ASP.NET 2.0: A Developeramp;#039;s Notebook [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Organization

Developer's Notebooks try to communicate different
information than most books, and as a result, are organized
differently. They do indeed have chapters, but
that's about as far as the similarity between a
notebook and a traditional programming book goes. First,
you'll find that all the headings in each chapter
are organized around a specific task. You'll note
that we said task, not
concept. That's one of the
important things to get about these booksthey are first and
foremost about doing something. Each of these headings represents a
single lab. A lab is just what it sounds
likesteps to accomplish a specific goal. In fact,
that's the first heading you'll see
under each lab: "How do I do that?"
This is the central question of each lab, and you'll
find lots of down-and-dirty code and detail in these sections.

Some labs have some things not to do (ever played around with
potassium in high school chemistry?), helping you avoid common
pitfalls. Some labs give you a good reason for caring about the topic
in the first place; we call this the "Why do I
care?" section, for obvious reasons. For those times
when code samples don't clearly communicate
what's going on, you'll find a
"What just happened" section.
It's in these sections that you'll
find concepts and theorybut even then, they are tightly
focused on the task at hand, not explanation for the sake of page
count. Finally, many labs offer alternatives, and address common
questions about different approaches to similar problems. These are
the "What about..." sections, which
will help give each task some context within the programming big
picture.

And one last thingon many pages, you'll find
notes scrawled in the margins of the page. These
aren't for decoration; they contain tips, tricks,
insights from the developers of a product, and sometimes even a
little humor, just to keep you going. These notes represent part of
the overall communication flowgetting you as close to reading
the mind of the developer-author as we can. Hopefully
they'll get you that much closer to feeling like you
are indeed learning from a master.

And most of all, rememberthese books are...

All Lab, No Lecture

Brett McLaughlin, Series Creator