$$ to get an MSDN subscription, or I would. My workplace does, but I don't think they really want us just putting random MS apps on our computers. It's basically on an "as needed" basis.
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