From the book lists at Adware Report:

 All information current as of 01:17:10 Pacific Time, Sunday, 12 December 2004.

Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 (Programmer to Programmer)

   by David Buser / John Kauffman / Juan T. Llibre / Brian Francis / Dave Sussman / Chris Ullman / Jon Duckett

  Paperback:
    Wrox
    11 July, 2000

   US$26.39 

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Editorial description(s):

Amazon.com
Filling an important spot in the Wrox Programmer to Programmer series, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 is an excellent introduction to the new version of ASP released for the Windows 2000 platform. This guide expects no previous ASP knowledge or even previous Web development experience.

Its friendly style makes this book welcome reading at all skill levels. The material is carefully presented to avoid losing readers who are totally new to ASP programming, yet it still provides impressive technical coverage, beginning with the very basic concepts behind ASP programming and moving forward to advanced coding techniques.

As each topic is presented, relevant screen shots and useful code snippets under the heading "How It Works" complement the text. The chapters also include step-by-step exercises to familiarize you with new techniques and tools. An extensive case study application takes you through the entire development process as well. If you're interested in Web coding Microsoft-style, this is the right place to start. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: ASP language fundamentals, server- and client-side scripting, ASP object model, cookies, error handling, scripting objects, recordsets, transactions and COM+, XML introduction, ADO object model, and VBScript reference. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


Book Info
Designed for those with a grasp of HTML who want to add more to their web pages. Covers VBScript and provides the foundation for writing useful, real-world dynamic web pages. Softcover.


From the Publisher
Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 is aimed at two distinct groups of developers. Firstly it addresses the needs of the HTML programmer looking to progress to the next stage - to create dynamic web pages and understand how to structure a site for future growth. Secondly it is aimed at developers switching to Windows 2000, as it outlines all the changes and explains ASP from the standpoint of IIS5 and the new user interface. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From the Back Cover
ASP is the future of the web. If you';re looking for a way to create attractive, intelligent web pages, or if you';re just looking for a way to extend your HTML know-how, then ASP is an effective way to achieve your goals. With ASP, you can customize your web pages to be more dynamic, more efficient and more responsive to your users. It';s not just a technology, though - to get the best out of ASP, you';ll be using it in tandem with HTML, and with one or more of the web';s simple scripting languages. This book will teach you everything you need to create useful real-world applications on the web.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anybody with a grasp of HTML who wants to add more to their web pages. It also covers VBScript - a simple Internet programming language. This makes it the ideal first step for the aspiring web professional. It';s also useful for more experienced programmers looking for a practical, no-nonsense introduction to ASP and programming for the web. To get the most out of this book you should be running Windows 2000, which includes ASP 3 - the latest version of this popular technology.

What does this book cover?


About the Author
Chris Ullman is a Computer Science graduate who came to Wrox five years ago, when 14.4 modems were the hottest Internet technology and Netscape Navigator 2.0 was a groundbreaking innovation. Since then he's applied his knowledge of HTML, ASP, Visual Basic, SQL, Linux, and Java to developing, editing and authoring books. When not trying to coax better performance out of his ageing P233 or trying to persuade Wrox's managing editors that writing three chapters in one day isn't really feasible, he can be found either playing keyboards in psychedelic band, The Bee men, tutoring his not fully house-broken cats in the delights of using a litter tray, or hoping against hope that this is the year his favorite soccer team, Birmingham City, can manage to end their exile from the Premier League.

David Buser is President, CFO, and Janitor of BuserNet Consulting, LLC, in Herndon, Virginia. His first job out of college was in a titanium refinery, writing client/server applications using Access and SQL Server.  This eventually led to a career in Internet development and ASP. Currently, his work is focused on teaching technical courses, writing for Wrox, developing e-commerce websites, and managing his server farm. See http://www.buser.net/david/ for more details.

Jon Duckett Having graduated from Brunel University, London, with a degree in Psychology, Jon took a change of direction, coming back to his home town to work for Wrox in their Birmingham (UK) offices.

Brian Francis is the Technical Evangelist for NCR's Retail Self Service Solutions. From his office in Duluth, Georgia, Brian is responsible for enlightening NCR and their customers in the technologies and tools used for Self Service Applications. Brian also uses the tools he evangelizes in developing solutions for NCR's customers. He has worked extensively with Wrox Press as a technical reviewer and has also co-authored on a number of projects.

John Kauffman His early research focussed on the molecular biology of the cocoa plant and chocolate production.  Subsequently he moved to East Africa and managed an assistance program. In 1990 he moved to Taiwan and then mainland China where John provided software training services to multi-national corporations and the diplomatic community in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Sichuan. John now divides his freelance consulting time evenly between teaching, writing and programming, primarily in the areas of Visual Basic, Word macros, Access and Access Programming, and ASP.

Juan T. Llibre is a Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) for Internet development. His university degree is in Mass Communications and, as he puts it, “The Internet is the ultimate mass communications vehicle. It’s just great to be able to talk to the whole world while taking in the sun at a tropical beach on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.” Currently he’s developing Internet applications for the Caribbean Common Market and the Dominican Republic’s Central Bank. He’s also researching Multilingual Web Development with a view towards making the World Wide Web intelligible to, well, the whole wide world.

David Sussman has spent most of his professional life as a developer, starting with Unix and C, in the days when the Internet was only used for Usenet newsgroups. He then switched to Microsoft development languages, and spent several years moaning about the lack of pointers in Visual Basic. He lives in a quiet, rural village in Oxfordshire. He spends his spare time convincing himself that he'll get off his backside and get fit. He never does.


Book Description
What is this book about?

ASP is the future of the web. If you're looking for a way to create attractive, intelligent web pages or, if you're just looking for a way to extend your HTML know-how, then ASP is an effective way to achieve your goals. With ASP, you can customize your web pages to be more dynamic, more efficient and more responsive to your users. It's not just a technology, though — to get the best out of ASP, you'll be using it in tandem with HTML, and with one or more of the web's simple scripting languages. The book will teach you everything you need to create useful real-world applications on the web.

What does this book cover?

Who is this book for?

This book is for anybody with a grasp of HTML who wants to add more to their web pages. It also covers VBScript — a simple Internet programming language. This makes it the ideal first step for the aspiring web professional. It's also useful for more experienced programmers looking for a practical, no-nonsense introduction to ASP and programming for the web.

What do you need to use this book?

To get the most out of this book you should be running Windows 2000, which includes ASP 3 — the latest version of this popular technology.




Reader review(s):

Excellent book to learn ASP & VBScript, June 20, 2000
An excellent book for beginners, Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 starts simply and builds on what you've learned until you code a fairly fully-featured application. By the time you've gone through the book, you'll be able to create web pages that can return and capture information stored in databases, tailor pages based on information captured from input by users -- in short, create web pages that are in fact active.

Although there are some grammatical errors in the text itself, I think another reviewer perhaps overstated their existence. More importantly though, the examples and exercises take you through using the materials covered in a clear, concise manner. Not a lot of fluff or worthless repetition.

Although geared towards Windows 2000, the book can be used if you have a Windows 95/98 platform, at least as far as learning ASP basic coding techniques. An appendix covers use of Personal Web Server (required to let your 95/98 based PC act as a server and thus run the ASP code).

Numerous other appendices provide worthwhile reference materials concerning errors, VBScript reference, runtime libraries. etc.

If you are looking to teach yourself ASP, this is an excellent book to use to achieve that end. Don't let its size (1100+ pages) turn you away.

Good but wordy, October 27, 2000
Like most Wrox books I've read, this book contains lots of easily understandable information, but it is not as concise as it could be. Still, I learned to use ASP from this book and I recommend it.

