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Although
this book starts with an introductory chapter with a brief introduction to
SQL and the relational model, most chapters dive into discussions that might
drown novices unless more tutorial background was included. However those with some database
experience would find a useful detailed introduction to ADO.NET.
The book is easy to read. Each chapter has many code fragments, and
perhaps a few complete programs. All
those I tried compiled without error.
The examples in Chapter 2, ADO.NET Basics, assume SQL Server is the
database. While it would be easy to
convert the examples to another provider, the data would not be available and
users of other databases cannot execute these examples. The downloaded code contains some Palm
database files, but without any explanation of what to do with them.
Chapter 4 has only two complete
program available for download. The
first is included in the book on p. 165, but Chapter 4 starts on p. 127. The second refers to a brief section at
the end of the chapter which has no code.
It would be much more helpful to have complete examples from earlier
in the chapter.
The code fragments from Chapter
4 are available for download. It
takes a while to correspond the code to the text. My sleuthing found that Figure 4.3 in the code is Listing 4.1
in the text, Figure 4.4 is Listing 4.2 and so on. The fragments compile and execute, but are not as helpful as
complete programs.
The book is nicely written and
has lots of information. The author
is clearly experienced and knowledgable.
It would be a lot easier to learn from if more complete examples were
provided and clearly identified with specific sections in the text.
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