8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Good OpenSource .NET Primer,
11 Oct 2004
By J. Lauria "jimsusedbooks" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Open Source .Net Development: Programming with NAnt, NUnit, NDoc, and More (Paperback)
Nantz states in his introduction to Chapter 12, ".Net Open Source code is not just some ideal; it is real and useable today." A well written and informitive book covering the intergration of Open Source and .NET tools and programming philosophy. Subjects covered are licenses and standards, the importance of the .NET CLR and its application in Open Source applications like Mono, which seek to blend .NET/Open Source applications.
Nantz also stresses throughout the text the importance of the C# language in Open Source development and testing, testing, testing using various Open Source/.NET tools. A large portion of the book examines build tools like NAnt, XML and C# documentation, the use of NUnit testing and other test tools. Other areas Nantz looks at are application logging, integration with ASP.NET, databases like MSDE and MySQL, and web development.
There are lots of code examples (mostly written in C#) which make Nantz's statements triable, provable, and useable. The book comes with a CD full of code listings, source code, examples, and the tools mentioned so the reader can try the tools (with MS or Unix/Linux OS's) and code for him or her self. Out of 480+ pages Nantz devotes over 100 pages to references like NAnt tasks, mkisofs, Log4NET Appender configurations and security issues. This is a valuable text for those interested in Open Source/.NET applications.
I would recommend this book if for nothing more than getting one's feet wet with the many OS/.NET possibilities available for today's programmers .
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Don't judge a book by it's cover,
18 Mar 2005
By Mark T. Rooney - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Open Source .Net Development: Programming with NAnt, NUnit, NDoc, and More (Paperback)
While I had expected to see a concise treatment to the use of NUnit, NAnt, NDoc; instead I was treated to a 74 page treatise on the glories of open-source, and how Microsoft is going to have to ponny up to the realization that Open Source is the wave of the future. The author then briefly discusses the various topics; making this 484 page book a 70 page booklet on using testing tools, and 414 pages of fluff and philosophy.
The first quarter of the book was a briefing of the author's philosophy, and his editorial views on various 'open source' products, as well as different liscense models and how to select one.
If you are looking for a book that treats NUnit, NAnt, NDoc, and the other testing suite tools, although this book has a fair discussion on them, it's not really adequate.
Instead of the 1 star that this book may truly deserve (for false advertising), I gave it a two star because it has become a reference book on other open-source tools that I might find useful. Even though this is why I am so critical of the book, it's also why I give it a higher ranking.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars open source + Microsoft ?!,
24 Oct 2004
By W Boudville - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Open Source .Net Development: Programming with NAnt, NUnit, NDoc, and More (Paperback)
A quiet revolution is happening with Microsoft's flagship .NET. By putting the ownership of key parts into ECMA and ISO, Microsoft has enabled the rise of an open source movement that can build projects within C# or even Java, and have these compiled or cross compiled to Intermediate Language bytecode, which can then be run on Microsoft or linux boxes.
What the book shows is that enthusiasts in open source have seized this chance. They have built tools like NUnit and NAnt, which correspond to their Java precursors, JUnit and Ant. Functionally, NUnit and NAnt do just what you'd expect. Which eases the transition form Java programming, if that is where you are coming from.
The book covers far more than these packages. It describes an entire development and coding process, living entirely in a .NET environment. Complete with detailed examples to make it real for you. It also describes ongoing open source efforts like Mono and Portable.NET.
The book does not goes into the depth of detail about IL that a similar book, "Cross Platform .NET Development", does. But it is broader in its scope of coverage of the overall development process.
Mowser