I have done a little Visual Basic and HTML coding, and to me this book seemed too basic in parts. The first part of the book is about how the server deals with HTML and about VBscript. The book doesn't really get into ASP until about page 170.

The examples are usually short, which is good. Too bad the examples are not more self-contained. The authors too often illustrate a new point by saying "use the code in the previous example, but with the following changes..." That's just lazy. A complete new code listing for each new topic would have been more helpful.

If you are a beginner and you don't mind wading through a lot of words (1000+ pages worth) and a somewhat boring book design, get this book. It will teach you a lot.

If you are a very experienced developer, this book will be too basic - look elsewhere (the Wrox book Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 seems popular with reviewers on Amazon).

A Must For ASP Beginners !, February 21, 2000
In two days...in two days I was writing my own ASP pages ! This book covers the basics in a format that is comprehensive and easy to follow. You think you are just learning asp...but what you don't realize is you are aslo learning VBScript! The book is written in such a way that you are literally "forced" to remember what you just read. Packed with explanations and examples and explanations of those examples, this book takes you by the hand and builds on what you learn page by page. Forget the other guys...this book teaches you what you need to know. Definitely one of the best "investments" made into my future !

If you need to learn ASP 3.0, then look no farther!, July 2, 2000
This is one of the best beginning books that I have ever read. I am a big fan of Wrox Press and Oreiley books, and this is clearly the book to use if you want to begin ASP pages. The book starts off for someone who has no programming experience at all but very quickly jumps into complicated subjects such as cookies, server access, databases, etc...

The use of actual screen shots of what the code looks like in a window is a huge help. The chapter that serves as a sample application has helped me write more than 20 different applicationd already. Once you have mastered this book then I also recommend Professional Active Server Pages 3.0 as a reference book. Combined you will be an ASP Wiz.

The book also touches on topics like COM and XML, so if you want to get your feet wet, then they are useful features as well, but not really what the book is all about.

Technically sound and gramatially friendly, May 2, 2000
for technical content, BASP3 is an excellent book; those who have issues with the grammer did not notice the literary style was geared more toward fisrt-person casual interaction - hence the series title "Programmer-to-Programmer."

Even someone experienced wih ASP (as I was) can benefit from the excellent VBScript reference and ADO explanations. The book provides very hard-to-find information, including how to interface with different types of databases (this is harder to find than you'd think) as well as detailed syntax descriptions for VBScript options (another difficult to find item).

This is not a book to learn web development! If you don't already have a good grasp of HTML, start somewhere else. If you've taken HTML as far as you can and are ready to learn dynamic content using ASP, this is the place to start.

Excellent Reference, March 21, 2000
Without a doubt, the finest asp book I have read to date. Although not going into low level detail, a reader of this book with no web / database experience could easily build a full fledged application after reading this.

Excellent Overview to get you up and running, March 16, 2000
Covers a broad range of topics well enough to get running with VBscript, ASP and ADO. Occasional typos in the text and code but nothing that wasn't fairly obvious. Outstanding deal for a novice. If you are comfortable with VB already a number of chapters can be skipped but remaining chapters are VERY useful - esp. re: ADO. When looking at similar books make sure they are using ADO rather than the older DAO for DB access. Written in a clear, excellent style that is surprisingly homogenous given the number of authors. Highly recommended.

Best self teaching book i've ever read, January 22, 2002
Folks, to get off my rear end, register here and post praise about the book speaks enough for itself.

I have a small library of books on my desk here at work and they're all about the same, they teach you averagely well and then completely lose you at some point.

The reason I'm writing this is because I've been trying to get into some language, and I have ZERO experience. I tried Java for dummies--it lost me, i tried sams xml in 20 days-totally lost me. I tried the "bible" series which were decent, I tried "Perl for dummies" lost me. (not feeling so smart here)

anyway, I'm through the first 150 pages of this book and I'm eating it all up. I've had not ONE logical screw up, I know exactly what I'm doing, and finally damnit, I feel like I have a grasp, --even if small--of ASP. Its such a breath of fresh air that I've gotten off my rump with the book here in my lap and logged into here just to tell you about it.

If you're like me--zero programming experience and basic html understanding, and you want to learn ASP--get this book immediately! It teaches by example, which is supremely wonderful.

to the authors: thankyou thankyou thankyou!

Ethan

Fantastic content, but typo ridden..., February 28, 2001
Like all Wrox "Beginning..." books, this one does a fantastic job of taking the topic and explaining it from the ground up. The Good: No prior knowledge of ASP is necessary - trust me, I didn't have any and that's why I bought this book. The content is well organized and very thorough. Coming from an extensive client/server development background I wanted to get started learning web technologies and this was a perfect starting point for me. Even if you're new to programming entirely this book does a fairly decent job explaining even the most basic programming concepts and how they relate to the web. If you're not new to development, some of the more basic chapters can be skipped (like chapter 4: variables, chapter 6: objects, chapter 12: ADO, chapter 13: recordsets). Also, the last chapters on COM+, XML and the appendices were just excellent. The Bad: Also like most Wrox books, this one seems to be lacking an editor, and is the only reason why I couldn't give this book 5 stars. Halfway through the book it became a game of trying to find the typo on every page...and yes, there is almost one on EVERY PAGE... Most of these were annoying grammatical errors, but some (very few) were the deadly kind that crept into their examples. This makes it a little difficult to get things running, but in the long run makes you understand the content better by having debugged the author's code! Summary: If you're new to the web, or even new to programming, Active Server Pages is THE technology to get started with. This book does an excellent job starting you from scratch and getting you to an intermediate level by the end of the book...but you'll have to wade through the typos.

Typographical Errors Abound!, March 7, 2000
This book covers the topic completely and in a well-organized manner. The writing style is enjoyable. It is unfortunate that the book is marred by numerous typographical, grammatical and syntactical errors, some of which affect the code samples causing them to either not behave as they were intended to or to fail completely. Book buyers should expect a $40 book to exhibit evidence of careful editing - this book does not.

Great beginner book - was not proofed, February 8, 2000
This book is great for beginners, but a little slow for anyone with any experience in JavaScript, ColdFusion, or any other tool for dynamic web pages. The examples are very thorough. Each new concept has a section with syntax, an example page, a picture of the result, and a step-by-step explanation of what is happening in the page.

However, it appears that the book was not proofed. I am a beginner, so I don't know if the code is all correct. I don't see how it could be, when the book is full of sentences like this:

"The function usually receives some information from your main code in the form a parameter (subprocedures can also received information from parameters in the same way, just they can't return the values directly)." -- page 206, paragraph 4.

I'm not an English major and wouldn't usually care about such things, but something like this really makes me wonder about the code examples. The spelling was checked, but the grammer is horrible, at least in the first 5 chapters (that's as far as I've gotten). It keeps this from being a five-star book.

Still, I am learning ASP, and that was the point of my purchase.

ASP ASP ASP ASP ASP ASP ASP, March 5, 2003
By the time I finished reading this book and working through the examples I was writing somewhat complex ASP pages and publishing them on the web (thanks to some cheaper ASP compatible ISPs). It is clearly written (there are typos but they're not insurmountable) and shows instant results through coding.

An unexpected corollary to this book is that it actually helps with general Windows database programming. The database portions of this book basically deal with ADO, and this knowledge is applicable to Visual Basic 6 database projects (there are nuances, of course, and one must learn VB, Access and/or SQL Server, but the underlying theory and methodology is very similar). So you actually get more out of this book than you realize.

