Sams Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual InterDev 6 in 21 Days [With CDROM]

by Michael Amundsen, Mike Amundsen, Robert Crouch

A tutorial that allows you to learn about working with databases in a set amount of time, this volume presents you with a step-by-step approach to learning what can be a critical topic for developing... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0672315637
• ISBN13: 9780672315633
• Release Date: December 1999
• Publisher: Sams
• Length: 720 Pages
• Weight: 2.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Stimulating and Indepth Coverage of InterDev 6

This one of the most stimulating books I've read on InterDev. Much of the code is very interesting, and some of the chapters come closer to real-world database web programming than other books I've read. I agree with the reviewer below that some of the HTML is dodgy (you shouldn't use as a global container, guys, because you can't insert tables into the page if you do), but compared with some of the HTML CGI coders churn out . . .InterDev is something of a Frankenstein in the web development world. Ostensibly based on the Visual Basic GUI, it presents several rather inconsistent approaches to database integration. There's the Data Environment, the Design-Time controls, or straight ADO. Added to this is a rather clunky web editor. Its interface encourages the developer to model a web page on the VB Form, an approach which relies on the out-of-date HTML 3.2 standard. But InterDev also ships with an HTML 4 CSS editor. MS encouraged developers to use FrontPage for design, but for years, InterDev generated non-standard HTML that made FP choke.These inconsistencies are reflected in the structure of the book, although that's not necesarily a criticism. But while it might appear that the book progressively leads you through a series of graded lessons, it's really more like a series of articles.The chapters on the Design-time controls are interesting, and probably contain the most in-depth discussion of their mysteries I have seen. The drawback is that most developers don't like using the DTs, and you can tell that the authors don't like them either, since they rapidly get on to ASP and JavaScript programming.This does lead to one minor issue, although it's one that I could raise with many other InterDev books: once you start writing ASP, there's not much real advantage to using InterDev, other than its Intellisense. (But you can get Intellisense extensions for other editors like HomeSite.) Still, the ASP programming examples are all very good, and full of practical code examples.Of course, it wouldn't be a Sams book without the usual number of typo's, incorrect diagrams, and software missing from the bundled CD. Most seriously, they promise you a demo version of SQL Server 2000, which isn't there. You can order one from MS, but you'll have to pay extra for it. Although you can get an Access version of the Pubs database from the authors' website, some of the ADO techniques presented only work with SQL Server.