ISBN:073560794X/p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
DON'T BUY THIS BOOK
This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I can't believe that anyone would get anything of value from it. I'm an ASP/SQL developer with 5 years experience and I was not able to get more than a trivial example working, using this book.
The Author's problem is that he gives you examples, but doesn't teach you how to manipulate them. Several of the things I'm trying to do - have titles with two lines, change color of the column, make columns different colors. This book didn't help me with any of it. I was finally able to do some of what I wanted to do by looking for examples on the internet.
Given the fact that Microsoft's web site is also TOTALLY useless, I would think that the author would include and appendix outlining the properties of each object. Not only does this book not include enough information to help you strike out on your own, but it doesn't even point you to resources that could help you.
When I bought the wrox asp book (years ago), within a day I had built a data driven web site (crude, to be sure, but it worked). I could work this book for ever and not get anything useful working.
I have never bought a book that I couldn't find SOMETHING of use in, but this book will wind up in the bottom of my bird's cage.
Dave - next time you think of writing a book - please do us all a favor and turn on the TV instead.
Not much more than what was in the help doc/MSDN
This is probably the best book on OWC avaliable. This is mostly due to the fact that it's probably the *only* book on OWC available.
There's not substantially more information in the book than what is in the online help file. (And the book is nowhere near comprehensive as a reference) Much of the examples are extremely basic and do not delve into the actual issues that will be encountered developing anything other than a trivial OWC implementation.
If you're on an extremely tight schedule, need some basic OWC examples, and don't have time to read the documentation or search for examples on the web/MSDN, then this book may be helpful. Otherwise, save your money
Microsoft Press has some extremely good items in its catalog(Petzold, Richter, etc). However, this book is mostly just a thinly disguised marketing datasheet. Hopefully, O'Reilly will publish an OWC book.