Possessing a working knowledge of HTML is a good thing before taking on ASP 3.0. The book will move slower if you don't. Also knowing something about JavaScript or VBScript will help, but the book does address this (it mostly uses VBScript with ASP 3.0), though having general knowledge of how scripting languages work (e.g., which runs from the server and which from the client and how and why) will speed up learning ASP.

This book will not prepare you for ASP.NET or ADO.NET. Those are different animals, and the book predates them both. Regardless, there is a lot of ASP 3.0 out there, and it will not likely go away soon. At the moment you have a choice: learn ASP 3.0 or learn ASP.NET. It depends on your needs. If you end up choosing ASP 3.0, this is the book to start with.

A Must Buy For Anyone Just Starting Off In ASP 3.0!!!!!, March 5, 2001
I found this book to be absolutely amazing!!!! It is so easy to learn from and the format is extremely easy to follow. And although it is a beginners book, you'll already be writing some very useful code about a quarter of the way through.

The best part of it is that it gives the reader an exercise in every section of the book, to review and practice what's already been covered. After that, the authors go through the example step by step to explain exactly how it works.

I already have some programming experience in C++, Java, JavaScript, Assembler, and Pascal. Now this book covers VBScript throughout the book and introduces the reader to it almost from the start. So already knowing other languages made it even easier for me to learn VBScript, but even if you've never touched programming, this book makes it easy to learn VBScript. The authors teach it in a way that anyone at any level can learn it quickly. The explanations are excellent, the terminology clear, and it just teaches you what you need to know to program ASP. Nothing more, nothing less. In other words, I'm sure that you'll be very well prepared to program ASP after using this learning tool.

The next best thing about the book is that it teaches you to apply your new-found skills in VBScript to programming ASP, and that's part of every exercise in the book.

The authors even went as far as explaining how to install and configure IIS (Internet Information Services) which comes with Windows 2000. IIS supports ASP 3.0, and since most people run ASP on an NT or Win2k server, this was a definite added bonus.

In other words, this book doesn't skip a step when it comes to learning what you set off to learn in the first place, namely ASP3.0. If you're interested in learning ASP 3.0 and would like to program in it using VBScript, then this is a must buy. I give it 2 thumbs up!!!!

Is there an editor at WROX?, February 13, 2000
I will echo what Aaron said about grammar, etc, it is HORRIBLE. Moreover, I have found four separate instances of error-riddled code so far (I'm on chapter 5 currently) and I've reported them to WROX with a suggested fix. For instance, the author(s) will tell you to name a form "x" and then on the response page they will refer to the form as "xy." It's frustrating.

Besides the errors and horrific grammar issues, I REALLY enjoyed the book up until chapter 3. I was really getting into it and understanding everything until it went into variables/variants and suddenly turned into a VERY, VERY technical and disjointed read. I'm now struggling like heck in Chapter 5 and retaining very little info.

If you're a beginner, I'd say skip this book and get something more intuitive.

Just my .02

Comprehensive... wonderful., February 8, 2000
What a delight. After completing this book (cover to cover) I sat down and built a web site with Database support in a Forum, Cookie identification, VBScript functions and dozens other techniques I knew nothing about before buying this book. This is one great bargain, It's easy to read (like most of Wrox titles), easy to follow and not to mention rewarding. It was love at first sight. :)

The most useful book I've ever read., May 1, 2001
If you have Win2000 you can't go wrong with this book. I happened to have Win2000 so installing IIS and ASP was much, much easier than expected. The book shows you how to turn one machine into both Client and Server (so you can develop ASP and check it all on one machine w/o a network). Theres a great explanation of object oriented programming...the best I've ever come across, and the book shows you how to access a database on the same machine you're running the code. In literally 2 hours, I'd turned my PC into a server which interprets the ASP, set up my database (I used Access, examples also for SQL Server), and had written enough code for my SQL queries to be successfully run. The explanations are very well written and very easy to grasp. This is the most useful book I've ever read, without a doubt. There are also explanations for Visual Basic. This beginners guide will make you feel like you're a master, you'll want to come back to amazon.com and post a 5 star review for it. If you have any interest, buy it. You truely won't regret it.

This is one hellava good read, October 28, 2000
I kinda got bored of reading, I found computer books too hard to understand, read or to follow, I needed to do an ASP programming project fast, but I didn't know a damn thing about ASP or why people use it...then this book came along...

Although the book is aimed at non-programmers or programmers crossing over to another language, it helps if you know Visual Basic as the ASP coding is primarily VBScript in this book. The wording is clear, concise and to the point. I can understand all of what its trying to say, and more importantly why.

So okay, it concentrates on Forms on the first few chapters, at least it's explaining them - rather than saying "do it yourself".

Some of the code has minor errors in them, but I was able to pick them out. I strongly suggest if you want to start ASP programming (whether its for your own site or for a project) you pick up this book (or Begining ASP Databases) as you should be okay.

Good, But Far From Ideal, July 22, 2000
The Good:

1) This book uses a three pronged approach to drive the point home: first, they explain the concept, then they provide an example, and then cap it off by an explanation of the example. I most cases this is very effective, as all three sections are sharply constructed.
2) Last quarter of the book is composed of valuable reference material.
3) About half the chapters are near brilliant in their clarity.

The Bad:

1) It's more of an introductory book than a beginner's book! Because half of the book is used up to delve into 5 different advanced topics. As a result, confusion and disjointed explanations are unavoidable in those chapters; each of which requires a separate book. Also, as a result of wasting this valuable real-estate on advanced topics, it provides a less than complete coverage of VBscript functions, the built-in objects, and advanced HTML topics, not to mention client-side scripting (I know it's ASP, but should have had a chapter on it, at least).


2) Very scant usage of diagrams. It's a 1200 page technical book containing about 5 silly diagrams!


3) I found a number of errors. Though it's not as big a factor as others here have suggested.


In conclusion: despite these major flaws, it's almost certainly the best beginner's ASP book, which isn't saying much given the age of the subject. If you are a serious beginner, then you are going to have to rely on other resources as well.

Great Book, February 9, 2000
HI Everyone,

I had no knowledge of all the internet technologies except HTML, but this book teaches you ASP step by step. It is really amazing on how you could learn ASP so quickly. A MUST buy for everyone.

This book saved my hide, June 2, 2000
The secret to a successful web career is telling your prospective employer that you know how to do this or that, get hired, and then go ahead and learn what you claimed to know. That's exactly what I did, and it landed me an internship for a major automotive company as the designer for my division's site.

Problem is that I was required to be able to connect Access databases to the page- I didn't know how.

This book saved my hide.It's been three weeks since I bought this book and not only am I able to connect our company's database, but I now have the skills to write dynamic pages.

I wholeheartedly reccomend this book. The essential concepts are explained clearly with solid examples, simple diagrams, and analogies.Just remember to not let it's size intimidate you, and don't bite off more than you can chew.

Hmmm...His English teacher would shudder., April 26, 2000
I bought this book to help me make the transition from SSJS to ASP. I cannot adequately describe how profoundly poor the grammar usage in this book is. Wrox consistently provides good information, but lacks the elegance and basic English grammar of other publishers, such as O'Reilly.

The content is good. The grammar is poor. If you can stand to read it, it is a good book overall, although I would love to see at least one book on programming ASP with JScript instead of VBScript.

Good user interface, February 26, 2000
As a beginner in web design, it is a great book that tells you what is what, and how to think and start your design. I advice it to any body that want to learn ASP from the beginning, or develop his skills.

Good First Book, May 15, 2002
I used this book in a class I took on ASP while at the same time using it an internship I had. Though we were never actually instructed to read anything from it, it helped me immensely, especially when on the job and not knowing how to use something the other programmers were talking about. I recommend it for anyone who doesn't know much on the subject yet. I also have the professional ASP 3.0 companion but compared to the beginners book it has remained useless.

