Every so often, I happen upon a development book that is not only useful, but speaks in clear concise terminology to the reader. Hands on Visual InterDev 6 is just that, and as such should be a welcome addition to any new Web app developer's bookshelf. Taking a complex Web application development tool and making it look easy is a daunting task, and amazingly, this book does it well.
March 23, 1999
Visual InterDev is not a tool one would use to develop a simple, static Web site, and the author makes it a point to let you know that there is more to the application than creating pretty pages. From start to finish, she walks you through all the steps in building a database-enabled Web site with truly dynamic content, and explains the sophistication of the product.
The tone of the book, while not quite conversational, is certainly loose and friendly. Each chapter is based around one concept, from building the base site, to modifying it, to data-enabling it, and so on. The book uses a project model to take the reader through all the steps of building a complex site. Each chapter deals in how to perform an action, and rarely if ever goes into any sort of detail as to why you're doing such things. Code-writing is kept to a minimum.
With this easy style comes a tradeoff, as the author has a tendency to rely a bit much on the wizards, and to keep code away from the user. New users, especially those migrating from FrontPage, will enjoy the quick-and-easy lessons, but seasoned developers may struggle with the need to know more of the "whys" than all of the "hows" that are displayed and in the end feel like surgeons trying to operate with mittens on.
As a whole, this is an excellent starting point for anyone just getting into Web application development with InterDev. It will not, however, be of much help to the seasoned developer that already understands the fundamentals of InterDev, and is certainly not what one would consider much of a reference manual. If you're new to InterDev, I'd suggest you pick up this book, but if you're already using InterDev, you'll find little use for it.
Ted Brockwood is the Information Services Manager for a real estate listing service in Oregon. His experience covers Java, Linux, UNIX, NT, Win95/98, Win3.x, and DOS.
