Close but no wee-oh
This book does, indeed, take you through C# step by step. It does a farly good job of introducing concepts and showing them in action. Usually by opening a file and entering the code. My biggest complaint about this book and the vast majority of other programming books that I've encountered is the lack of exercises. It's all well and good to demonstrate a while statement and the data types but just saying, "Type in the following lines", doesn't teach you to write a program.
It's a pretty good book for beginner who has some programming experience
this is pretty good book for a beginner who has some programming experience and wish to learn C#. i have read some of the comments such as "Definitely Not For Beginners". i would like to say, probably the reader doesn't know how to program at all. the example is easy to follow. i have to admit that i didn't test on all the sample code from CD, but with the thorough elaboration learned from the book, it's enough for me to write my own testing code. For example, there is some topic about ArrayList and the book provide a sample for playing card, instead of using the sample provided, i rather write my own to test it out.
this book is not for those who want to learn windows programming in c# or web development. if you already know c# but want to know more about windows / asp.net programming. this is not the book for you.
lackluster (not step by step) or for beginners
It starts out in the first ten chapters explaining the concepts pretty well, and then it turns into an example-fest without any consideration for its namesake ("step by step"). All the examples are incomplete using "..." to signify previously exampled code. Its like a freaking jigsaw puzzle (especially CH 15) unless you have a laptop and are following the source from the cd), but why must you use both? The book itself should be self-contained.
I read some other reviews and felt the same criticisms reading it in the book for the first time (especially on the "ternary operator statement" from the review by ANT).
THE BOOK IS NOT FOR BEGINNERS.
I still don't fully understand what struts or interfaces are. In places, it uses allegories instead of definitions. The book is just bad. I think Im writing this review mostly for venting frustration about the amount of time I spent reading it.
Visual C# .Net
One of the best book I have seen on the subject for people new to C# .Net, but know some other language.
Not in depth enough
Coming from a VB background I chose two books to step up to C#. The first was Charles Petzolds excellent book, programming in the key of C#. My second book was this one. While this fills in many holes left out of Petzolds book, (mainly to do with the .NET framework & the .NET IDE, since Petzold deals purely with the C# language) it does so at the expense of clarity & in depth explanations as to `why' we do certain things. Often this book uses explanations dealing with as yet explained methods or objects, hence its flow is not contiguous, & the information supplied shallow. Had I not first worked through the `Key of C#' book, I would have been left scratching my head with this one. As in one example, it uses the conditional ternary operator statement having not yet explained this simple yet enigmatic little piece of code. (Fortunately I'd learnt this in the previous book). At other times, it gives examples that don't result in anything of value as code methodology. In another example the authors declare a property as 'money' without any prior indication of creating a money class, which led me to search MSDN online documentation for a non existent money data type that i may have overlooked. Not good. They have a skill of muddying simple concepts with overly complex examples. I came away thinking this book would be more for the experienced C++ developer, however, it doesn't really supply any ground breaking information on C# or its framework; it only skims over what could be discovered by yourself with a bit of exploration.
As I said originally, it does serve to fill in some gaps left out by other books, but I would steer away from this book if you are a beginner or even new to OOP. Another thing that in fact annoyed me about this book was its false claim that the .NET guidelines recommend against ANY use of Hungarian Notation at all. In fact the guidelines only recommend against using hn for exposed members. Private variables are still up to the team to decide upon. This was personal point of view & not related to true recommendations.
This book may better well serve as a reference but definitely not as a step by step beginner's book. It will leave you with more questions than answers. I would go for a book more dedicated to a particular facet of .NET, rather than this `all in one' step by step. For that reason, I'd probably choose Petzolds if you're looking to learn the C# `language', (It is also an excellent start in learning about OOP, though it doesn't touch upon Interfaces). There are also other excellent books on OOP, ADO & the .NET framework.
The style of this book leads me to believe it was written with the C++/Java developer in mind who want a quick jump to C#, rather than the VB developer who needs to adapt to the new framework. I'd only buy it if what you're looking for is a brief overview of the lot.
(24 reviews)
