The Mainframe Programmer's Guide to .NET is designed to be a guide covering the entire .NET platform. In order to cover as wide of a scope as this book does, low-level reference type detail is conservatively included. Richardson's book carefully covers every aspect .NET. Starting with a complete list of .NET Retraining Prerequisites and a full chapter answering the question "What is .NET", the author skillfully takes the reader through the .NET Framework, Database Access, Windows, Web, and Web Services topics. Additional topics range from Printing with Crystal Reports, using XML, and HTML to advanced .NET topics like .NET Configuration and Security for Web Services. The Mainframe Programmer's Guide to .NET is certainly a complete guide for the Mainframe programmer. Each chapter provides valuable references for continued learning. Having been given a context, the informed reader is then encouraged to take advantage of the references for continued in-depth training.