$($) worth of information + $($) worth of bloat, December 3, 2001
LIke most Wrox books this one has a great deal of very useful information for the beginning programmer. They're well written, informative, and present the topics needed to understand ASP in a logical manner.

Like its predecessor and just about any other Wrox book, its horribly bloated. While most authors will develop an example application as a way of illustrating techniques, Wrox gives it several of its own chapters. I suspect this is either due to some childhood grudge against trees or pure greed on the part of the editors as most of the book is completely unnecessary and will never be used.

This is unfortunate as they're rather good for beginners.

If you're a programmer with more than 1 year of experience, you should be reading something more conscise like an O'Reilly manual.

Easy-to-read, yet comprehensive. A "best buy" in my book., June 15, 2001
Isn't it confusing to have some reviews be so negative and others (even most) be so positive on the same item?

Do not allow previous negative reviews to cause you hesitation in acquiring this excellent text. (Namely the comments about so-called "grammatical" and/or "typographical errors"--WHAT is this person talking about? I have yet to notice [not saying there aren't any] one error in my 500 pages + of reading this book).

The Wrox series (of which this is the first-step) is the staple in the ASP industry. Several of the Wrox books on ASP, this one included, serve as textbooks in the highly esteemed computer science curriculum at Cal-Poly. And for good reason.

I have never read as well-written a computer book before. And that this has a plurality of authors (six wrote this book) makes the good integration of concepts even more amazing.

Assuming you have a grasp of HTML, but NONE in ASP (or anything else, for that matter--databases included), the authors lead you through complexities so diplomatically and graciously that you have learned the concepts before you even realize how relatively technical it was.

Just start at the beginning and read. They will tell you everything, step-by-step, that you will need. Like a great wizard-program. Concepts are explained. Software required (such as IIS) is cited and instructions given for acquisition, installation, and operation--all without becoming boring and repetitious! WHAT A GODSEND!

VBScript, being the default language for ASP, is covered superbly.

As each new concept is introduced (again, assuming you know nothing except HTML), a "Try It Out" lesson leads you through implementing it yourself. Pay-off of learning at each juncture.

I have read a ton of computer books. Except for perhaps the "From the Ground Up" book on VB, nothing else comes even close to being as well thought-out in presentation of concepts, well written in a manner that allows maximum absorption of concepts, enjoyable to read, comprehensive in covering the complete topic at hand, and practical in that learning "pay-offs" occur frequently along a well-laid out learning sequence that culminates and builds off the preceding step.

When it comes to learning ASP, the Wrox texts (this being the first book) cannot come more highly recommended. I plan on acquiring only the Wrox publications (okay, an O'Reilly publication may slip in there) when it comes to the ASP technology.

Kaufman and company are fine instructors., March 28, 2001
John Kaufman's et. al. greatest strength, apart from their technical knowledge, lies in their willingness to describe the most fundamental aspects of the subject at hand.

They do not make assumptions about their reader's expertise: they explain everything in detail, from how to set up your PC to serve ASP pages locally (so that you can type in "real" URLs like http://YourComputerName/filename.asp)in order for the ASP to run, to how create basic HTML documents with sophisticated forms, text input fields and drop-down boxes.

Their teaching method is simple and effective: Present a concept using clear language, cogent explanations, real-world uses, even analogies and metaphor! , then a sample program. The student types the example, runs it and compares his results to a screenshot in the book. After the program has run correctly the student is presented with several paragraphs of "How It Works" -- step-by-step explanations of what each line of code does.

Each lesson builds on previous ones, although the authors interject the lessons with "this concept, which was presented in Chapter 4..." to reinforce key ideas and to help you find the original lessons should you want to refresh your memory.

I found their style refreshing in a world of PC books that gloss over fundamentals; I very much prefer an author who explains everything as opposed to one who does not provide enough information. Because of this I am looking forward to buying "Beginning ASP Databases" and "Beginning SQL Programming".

Keep up the great work.

Excellent book - for the ABSOLUTE beginner., March 1, 2001
This is a great book if you are new to the world of programming and want to get your teeth into some basic ASP development, it walks you through all the basics of programming (or should i say scripting) using VBScript and ASP - but be warned - If you have done any kind of development before youll quickly hit the limits of this book, and may find yourself better off with Professional ASP 3.0

Excellent Book if you want to learn ASP, January 2, 2001
This book was an excellent choice to get me started learning ASP. I had already had a little exposure to ASP and SQL, but didn't know what was really going on. This book solved a lot of my questions. Do all the examples in the book and you'll be set. The only downfall to this book is the spelling and grammar mistakes. They are frequent and distracting, but don't interfere with the concept of the chapters.

Buy it for the appendices, June 10, 2000
The book has a great 300 page appendix with valuable information. The book has good coverage of ASP fundamentals. It is geared toward beginners and takes a very slow and repetitive pace. I would have preferred cleaner code examples that used cascading style sheets and perhaps some DHTML too. There are horrendous grammar errors so numerous on every page that it is obvious to me that Wrox Press doesn't employ an editor. I wasted at least three hours rereading sentences throughout this book just trying to decipher the giberish into sensible text (other Wrox books suffer from the same problem). The book is written at about an eighth grade level and style.

best IT book purchase yet, May 30, 2000
I came to this book with a knowledge of HTML, Javascript and a dabbling in other areas.

I did not notice any major grammar problems - certainly not to the detriment of the content - and have so far (chapter 12 out of 18) found the book not only intuitive and detailed but also fairly easy to read. This is the first IT book I've picked up and read 500 pages of without getting bored - which must say something!

Regarding the content - it seems comprehensive, uptodate and overall useful - ranging from how to implement banner ad rotators to error handling, database access to a good tutorial on VBScript (running throughout the book)...and a lot more.

Easy to understand beginner book, May 11, 2000
I've been buying a lot of computer books lately. I find this one very easy to read and understand. Although some people may have a problem with the grammar, it's not a grammar book. This is a book for programming. I think it has great examples, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Too simple even as a beginner's book, February 22, 2000
If you have LITTLE experience with programming and internet technology at all, you may find this book helpful. The authors are trying to explain EVERY simple idea in plain English. To anyone who has some basic knowledge in procedural or object-oriented programming, or SQL, this book could be an insult to your intelligence. If you still want to read this book, I suggest you skip all the "How It Works" sections because they simply don't explain much beyond what you can learn from the sample code yourself.

Easy to understand with lots of examples, November 28, 2000
This book offers a very good intro to VBScript. It then goes into all the basics of ASP in an easy to understand manner. Almost everything that is discussed in the book includes an example of how it can be used. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to learn ASP. It is easy to modify the examples for your own use. I had read the Dummies book but it left out too many details. This is much easier but it is a lot more reading.

Very Very Good BEGINNER's book, November 14, 2000
If you are totally new to ASP this is the book for you. If you are a beginning programmer then you can use this book also. Basically for any beginner level this is for you. The books is a litle slow paced but beginners (whats the rush). I am surprised people said nothing about chapter 15, where they have a full scale application implementing databases etc. It also gives a very good foudation for COM lovers. I am writing components after three weeks and this book certainly tells you how to use the COM objects in your ASP code. I see why perl is not popular in the ASP community. what would you use to parse form data? ASP or CGI/perl? If you are serious about programming the web and using ASP you must read this book. This is definitely a good "first book" for ASP. As for those critics maybe they should read the title again Beginning ASP.If you are not a beginner ( to coding) then you should have no problems just browsing/skipping chapters 1-4. I gave it 5 stars because I knew absolutely nothing about ASP prior to reading this book. A very good book.

