Brian D. Reed said
Let me begin by stating this book is one of the most unique books I have had the opportunity to read. Is it because as it states on the back cover that this is a "no fluff" technical book? There is that factor but that is not why this book is so unique. The "no fluff" concept is becoming more and more a reality for books such as these. Is it because the book is so easy to read? Again, this is another factor but not the one that causes this book to be so unique. What makes this book so unique is the fact that Mark Michaelis has created a book that can be used by both beginners and advanced learners of C#.NET programming language.
When I state that the book is for beginners, what definition of beginner am I choosing to use? For this book, the term "beginner" refers to someone who has previous programming experience with another language and is just looking to make the switch to the C#.NET programming language. This book assumes that you already have a firm grasp of most programming concepts but does spend some time making sure you understand the various beginning concepts from a C#.NET point of view. Many say that C# is the continuation or next generation of C, C++ and Java programming languages. While this true, there are always certain "quirks" to how each language handles various concepts. Mark Michaelis makes sure that everyone who reads this book develops a solid foundation on the concepts of C#.NET 3.0 programming and then builds many levels on that foundation.
Will you be a C#.NET 3.0 expert by the time you complete this book? Not by any means, of course. Mark Michaelis gives you the tools and foundation that you need to begin writing code in C#.NET 3.0 and where you go from there is up to you. There are many, many other books available that can take you further in specific areas, but none of the books that I have read previously on learning C#.NET programming have come close to the quality of this particular book. As stated, it is written primarily with beginners in mind, but Mark's "Advanced Topic" sections give you some good understanding of some advanced programming features that you can come back and re-read to better understand once you have built the foundation. This book is a good book to have sitting on the shelf as a reference book down the road when you need to refresh yourself on an idea or concept.
If I were to pick a favorite chapter I would say that it would have to be Chapter 12: Delegates and Lambda Expressions. This is a chapter that I need to re-read a couple of times before I really start to get the information to sink in. Once it does, I believe I will be a better coder for it. I have often heard the term Lambda Expressions being used in presentations and conversations but I have never really understood the concept. Now I am beginning to understand the concept of what a Lambda Expression is and am quite excited to learn more about them.
While I have expressed great pleasure in reading this book, there is one "minor" flaw that is a bit of an irritation for me as a reader. I realize based on the layout that it would be very difficult to produce in a vertical sense and hence I understand the reasoning behind the decision to produce the item in done manner. It is the "Table" information pages that can be found throughout the book. Due to page restraints in the vertical axis, Mark Michaelis or the publisher chose to publish the Tables in a horizontal axis instead. This, for the reader, means that you have to turn the book horizontal if you wish to read all of the information that is available in the tables. It is a bit of an irritation for me but it does not retract from the overall sensation of reading and thus does not affect the score in any way. This is just a warning for those who are about to undertake the same education path that I chose.
Doug said
Best description that I have found on Delegates and Events.
First place that I learned that there was a change in these from earlier versions of C#.
Dimitri Shvorob said
The book's page count and Microsoft's imprimatur speak for themselves, and I definitely found the book instructive and useful, but I am just not entirely happy with clarity of presentation or choice of material. Two examples are the more-confusing-than-needed discussion of "override" vs. "new", and the database-free take on LINQ. (Am I being unfair, or does the book really never mention "ref" and "out"?)
J. Shah said
I mostly program in C++ and have had to write .NET code in C# from time to time. This book is comprehensive in it's depth and coverage of the language and it helped me get a better handle over the building blocks of the .NET framework and C# language in particular.
I have heard Mark speak on several occasions at technical forums in Bay Area. He has a charming personality and a flair for making some of the seemingly complex problems simple to understand. This book is a testament to the same. This book goes beyond just describing the bare syntactic components and the semantics of C#. It gives an understanding behind the foundation.
Mark has updated this version from the prior release for C#2.0 and added a couple of chapters on query expressions, lambda expressions, Collection Interfaces with Standard Query Operators to name a few. Query language is the way to program in linq.
I got myself a e-copy from Safari books online.
Amongst the few other C# books I have read and acquired over time this book is the best place to start for getting the usage and reference knowledge of C#. Had I found it earlier I would have stopped looking!!
Michael Mayfield said
This is one of those rare technical books that works for beginners and experts alike. What you might expect to be a book on just the new features of C# 3.0 actually covers everything from 1.1 to 3.5, as well as a whole range of .NET features and concepts. For the beginner, there is a great discussion of basic object-oriented programming. Advanced topics, such as proper use of threading, reflection, generics, delegates, and lambda expressions are covered in depth for expert programmers.
The book is exceptionally easy to read. Although much of the information is obviously very technical, the writing is so clear and jargon-free that it becomes almost intuitive. Expect to keep telling yourself "so that's how you do that" with every chapter. In fact, I found myself reading it like a novel and before I knew it I had read 200 pages before putting it down.
Sections in each chapter are identified as Beginner and Advanced Topics. Even experts will find the information in the Beginner sections great review of the techniques they "know", but may have "forgotten" or just not used for a while. Intermediate programmers will find great examples of best practices for advanced topics to help leapfrog them into new programming techniques they can use right away.
Bottom line, I love this book! It is one of the best programming books I own and one of the few I keep at my desk instead of collecting dust in my bookshelf of technical books. Highly recommended.
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