Too Much, Too Little
This book covers quite a bit of material but not sufficient enough in any area to bring a person to mastery level in Visual C# as it's name implies. The book lacks in three main areas: depth, consistency & challenge. It covers the basics very well for C# console applications but does not cover much of the "visual" aspects of Visual C# as it focuses almost entirely on console applications and the SDK version of the compiler. ie: It shows how to create and use an event for a console application but I had to do a web search for examples how to create and use Windows forms events.
It lacks in consistency where the authors have admittedly shortcutted much of the example code, it is difficult to find an example of well written code in one place. ie: constructors are a vital part of class building but most examples do not show constructors or access properties such as set and get but instead make fields public to save time.
The book also lacks in providing a challenge for the readers. If you are trying to learn to speak a new language you learn faster and better if you talk as well as listen. The book provides alot of poorly written code and does not challenge the reader with problems to solve programmatically.
Very Easy to Understand
This book is the best programming book i've ever read. The layout and examples are easy for me to understand. It shows short example followed by explainations why such & such should be then shows the fully coded example. For me, i like that especially the explainations which i did not get to understand from other books. I suppose this book is not for veteran programmer because you can just browse throught the Part1 which i think it's for beginners. Overall, it's 5 star.
Perhaps the best way to jump to C# if you already know a bit programming.
As the title says, this book may be the best way to jump to C# from another language. I knew a lot of VB6, but I found it slow and cumbersome, so I bought this book. This book quickly shows you how C# works. There no stupid humour or blabbering, it gets straight to the point and teaches you C# step by step.
It has extremely many code samples and it's a bit boring to read, but it's the fastest way to learn C#.
The best all-around C# book!!!
As mentioned in the title of my review, this book is without a doubt the best general instruction (how-to) and reference book on Visual C# .NET that I have found anywhere. The topics are very clearly explained, the code snippets are concise enough that you aren't wading through a single project that grows as the chapters progress.
Instead, the author begins with an into to C#, and starts with the basics. I am only half-way through the book and have been very pleased with the content, its presentation, and the manner in which the author communicates.
Great Book
Overall, I'd say this a great book for learning C#. Prior to reading the book I had knowledge of C++ fundamentals. For the most part, I didn't have any issues digesting most of the material in the book. Although, I will say that I didn't catch on to Mike Gunderloy's writing style quiete easily. I could tell something was different in the quality of the writing later on in the book and then realized (from the examples) it was Mike's writing. Maybe cause his topics were a bit more advanced. Knowing more now, I look back at it all and say its a good book to learn from scratch and a useful reference later on.