Should Be Clearer On The Target Audience, October 19, 2000
This book is decent, but it would be nice if they'd be clearer with their target audience. The first 7 chapeters are virtually useless to anyone with knowledge of html and forms. For them, it can be summed up in one chapter.

I bought it because it said beginner ASP. Little did I know it should have said Activer Server Pages 3.0 for Beginning Programmers (as opposed to ASP beginners).

simply one of the best tech books I've read...., September 8, 2000
How can I tell you this book is great without losing credibility? Hmmmm.... I'm not motivated to go into detail like the other reviewer. In short, these authors created a book which has awesome intro chapters... I mean great! for so many reasons: no assumptions, great printed examples, a clarification of asp role within the industry, comparison of asp to other server sides... so many books fails with asp... other books can never break through the jargon... this book does.... LAST POINT... if your starting, like me... it's great... if you're more advanced, perhaps the later chapter would be best or the professional version of this series... wow, a damn good book....

Worth The Money, July 17, 2000
I did not buy this book from Amazon, but I found it so useful that I though I'd write a review. Not only does this book cover the basics of ASP technology, but also guides you through VBScript, XML and other related essential scripting technologies. It is designed for people who know nothing about ASP, and want to start from sratch. It's an excellent book for a complete beginner, but it's receomended that you know the functionality of HTML before hand. However, even though this book informs you of alternatives and other various way of running ASP scripts, it's designed for users who have Windows 2000.

Easy and Fast ASP, April 8, 2000
Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0 opens the door and gently and thoroughly guides you through learning VBscript/ASP programming.

I am the consummate newby to this programming, and this book is not just a how-to it is a vital resource. It would be a valuable addition to any programmer's library.

[email protected]

Very Good Introduction to ASP, February 8, 2004
This book is a very good introduction to ASP. The codes are clearly explained step-by-step. The codes are also accompanied by screenshots of how they look on the browser. In addition, it covers almost all basic topics as well as a few advanced topics for more exeperienced programmer. Definitely a good buy.

For beginners, with basic knowledge of HTML..., October 10, 2002
If you're new to ASP then this is one of the books to buy. Very well explained, good examples, easy to learn. It's a thick book but well worth every page. Together with 'beginning asp databases' and 'teach yourself active server pages in 21 days' this book makes a solid ground. I was new to programming when I started this book but I learned a great deal and I am currently programming a personnel management application!

The best ASP book for beginners!, April 11, 2002
Being in the webdesign business, and diehard user of Microsoft's IIS 5.0 web server, I naturally wanted to take my skills to the next level. I had previously read and studied what ASP could do, but had little idea how to code ASP. After reading the glowing reviews that this book, as well as, the rest of the WROX books were given by other Amazon customers, I decided to purchase this book.

I have to say that I was a little hesitant, having little programming experience. Also, I had visited various websites across the WWW that offered free tutorials. Well, you get what you pay for! After reading the first couple of chapters in this book I had a healthy understanding of what exactly ASP is and how it works. The following chapters take you by the hand and slowly introduce you to all of the VBScript commands and how they are used in ASP as well as other server and client-side scripting.

If you are new to ASP or using scripting in your web pages, then I highly recommend this book. It is well written (yeah, there are a lot of typos, but you'll get the picture), and written in a way that the novice can understand and comprehend.

Worth its weight!, January 4, 2002
A very clearly-written book aimed at people with absolutely no experience of ASP (but you'll need to know HTML of course). I have only read the first 64 pages but having read them I now understand many things I never really understood before, such as what a server is exactly (and how it works), how to work with the server IIS 5.0, how browsers and servers communicate, what TCP/IP is, what HTTP is, and how scripting languages work. This information alone has already made the book a worthwhile purchase for me so I recommend it strongly.

Good Beginning Book, May 9, 2001
We generally buy this book (and previously Beginning Active Server Pages 2.0) for any new programmers starting on an ASP project. We have used it to train interns and veteran programmers-turned-web-developers alike and both have commented on it's excellent writing and thorough treatment of all relevant topics. The only problem that I have with the book is that some of the code samples tend cause the new developers to think that they should write code for larger projects similarly -- which could be quite a mess. Over all and as a reference, its great. But my suggestion for next time around: improve the code samples!

A must have for beginners and rogue developers, May 9, 2001
An absolute must for anyone who has wanted to get into the development of Internet Applications. Very easy to read and understand. I have read several dev books that are so dry that I get cotton mouth and then gave up on dev. This book has totally changed my mind.

An excellent follow up for this book is Beginning ASP Databases and Professional Active Server Pages 3.0. Do not bother with ASP+ just yet due to the fact the book is cheesy and the .NET framework is not quite baked yet.

I liked the book, January 8, 2001
I've had numerous question by other programmers about "how to" do something in Active Server Pages. I found the Beginner Active Server Page 3.0 to be great to show them the step by step process for their question. The book introduces new features and technology available for web developers like com+ and windows scripting components. Once you read this book an feel comfortable with the contents, I suggest purchasing and studying the Professional Active Server Page 3.0 which is rock solid for information.

Hands Down - The best ASP start up kit there is, December 6, 2000
I can't say enough great things about this book. I use it to train people at the office, unattended. Just follow the instructions, and you'll be up & running with the proper headspace to do the job in weeks.

I swear by it. I refer to it all the time, because the examples were so clear that i still remember where they are in the book(and ...umm ....still borrow the code, on occasion).

Great starting place - but lots of typos, September 12, 2000
I've been using this book as my primary ASP "teacher" for several months now, and have found it extremely worthwhile. I had never programmed in ASP before, although I had a very small amount of scripting experience.

The book goes step-by-step through most of what you'll want to know to get started. I'm now at the point that I am able to create somewhat complicated database-driven sites, although I realize there's still a tremendous amount to learn.

My main criticism of the book is the rampant typos. In most cases the mistakes don't affect the reader's ability to absorb the material (although they are distracting), but in a few instances typos appear in the sample code--and could seriously confuse the reader.

There are a few sections of the book which appear to have gone straight from rough draft to the final printed page. Even a fast read-through by an editor would have caught many of these errors--which makes me wonder if the book was actually ever edited!

Other than the typos, I do recommend this book to the savvy HTMLer wanting to expand his/her abilities.

An Essential For Beginners, February 25, 2004
All programming books are both overwritten and underwritten.

When you begin reading and learning the content is simply too much. As you progress you find yourself seeking other resources for "filler" information.

I didn't realize until I grew frustrated with the book how effective it was. I had gone from a complete beginner to someone who could put together access driven web applications and I didn't even realize how far I had come.

I now have over 30 programming and database books that is use as resource guides for particular problems etc. Each book helps me get past a certain problem/hurdle. Like a lawyers library I couldn't proceed without it.

That is simply the nature of programming these days. We beginners often underestimate the amount of knowledge expert programmers have. The trick is to take what we can from each resource. In order to progress we must keep adding to the resource collection.

This book is the staple of my collection. I refer to it almost daily and as my knowledge base expands I find myself making better use of it.

So its a must for the beginner in my opinion. Whether you just want a foundation to take free script from ASP Programming sites, edit it, and add it to your projects or you are looking to chase a programming degree or career this book gets you rolling.

Best book i've read on ASP, October 9, 2003
I was really looking for a book that gave me a good introduction to ASP and ADO and i just stumbled on this book. It was great from the very first chapter! They have a tremendous flow and do not assume stuff. Their explanations on Object oriented programming is very fresh. Throughout the book if you carefully test the code, you learn alot about creating flexible ASP web pages with full MSDE connectivity. Of course it helps if you already do some programming indeed on the cover they have the words 'programmer to programmer'. Too bad ASP 3.0 has now been superceeded but i think if you really want to understand the current you must visit the past!

