While .NET is not the magic new silver bullet for developing distributed applications, it certainly is Microsoft’s own idiosyncratic vision of how to accomplish this challenge. Based on Extensible Markup Language (XML), .NET tries to provide the framework, along with a rich class library, to ease the task of creating small, independent applications that can be connected to build richer solutions.

This book is a highly readable introduction into the deep and ramified realms of the .NET framework, taking the reader on a remarkably gentle journey, from the very beginning of the software development cycle, to the implementation of a nearly full-fledged online shopping application.

The book targets the novice who has not had previous experience with the various ways to program, and tools for programming, the Windows platforms, and even less exposure to programming a full-fledged Web application, but who nevertheless needs a concise but thorough introduction to this subject. Job titles would include software engineers from different non-Windows platforms, computer science students, project team leaders or managers, or software quality and process engineers.

Familiarity with some object-oriented programming language is required, but, otherwise, the only prerequisite to reading this book is some perseverance in reading and following the individual sections of the book in sequence, since the 13 chapters meticulously cover the evolution of a software development project over its whole life cycle in chronological order.

The book tracks and traces the real-world project of developing an online photo shop. In this application, users are supposed to upload various digital photos, modify these images with a special photo editor, and submit the amended images for professional paper printing.

Technically speaking, readers will get acquainted with: C#, Microsoft’s object-oriented native programming language for the .NET environment; the unified process (UP), including unified modeling language (UML), as a software development model; Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003 integrated development environment (IDE), as a development platform; and OpenGL .NET, Active Server Pages (ASP) .NET, and ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) .NET, as more advanced elements of Microsoft’s libraries.

The first four chapters provide an introduction to the very basics of .NET, C#, and the development environment of Visual Studio .NET (actually providing a step-by-step example on how to compile and run a first simple Windows application), and, remarkably, also touch on software engineering and project management.

Chapters 5 through 10 systematically demonstrate, and carefully lead the reader through, the various cycles of requirements determination, analysis, design, implementation, and testing of the bits and pieces of a standalone photo editor application. Throughout the book, the UP life cycle model is used, and the typical elements of this methodology (use cases, class or activity diagrams, and the basic workflow) are consistently applied. The application also makes use of graphical device interface (GDI) and GDI+ operations, dynamic loading of components, customized plug-ins, and access of unmanaged code (nonnative code not exposed through the native .NET Framework Class Library, in this case OpenGL). Lastly, performance optimization, multithreading, and profiling is explained, and relevant tools and methods are presented to the reader.

The last three chapters, 11 through 13, shift the focus from the photo editor client application to the development of the photo shop Web application, using ASP .NET. Security is briefly touched on, and database access via ADO .NET is introduced and applied. Finally, firmly sticking to the UP model, the authors present integration testing, requirements tracing, and project wrap-up, including the development of selected maintenance strategies.

With a lot of accompanying diagrams, figures, screen shots, and program listings, the vivid language of the book makes all matters easily accessible and understandable for the target audience. An extensive index and a bibliography provide useful references for further education on .NET issues.

A CD is provided with the book, containing all of the source code, binaries (standalone and debug versions), utilities, and tools used during the project. This CD also contains XML files, and sample solutions to some of the exercises in the text.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book as a primer to those who wish to learn the very first steps in programming within the .NET environment. By actually following and doing what the book so superbly presents, you will certainly accomplish what the title suggests: to really and successfully finish a complete development cycle for an (almost real) .NET software project.