It’s almost eighteen months now since Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 was released and if there’s one thing the feedback forum for that book has taught Wrox and its authors, it’s never to underestimate the reader. The book uses (quite reasonably) Visual Web Developer and SQL Server Express for a database and code editor on the basis that it’s very easy to build a simple site using both in a short period of time. But of course there are those readers who want to use IIS, or other versions of Visual Studio and SQL Server (in some cases on operating systems other than Windows XP also) and the coverage in the book just doesn’t cut the mustard as some 30% of the feedback in the book’s forum shows.

In an effort to redress that then, I’ve written a new appendix demonstrating how to install a site’s code and databases using any combination of

• Visual Web Developer or Visual Studio ‘full’ editions
• SQL Server Express or SQL Server ‘full’ editions
• The local web server built into Visual Studio\Visual Web Developer or IIS

Currently the help file only deal with Windows XP but if there’s demand for it, I’ll add coverage of installing on Windows 2003 Server and Vista.

You can find the files on the downloads page.

As a sidenote, I think this will actually help anyone struggling to set up their first web site development box as it covers pretty much all the basics. If you’ve any feedback, please let me know and I’ll update the files as applicable.

Side note: Thank heavens for Virtual PC and differencing drives without which I probably wouldn’t have written this.

Well, that about wraps it up for a few things. Wrox’s Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 is a much better book than Beg ASP.NET 1.x even in the draft stage. It’s probably because there was no pressure from Wrox to produce a beta edition of the book. Of course, the text has been written against beta 2 but will be checked against the RTM build before its published. All being well, the major changes occurred between beta 1 and beta 2 but you never can tell. With any luck, a big change will just mean that the book is not quite day and date with Whidbey but who can tell the future. What I know is that this is Wrox’s number one priority ASP.NET 2 book and even if it doesn’t match the heady sales of Beg ASP 3, it'll do better than anything I’ve produced since that book. Hurrah.

Also finished some HowTo work for the Channel9 PAG Security wiki. Geez, talk about your switches from beginner text to deep security. Not sure which was more time consuming - understanding the concepts and features within or trying to set up the VPC scenarios to allow me to test \ write the code that demonstrate those concepts and features. Still - I am most definitely the newbie in that field. But I can already see applications for dotCoop. Which is good, I think.

O’Reilly got back in touch about the Head First C# sampler that Lou and I did over a year ago now. Still don’t have the passion to write this. Even if the advance covered my living for the six months I'd need to plan and write it, there’s no guarantee of sales and I’d have quit a job I’m reasonably fond of that pays better than a book ever would. If I’m going to write anything book-sized again, it’s definitely going to be something I care enough about to not mind the continuous effort it takes to write. Must have a look at the old unused specs I wrote and seeing if anything sparks interest...

James Crowley over at Developer Fusion has been gracious enough to reissue some of my book reviews on his site. AdWes has been on at me to write some more and perhaps a couple of author interviews too. There's also a chance of pushing out the Culture Shock Diaries elsewhere too. More random writing is required.