Good book for the money, January 30, 2003
I picked up this book as a reference. I have found a lot of what I was looking for. Examples were written clearly and in details. One thing, however, this book did not get into was pushing errors to the web browser that originated from a VB COM object. Over all, it's well written book.

Very good beginners book., September 17, 2002
I bought this book along with 2 others to learn ASP. This was by far the best of the lot. I was already a SQL programmer and a budding HTML writer. This book was easy to follow. The try it out exercises are very well explained and analyzed after. The exercises at the end of each chapter were a big help too.

I wish Wrox would include the source on a CD but they do have an excellant web site and email discussion list to support the book. All the source code can be downloaded from the web site. The web also has the current erratta and a provision to submit any new errors you might find.

Over all a really nice job. This book helped make Wrox one of my favorite publishers.

Get a jump-start with real, working examples, September 10, 2002
This was used as a textbook for a class I took at the University of Washington.

I'm very familiar with the O'Reilly books, which are often quoted as being "the books to have" when it comes to technical resources. I believe that this book has an advantage over many that I've seen, in that its explanations really break things down, providing very clear descriptions and reasoning behind the scenes. I obtained much better understanding from this book than I have from any of the O'Reilly books.

I used the 'Wrox Classifieds' example in Chapter 15 as both a final project and a fund-raiser. I changed the code so that it was more of an auction site rather than a general classifieds section. Working with a team at my company, we organized a fund-raiser/online auction on our corporate Intranet. Using donated items and services, we were able to raise over $10,000.00 in support of a company-sponsored project. These funds will be used to help build a 2-acre garden at a hospital in Naples, Fl. where cancer patients and their families can go to rest and reenergize.

Not only is it helping teach future developers, but it's also being used to help support social causes.

Perfect if you're new / have little experience, November 24, 2001
I love this book. I've been introduced to ASP and some programming before, so I only skimmed over the first few chapters, however they were a nice referesher. This book gives lots of examples and focuses on using VBScript (ASP's native scripting language)with ASP (I would recommend getting a VBScript book too if you're new). You can take this book nice and slow, or you can breeze through it; either way I would highly recommend this for either a newbie or an experienced program for a refresher.

Great Learning Tool, November 1, 2001
This book really helped me to learn ASP and has lots of coding examples. I have very little computer background and this book helped in conjunction with some online communities for me to develop an ecommerce site! However, it is definitely for the Beginner to Advanced Beginner.

Excelent and so on and so on..., July 13, 2001
The book is well written, the examples are fine, and it has helped me to design several ASP database connections, pages, and more, making my life as a webmaster a lot easier.

I suggest that if you pick up this book that you get the entire collection as well, and a fork lift 'cause the books are fatty.

Very Well Written, still missing some important components., June 29, 2001
The book is well-written, not much useless information and paper-wasting. There are, however some point that need more consideration. For example, they must spend more time on databases with ASP. The topic is covered but, in my opinion, not well enough. Also, there wasn't a word about Email. As far as I know when Microsoft released their first versions of the ASP scripting machine it lacked email sending capabilities. Therefore other companies wrote components that would have those capabilities. Not a single word for any of those. I had to go to the net to find one. Good that I have web programming experience. Newbies wouldn't even know that there is such feature in web programming and it is not something to miss. Also, I didn't find anything about indexing database through ASP. I still don't know if that's possible. Other than that, everything they have touched upon is quite understandable and easy to grasp.

This book is it!! well written, easy to navigate, May 29, 2001
This is a great ASP book!! I tried others and was SO ANNOYED when they would set the whole book up to be one giant sample ecommerce site or something, because you have to understand the whole project in order to learn one little piece.. but this book is not like that, it's really well written and wonderfully organized; I constantly refer to it and learn chunks of stuff as needed. Excellent ASP and VBSCRIPT reference, and the authors really know their stuff. [...]

Good book for the beginning Webmaster, April 27, 2001
This book is extremely good for anyone who is intrested in becoming a webmaster! However, I do recommend you have a strong knowledge of HTML, and a little bit of knowledge on MS Access or MS Sql. You can still understand the book and learn alot from it if you don't already know these, but it gets kind of confusing when you're trying to learn 4 or 5 languages! The book teaches you everything you need to know about programming in ASP, it will also teach you VBScript.

Minimum requirements for this book: Windows 2000 Pro, MS Access and/or SQL 7.0+

Recommended requirements for this book: MS Interdev 6.0, SQL 7.0+

If you don't have ANY of the above, I would not recommend buying this book.

Bottom line: Great book, some typo's, knowledge of web environment recommended before purchase

Definately Beginner *Programmer* level, February 14, 2001
As another reviewer put it 'Little did I know it should have said Activer Server Pages 3.0 for Beginning Programmers (as opposed to ASP beginners).' Also, while some reviews noted the grammer problems, there are also problems with the index, which often points you to the wrong page (the correct page is usually earlier - they must have added pages after the index was written). There is some ASP material of worth but you have to wade through a lot to find it. It also glosses over some ASP features, such as HTMLencode, which while mentioned, is never discussed in any detail. After all the glowing reviews of this book I was really disappointed. The Pro version (which most reviews warn you away from as being too hard) is a better ASP book even if you are new to ASP.

super asp book, January 23, 2001
Ive read many scripting books and a couple asp books, but none of them broke down the syntax like this one. Most books seem to speak in general terms, giving you ideas of what you CAN do with asp, but not actually giving you enough to learn how. That is not the case with this book and because of the lengthy discussion of detail many have said that this book is too lengthy... well if you dont want a lengthy book then be my guest and go buy 3 others to do the job of this one book. For everyone else purchase this book.. i love it

Best book to learn asp, September 26, 2000
Great learning aid to understanding ASP. You don't need any pre requisites and the style of writing leads you nicely through the learning process. If you've already got a little experience in this topic you'll find some areas fairly basic but don't let that put you off. I wish all books were written this well.

Good Book *FOR BEGINNERS*, August 28, 2000
I would rate this book as a very good starting point for ASP beginners. If you are already an ASP programmer, go for Professional ASP.

If you want to be "the one" DO ASP and start here !, August 15, 2000
Great book to start with. Install PWS and go ahead DO IT , and this book will help you a lot !

A must have, August 3, 2000
If you have any interest in designing Active Server Pages for the web, you must get this book. It does a wonderful just of mixing factual inforamtion with hands-on practice. Within minutes you'll have your first page up and running. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even the slightest interest in learning ASP.

Great for beginners, August 3, 2000
I have just gotten into coding with ASP and found this book to be ease to follow and very helpful. After reading this, you should follow up with the "Professional" title by the same publisher.

the definitive guide for beginners, July 18, 2000
Having just 10 weeks to learn ASP is not a simple task. Is this book for the intermediate or advanced user? No. This book is great for beginners who want an easy to read and understandable book. There are ample examples and clear and concise explanations. Sessions, Cookies, Recordsets, and a host of other topics help provide a concrete foundation for someone who is interested in ASP. I have 2 copies of this book; 1 at work and 1 at home which I used extensively. I highly recommend it for beginners. Good luck!

Assumes too little; wordy; bad writing/grammar, July 14, 2000
Get free code and learn it yourself; no need to buy thisbook!

