Customer Reviews

C# 2.0: Practical Guide for Programmers (The Practical Guides)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Make sure this book is really what you want before purchasing. The title, "C# 2.0..." is _very_ misleading! There is very little in the way of 2.0 features covered to any degree of detail for one to know how to really understand or use the feature described. While the book does a reasonably good job of describing the features/uses of C# 1.0 (again, see the title of this review), there are much better books out there, albeit much thicker, which are much more readable and provide much better examples (e.g. Andrew Troelsen's, C# and the .NET Platform). Additionally, the book goes to great pains to keep the number of pages at a manageable level - at the expense of readability. If you enjoy reading Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) notation then this is the book for you ;-) For example, to explain the syntax of interface declaration:

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InterfaceDecl = InterfaceModifiers ? "interface" Identifier (":" Interfaces)? "{" InterfaceMembers "{" ";"?

InterfaceModifier = "new" | "public" | "protected" | "internal" | "private"
InterfaceMember = MethodDecl | PropertyDecl | EventDecl | IndexerDecl

In case you forget you will need to page back to the appropriate areas of the book discussing the InterfaceMember's various item definitions for MethodDecl, etc.
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This type of notation is fine for online reference or even the printed language "manual" (The C# Programming Language by Hejlsberg, et. al.), but not this type of book.

Also, the book description states, "* Provides a carefully focused explanation of every aspect of the C# language, including entire chapters on the unified type system, advanced types, collections, generics, reflection and attributes." In chapter 8, Collections and Generics, out of 20 total pages for the chapter there are only 3 1/2 pages devoted to generics, with 1 of those pages comprised of the skeleton listing of 2 BoundedQueue class definitions, one with generics based syntax and one without (i.e. replace all occurrences of int with <T>). By the way, Hejlsberg's book gives a _much_ better introduction/overview to the v2.0 language than this book...it is dense reading and has a very "formal" style, but you will get much more from it than this piece.

To summarize, this book tries to be the "jack-of-all-trades" and ends up being the "master-of-none". Excerpted from the preface, "Finally, all principal features of the C# programming language are covered..." While this may be true in principal it lacks almost all forms of substance and detail. It completely sacrifices quality in favor of page count. If you are looking for a book to give you a 10,000-foot overview of the v1.0 language and a 500,000-foot overview of the v2.0 features and are prepared to decode the text while you read (i.e. translate EBNF -> English) then this book is worth 2-stars; but, when you are done reading this book be ready to turn around and buy another book which actually shows you how to use the language with more concrete explanations and better examples. If you are looking to really learn the language and be proficient with it in the real-world do not waste your time with this "overview"... look elsewhere.

Although it's stated that the book is not for beginners, I needed to get a grasp on C# and quickly. My exposure to OOP made the reading less daunting. Most of the other books out there are tomes, but this book is concise with enough examples to illustrate the featured concepts (I admit I had to read certain parts multiple times to absorb what was being conveyed). I needed a book I could easily carry around with me and serve as quick and comprehensive reference and this one was it. The book concepts, despite the title, do apply to C# 3.5.

The book is one for the ages as for as explaining Object Oriented Programming (OOP) and the C# language. It goes into detail about OOP using background information from Computer Science. It explains the features of OOP using C#. I think this book needs to be in every programmers arsenal. The author explains in good detail what it takes to be a good object programmer. I was very happy to purchase this book and that I will keep it as long as I can. I will also use it as a reference and to say that I will recommend this book if someone ask for a good reference book on C# and the .NET framework in my opinion.

I have read this book cover to cover and found the experience mind numbing. The authors use EBNF to show syntax when two or three examples would have sufficed. Almost every code example has line numbers and the authors refer back to the line numbers constantly when describing the examples rather than showing the line in question. I think the authors should both take the time to read Head Start Design Patterns, an excellent book, and should follow how the authors of that book illustrates points.

"C# 2.0 - Practical Guide for Programmers", by Michel de Champlain and Brian Patrick is a rather serious affair, aimed at experienced programmers seeking to move to C#. It covers the C# language, the .NET framework and object-oriented programming. All pretty scary stuff for new programmers, but working programmers will find its unfussy presentation very refreshing. The book also covers some advanced topics: C#'s type system, generic types (new in C# 2.0), threaded programming, and reflection. The appendices contain (rather oddly) the full C# syntax in an EBNF grammar and (more usefully) details of C#'s XML documentation tags. What's more, the whole book weighs in at a lean 251 pages (just 575 grams), making it ideal to carry around in a bag without causing bodily harm. Perfect as a no-nonsense introduction to C#; perfect as an ongoing reference.

I know how to program in several other languages and reading this book has allowed me to learn most of C# in a couple of afternoons.

Most C# constructions are accurately explained without innecesary bloat. Introductory chapters for some common libraries like IO, threads or collections are also included

A must-buy! Warmly recommended for whoever wants a quick and clear vision of the language without missing the subtleties and the good practices!

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This reference book presents the language in a concise and effective way. The contents are expressed in an interesting manner and short examples are used to illustrate the concepts (moreover many of the examples evolve along the chapters in order to keep the reader's attention on the subjects presented).

The authors' industrial and academic experience is sensible. The good and bad habits of the language are denoted and explained when necessary, even a few notes for the programmers who care about the performance of their code.

As opposed to many works, the examples not only present the language's syntax but also cleverly show us the "object-oriented" way of doing things: a clear advantage. This book has a very effective index and short targeted exercises are present at the end of the chapters.

It's hard to say bad things about that masterpiece. If only one embarrassing point exists, it's that when we start reading it, we become so addicted to the language itself and the way it is presented that it is hard not to read it cover-to-cover. And I'm not mentioning the risk of finding C# way more "sexy" than our own favorite language!

In conclusion: excellent book, a lot of contents explained in a few pages and well structured, easy to find rapidly what we look for. I would like more authors to be demonstrating such conciseness and caring for the effectiveness of the reading. Well done!