Beginning C# (Beta 2 Edition) (ISBN 1861004982)

Book Description:
Beginning Visual C# is now available. Beginning Visual C# is a new edition of this book, and is fully compatible with the final release of the .NET Framework. We strongly recommend that you order the new edition, Beginning Visual C# in preference to this edition. C# is Microsoft's brand new programming language for its new platform, the .NET Framework. The .NET Framework consists of a runtime environment for managing the execution of our code, and a whole host of class libraries for performing almost any programming task you can think of. Although .NET code can be written in many languages, C# is the only language designed specifically for the .NET Framework, and as such is set to become the language of choice for writing .NET applications for years to come. This book will be an indispensable guide as you learn to write C# programs, gradually explaining the key concepts of C# and .NET as your skills develop. After a thorough explanation of the basics of the C# language, we take an in-depth look at object-oriented programming in C#, before moving on to see how we write Windows applications in C#. We also show how you can create dynamic web pages and web services in C#. Finally, two case studies provide full examples of C# applications in action and show how it all ties together. This book covers: - The C# language - .NET Programming with C# - Object-oriented programming - Writing Windows applications - Accessing databases - Writing web pages and web services in C#

Helpful but sloppy:
This book has very good intentions and covers things in a good solid order, BUT, the mistakes are just plain sloppy. Please don't tell me this book was seriously edited, because you can tell immediately that it was not. If I wrote documentation at work as sloppy as this book was written, I'd be in trouble. On the flip side, the excercises were very helpful, and the authors do a decent job simplifying the topics enough for beginners to grasp them. However, true beginners should start with C# for Dummies. I hope the second edition really cleans things up though. Wrox should allow for mail-in rebates when second editions come out so quick. I'm sure many of us would be happy to tear off the back cover of the first editions and send it in for a check in return!

BORING:
This is a great book - it explains the concepts quite well, for a person like me, with a PHP background. However, it's incredibly boring. The first 250 pages of the book is dedicated to many small hello-world-style examples of code, which really doesn't explain why or where one should really use enumerations, structs and stuff - I would have preffered to be walked through larger, real-life applications instead. Don't get me wrong - this book is great for looking up stuff, but as a beginner, it's better to complement it with a more hands-on approach.

Very good step-by-step progression for learning C#:
Great learning material. Following the examples and the natural progression of the book is a great method for learning C# with practical examples. Very straight forward approach without being too verbose.

THE BEST BOOK--GO FOR IT !!!:
This is a great book. Easy to follow. As with any computer book, boring to read, but not at all hard to follow--with exception of few points here and there. The reward comes when you apply it and when you finish reading it. This book is an answer to my prayers for finding something that will teach me dot net and C# in a comprehensive and easy to learn way. All learning to program books are kind of boring, inluding this one. Easiest to read a bit every day and take a few months to finish, rather than trying to gobble up the hole piece and getting extremely bored. My background is that of a mid-level progammer, working with VB 6.0. I had some knowledge about objects before I picked up the book. kamlesh mistry...

Good buy if you can get a bargain price on it.:
The 1st edition is now out-of-date. I think it was written for an early or beta version of .NET. But..., if you find this, second hand, at a bargain price it's still a good buy. You can still get the errata and sample code from the APress web-site (not the Wrox site!). The book gives a good introduction to C# but I wouldn't recommend it too highly to someone who had never done any programming before. It's recommended for people who have already learnt one programming language. The book does a good job of teaching OOP programming in C# to people who already have some programming experience (but not with OOP). When working through the sample projects everything went well for me with the sample code until the last 2 case studies. I was able to convert all the projects to VS.NET 2003 and to figure out the occasional line of code I needed to rewrite to get the projects working. Things seem to have got a little rushed at the end with the 2 final case studies. I couldn't get them to work and didn't even understand how the first was supposed to work (from the non-explanation given in the text). The other criticism I have of the book is that there aren't enough exercises at the back of the chapters and that sample answers to exercises aren't given. Note: book authors - this (sufficient exercises with sample answers) is an essential requirement for a serious book aimed at beginners. Because to these smallish flaws it gets only 3 stars. It could've been a 5 star book with a little more care; so it still comes highly recommended if you can get it for less than $5. This was a review of the 1st edition of the book.