In spite of the deceivingly good ratings, the book explains something very simple in too many words. Even though I had no knowledge of ASP (but had good knowledge about programming), I found the slow, repetitive, hand-holding approach an insult to my intelligence. Reading/digesting this book isn't challenging at all. Rather, I had to page through all the wordy pages to find the little information to add to my knowledge. If you have basic understanding of programming of any kind, don't waste your money/time on hundreds of pages explaning what is a "variable", how if/for/while control structures work, what are objects/properties/methods... Instead, buy/read Wrox's Professional ASP 3.0 or ASP Programmer's Reference. They will return you 100 times as much knowledge and confidence as this book. Also, the bad grammar/writing style, typos, and careless errors in code are intolerable... Go to the wrox website to download all the code for this book, try them out with your browser. That's all that the book gives you. No need to read the 1200 pages. The code is all free. That's my sincere advice to ASP learners of at least average intelligence.

Excellent,Authorative,Comprehensive, July 6, 2000
This is one of the best intro books I have ever used. The chapters are well organized and the content is thoroughly explained.When completed, one could write a working useful ASP application based on the solid foundation this book provides you with.What is especially good is the coverage of other topics such as ADO ,XML etc. that other books ignore or assume you have previous knowledge of. I'm really looking forward to the Professional ASP book.

One of the best introductory books ever, March 15, 2004
This text is so packed with information, it even goes beyond asp and introduces XML and COM+....so well written, so concise, publishers throughtout the country need to learn from wrox' writers on how to do technical books right! Every bit of code is explained in great detail, and while there are some errors, the website covers nearly all of them. Case in point: I won't be selling my copy back!

Great Start for ASP Coding, December 11, 2003
In the beginning of Chapter 3, there is a paragraph that sums up the entire book:

"When I first started to study Chinese my tutor ... gave me a Chinese-English dictionary, a Chinese grammar book and a primer. But he placed all of these books in a basket and said they were not to used until the next week. In the first week he instructed me just to listen and and memorize some phrases. That week, I had to accept on faith the content, sentence structure, pronunciation and grammar. But by Friday I could at least walk into a Chinese restaurant, order a bowl of rice and pay for it."

That pretty well desribes how this book progresses. The authors start you off with some simple ASP and then build on that in the later chapters. I basically went chapter by chapter and did all of the "Try It Out" projects. By the end, I could understand ASP code and I was able to adapt it to the project I was working on.

The book is rather wordy, but not in a boring way. The authors' target audience is people with almost no programming experience, and I think they do a good job explaining things to that audience. I had done some web coding before, so I usually skimmed the text to look for the techniques I was not familar with. As I worked on my real-world project, I would refer back to the book when I wasn't sure how to do something.

I like the book because it has lots of hands on examples, right up to a full blown web application called "Wrox Classifieds". It's easy to look up a specific ASP technique and get right to the explanation of how it works and how to code it. An added benefit are the Appendices, which include a complete description of the ASP 3.0 and ADO 2.5 Object Models and a VBScript reference. If that's not enough information, they have a website with a messgae board on which you can ask specific questions and get answers from more experienced ASP coders.

My only criticism of the book is the "support" provided by the publisher. Wrox was sold to Wiley a couple of years ago in a bankruptcy proceeding. You are supposed to be able to open a ticket with their technical support if you have problems getting something to work. I tried to open a ticket, and all I received was an e-mail from Wiley saying they weren't sure if they would support the book but they would get back to me. They never did.

That experience, however, has not dampened my enthusiasm for this book or other books by Wrox.

Very good, August 22, 2002
I am a 'wannabe' Java Guru, and this technology is not from my camp. But i always like to be aware of the key technologies and i have found this book very helpful in that regards. It would be very readable if you had some understanding of webdevelopment like HTML, JavaScript or VBScript, but if you are not keyed up on them this book can still help you get started in ASP development.

this book is for the ambitious infoSys college major...., June 26, 2002
Hey... i got a new job and discovered that i have to know .asp to help me get along and be effecient. basically this is out of the classroom research on my own as I major in information systems. In about a week after i got this book I was already writing pages in asp and editing real online websites. In addition referencing the book is so easy and intresting. This book got me hooked on Wrox books. Matter of fact my online check tells me that the VB.NET book by Wrox i ordered just arrived at home. Cant wait to get home.
If you want working knowlege of these languages the Wrox is the best. This book here is well paced to a new/semi experienced reader. It helps a lot when you are practicing either on your PWS or IIS. Without them it w'd all be theoretical. With the IIS/PWS installed on your computer, you will see results with the click of a mouse button. One advise is to actually type out the codes instead of downloading if you are not so experienced that is. Just writing the codes will give you confidence and help you rememnber neat tricks and shortcuts. SO FAR the short cut i am most thrilled about is the one for "Response.Write"
THIS BOOK IS A GREAT DEAL.

Best Technical Book I've Read, April 18, 2002
This is a great book for beginners. You can pick up the book knowing nothing about ASP and web design and they take you step by step with great examples and practice work. Mainly using VBScript as the preferred language.

Did you ever have a favorite teacher?, December 3, 2001
I don't have a lot of ASP experience-- and the last action I saw on the web development front was several years ago. But this book brought me up to speed: first explaining fundamentals (NOT to be underrated!), then going into a number of the more important facets of ASP. It is to the world of computer tomes like a favorite teacher is among Mrs. Edna Krabappels. From a perspective of ASP capabilities, this book does a great job of explaining, and showing understandable examples, in a way I haven't yet seen in a computer book. There isn't too much on performance-tuning, but in terms of getting you prepared for your baptism in the field, this book might be all you need.

EXCELLENT BOOK FOR BEGINNER'S, October 3, 2001
This book give all the skills you need to do
ASP scripting at the starting level. I am
highly impresses with chapter 8,13,14,15.
It explains Recoredsets, application and
session objects in the best way.

Did anyone proofread this book?, June 1, 2001
I haven't seen a programming book ( or for that matter any book ) written so poorly. Even a fifth grader would be disgusted by the sheer grammatical errors in the book. But what takes the cake away are the syntactical errors in the examples of code. The reader is left to do the debugging of the code. What are the publishers charging the $39.99 for???? This book should be free.

es el mejor libro de asp que existe, May 27, 2001
Este libro ense�a paso a paso lo que es asp, no es necesario saber de programcion, pues este libro ense�a desde el principio, es magnifico y muy completo, si enverdad uno quiere hacer paginas web este es el libro.

BUY THIS BOOK!, May 2, 2001
I HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone interested in enhancing or someone who is just beginning with ASP. This book was very in depth and helps you to understand what goes on under the hood with ASP. I was developing a full-scale app halfway through the book!

Best Beginning ASP Book Out There!, April 26, 2001
This book has proved its worth countless times. It has helped me with everything from database connections to VBscript syntax to providing handy code examples. I can't emphasis enough how this book has helped me go from a casual HTML daubler to programming ASP pages in no time. It will probably not offer anything new to an experienced developer, but like most Wrox books, you won't be disappointed!

Essential Beginning ASP book, February 5, 2001
I was a big fan of the previous version of this book, though a bit discouraged that it didn't go into enough depth on the more advanced topics. This book more than makes up in that regard. With a wealth of information on ADO and the ASP Object Model, this is the only book you'll need to learn ASP. Both comprehensive and easy to follow--quite an accomplishment. Higest recommendation.

Good for the beginner - but where was the editor?, December 17, 2000
This book very easily gets a beginner up and running with rudimentary ASP examples. My biggest complaint is the lack of editing in this book. Bad writing and grammatical errors were humurous at first...annoying after 700 pages. There is no excuse for publishing a book written this poorly.

