Foundations of Atlas - Rapid Ajax Development with ASP.NET 2.0
I just got a copy of Foundations of Atlas - Rapid Ajax Development with ASP.NET 2.0 by Laurence Moroney. All I can say is, It's just plain good. Actually, it's great. So far, it's the best Ajax book I've read (Wally still hasnt' mailed me a copy of his but i"m sure it's great too ). I have Moroney's other ASP.NET 2.0 book and am quickly becoming a big fan. This book just rocked. Like the other one, the real strenght is in examples that show you how to do everything you want to do. It's easy to read, killer examples (and all the code works) and I've been unable to put it down. His hair style is a little to trendy for my taste but other than that, I can't find anything to complain about and I just worked through Chapter 9.
Now, there are still two chapters so I have to finish reading them, that's what I'm doing now, but I can tell you this... I went from total Ajax dummy to being able to use it somewhat comfortably after reading Chapters 4, 5, 6 and 7. I had a little trouble with the databinding (chapter 8) but that's because I'm dense not b/c it's not covered well. Chapter 9 is just plain cool. I mean cool as in totally kick a55. My next chapter is chapter 10 and it looks a little complex but heck, that's just another reason to investigate it.
Anyway, I suspect it's going to take a while to actually 'learn' Ajax in any real sense. I'm going to need some professional project to work with it on b/c bedroom hacking on my tablet only gets you so far. Hopefully I can pitch it at work after I get a little better acquainted with it. Nonetheless, so far I haven't hit any stumbling blocks and that's mainly b/c he does such a damn good job covering the material. All I can say is if his last two books are indicative of his work, I can't wait to buy his next one!