'eXtreme .NET'
by Dr Neil Roodyn


This book is intended to introduce the ideas and techniques of eXtreme programming (XP) to .NET developers. It assumes that you already know something about .NET development. The examples assume you are using Visual Studio .NET 2003 and can program in C#. As a C++ programmer I had little difficulty following the code examples, and neither would a Java programmer. The book also covers the use of the tools NUnit and NAnt.

I was impressed by this book, and I think it achieves what it set out to do. There are, to my mind, two particular strengths in this slim volume. The first is that while recognising that there will be times when you can't implement all aspects of XP techniques, the author disposes of the idea of 'nearly' eXtreme programming ("We do eXtreme programming here, except that we don't do...") very smartly. His answer to special case pleading was the best I've ever seen - "Of course it's a special case, that's why you are paid as a professional programmer. We are all special cases. That's no reason not to use test driven development."

The other real strength was that in the material on test driven development (TDD), the author doesn't shy away from the question of GUIs and TDD. GUI tools, especially the rapid application development type, pose serious problems both for separation of interface and core code, and in the testing of the interface itself. Dr Roodyn not only tackles these problems head on, but almost uniquely in my experience understands that developing a professional quality GUI is a eXtreme process in its own right.

Recommended.

(book supplied for review by ACCU)

Alan Lenton
14 September 2005

eXtreme .NET
by Dr Neil Roodyn
0-321-30363-6
Addison-Wesley 298pp@ £30.99


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