Great book, October 25, 2000
My money was well spent on this book. I started out as a complete beginner and now I am programming fully date-driven e-commerce sites. The writers do a great job integrating advanced issues while learning something for the first time, so as your knowledge grows you can always return to the big red book for reference.

Steve, September 20, 2000
I have some background in VB and alot of experience in html. Overall this book provides alot of information and,yes, the occasional typos are annoying. The most unpleasant one is in the downloaded code. I spent about one hour searching for the typo but finally got it corrected. The opening chapters provide a good introductin but once the book moved into more advanced topics like ADO and SQL I found myself more memorizing than really understanding the examples. I guess the authors felt they needed to cover alot of ground but the book would have better if they stuck with idea of a beginner's book and leaving the advanced topics more advanced books. I did learn alot but I am already looking at other books that will explain the topics more thoroughly. This is a very good book, but you might consider starting with Visual Basic books, which will give you a better grasp over VBA, which is essentially what ASP is.

Wrox, You've Done It Again!, July 31, 2000
I would like to strongly recommend this book to anyone who is need of a crash course on developing solutions with ASP 3.0. I recently was lucky enough to obtain a consultant position that will be using this technology daily. Given my background in VB, VBA, ADO, etc., I needed to get up to speed on Internet solutions as well. This book proved to be a great resource in my ASP development. While this book is more for beginners of ASP, it doesn't stay "high level" throughout, and in fact, you will learn techniques that will surely come in handy in your career. The reading is easy, not to mention that I read the entire thing in less than a week. Just couldn't put it down. I am moving on to the Professional edit next. Thanks again Wrox!

It's Sexy!, July 19, 2000
It's just superb and !It's a must for the beginners as well as professionals.

A weighty, substantial, "user friendly" technical guide., July 4, 2000
Programmers receive a technical programmer's inside guide to Active Server Pages 3.0 in David Buser, et.al.'s Beginning Active Server Pages 3.0, a treatment recommended for those who know HTML who want to add more to their web pages. VBScript, the hottest Inernet programming language, is also covered in this weighty, technical guide which will bridge the gap between advanced and intermediate users and programmers.

Great start for anyone interested in ASP, July 3, 2000
When I bought this book, I had no experience with ASP. It is probably helpful if you have some background in HTML, although not necessary. The examples in this book were great and I would recommend it to anyone who has little experience with ASP. After you read this one, try Professional Active Server pages 3.0 by the same publisher. Another great book.

Overall, a good book, June 23, 2000
The explanations of the examples presented in the text were excellent. Very easy to understand and follow.

The supposed grammar problems were not a problem to me, possibly because I am not a grammar expert myself. I hardly even noticed any.

The one thing about this book that did bother me however, was the order of the content. The chapters on error handling, scripting objects, and ASP components, seemed extremely out of place. These chapters contain information that is not critical to the average ASP developer, yet they come ahead of basic information such as database connectivity. I think that most people want to access a database before they want information about Ad Rotation!

Great Book, June 12, 2000
It got me off to good start with ASP! Great example code to work from...

A must have for beginners, March 22, 2002
I started out knowing absolutely nothing about ASP using VBscript. With-in 4 months after purchasing this book, I was developing fully functional applications. This is a must have book for those looking to get into ASP programming.

Great beginner book, February 22, 2002
The book is great for beginner and it has lot of examples of Asp programming.The code will work for Windows 2000 and also for Windows 98/95 with Personal Web server Installed.After finishing every try-out examples there is a details explation how the code works.It is a great beginner book and very easy to understand and I suggest this book for all type of Asp programmer but specially for the beginner who want to read Asp first time.

Great book, October 11, 2001
Great book to learn ASP with great examples. Experienced programmers may skip some basic programming theory. Examples are very good and also the support given by WROX press is excellent and you can download the samples from their web site.

An excellent well written book, October 3, 2001
This is an excellent well written book that gives plenty of examples and takes you through the proecess step by step for someone with some HTML programming experience. It helped me understand everything I needed to know. It is an excellent Book!

great for us COBOL dinosaurs, April 26, 2001
Can teach an old dog new tricks! Many lucid examples, covers lots of basics. As a neo to client-server programming, I appreciate this book a lot. I didn't notice too many typos, myself. Great downloadable source code examples from publisher's web site. You do need to know at least the basics of HTML before starting this book. Am taking a break for a few days before jumping into the "Professional" book by same publisher. One of the best programming texts I've read, and I have seen a few, during undergrad and graduate work!

Best ASP book for beginners and semi beginners!, April 17, 2001
It was a Joy reading this book. Everything is explained clearly, to begin with the authors took the time to explain the details how to set up your file, how to setup virtual directory in IIS and how to view them in browsers and other valuable points, and this was just in first chapter! All the examples were bug free and were working fine. I did not waste any time to hassle of why the example is not working. If you are new in ASP or got disoriented reading other ASP book, as it happened to me, read this book.

The ASP Programmer Wanted BOOK!, April 16, 2001
In Bahasa Indonesia (English see below): Buku ini bagus banget untuk programmer pemula yang ingin belajar ASP. Setiap bab disertai contoh-contoh listing program yang membuat Anda untuk mengetikkan pada NotePad Anda. Meskipun ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris, cara penulisannya begitu jelas dan gampang dipahami. Pada akhir buku ini ditutup dengan cara menginstall PWS, Syntax ASP dan Kode Error.
--------------------- English HERE --------------------------
First of all, this book is very very heavy. But with the clearly step by step it covering every new programmer in ASP. This book is very usefull if you don't have a background in programming. U'll learn how to coding a program listing, tips about how the program works. Every chapter have a lot of example and it challenge u to type a listing program from a NotePad :P. The language it's so EASY to understand.

The place to start ASP, March 31, 2001
I feel lucky that i chose this book to start my ASP experience. It's hard to describe how helpfull was it for a novice like me.....Good work..

Excellent Tutorial and Refresher, March 27, 2001
Beginning ASPs effectively presents the whys and hows of Active Server Page development. Whereas most "beginner" books either discuss only the most basic aspects of a topic or present information that will overwhelm the reader, this book is right on target. Most readers will happily discover an effective mix of discussion and examples, a combination also lacking in many books on this topic. I would highly recommend this book! When your done be sure to pick up Beginning ASP Databases as a natural extension. Enjoy.

Assumes too little; wordy; bad writing/grammar, July 14, 2000
In spite of the deceivingly good ratings, the book explains something very simple in too many words. Even though I had no knowledge of ASP (but had good knowledge about programming), I found the slow, repetitive, hand-holding approach annoying. Reading/digesting this book isn't challenging at all. Rather, one may have to page through all the wordy pages to find the little information to add to my knowledge. If you have basic understanding of programming of any kind, don't waste your money/time on hundreds of pages explaning what is a "variable", how if/for/while control structures work, what are objects/properties/methods... Also, the bad grammar/writing style, typos, and careless errors in code are intolerable for a $...+ book.

Excellent,Authorative,Comprehensive, July 6, 2000
This is one of the best intro books I have ever used. The chapters are well organized and the content is thoroughly explained.When completed, one could write a working useful ASP application based on the solid foundation this book provides you with.What is especially good is the coverage of other topics such as ADO ,XML etc. that other books ignore or assume you have previous knowledge of. I'm really looking forward to the Professional ASP book.

Excellent,Authorative,Comprehensive, July 6, 2000
This is one of the best intro books I have ever used. The chapters are well organized and the content is thoroughly explained.When completed, one could write a working useful ASP application based on the solid foundation this book provides you with.What is especially good is the coverage of other topics such as ADO ,XML etc. that other books ignore or assume you have previous knowledge of. I'm really looking forward to the Professional ASP book.
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