Customer Reviews

Application Development Using C# and .NET

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is extremely well written, the topics are presented in a clear and logical manner and the explanations are great. It has an excellent introduction to the .NET framework, a C# overview (this is NOT a book for learning C# from scratch), a chapter on UI programming (event handling, menus, controls, dialog boxes etc), Assemblies and Deployment, the .NET framework class library, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, Web Services, Security and more. All these subjects could span thick books on their own but this book explains what they are and ties them all in together, without going into massive detail. This book works best when you use it to learn about the different areas of .NET and how they work together and reference other books or the documentation for an in-depth look at specific topics.

Get this book if:
- you are an experienced programmer who is still wondering "what is .NET?" and wants to get a great overview of .NET programming
- if you have developed applications the "old" way and need to quickly jump into .NET development and get a job done without having to know every detail of what goes on underneath the hood
- if you already know Java or C++ and are looking to learn about the basics of C# and about how you can use it in the .NET framework to get the job done.

Do NOT get this book if:
- you are looking for a total and complete tutorial on C#
- you are a beginner at programming and want to start out by learning the .NET framework (this book assumes prior knowledge)
- you want total in-depth knowledge of how the .NET framework works under the hood
- if you do not already have (at least a basic) understanding of application programming

I would use two analogies to describe this book.

1 - Have you ever talked to someone who is really bright - a doctor, a scientist, a computer geek - who you could tell was really smart but who could not communicate clearly and coherently in plain English?

2 - Have you ever heard the expression "it makes sense if you already know the answer" as applied to an explanation which is convoluted and confusing but ultimately right?

Well that's what this book is like to me. From the sections I've read these guys are not authors but they are experienced developers. They are not good at explaining things. They cannot lay out something simply in a one, two, three order. They jump from here to there and their writing looks like somebody cut and pasted some different sections of text together.

They do present a sophisticated code example which exceeds what you get in most technical books, however.

So I would say this book is not a good book if you are reading it for an explanation of C# and .NET. It could be useful if you are an experienced developer (and are used to dealing with people with poor communication skills) and are looking for some good code examples.

This book has a lot of positive things going for it. The target audience is clearly developers with a little experience under their belts. This is great ( assuming you actually *do* have a little experience under your belt ), because there isn't a lot of wasted bulk in the book covering language syntax details that you can pick up if you have any programming experience. Instead, the book focuses on the meaty topics of app development - e.g., security in the .NET platform, threading, application models, a bit of windows forms, a bit of ADO, a bit of ASP. and a nice section on the built-in debugging and tracing facilities of .NET. The scope of the book is rather expansive, which usually means that the coverage of any given topic is superficial. That is not necessarily the case here; a lot of topics are covered in depth. Of course, any one chapter in the book could easily become a book on its own; however the authors do a good job of covering at least the basics of each topic, and in most cases explain sufficiently beyond the core concepts. The book is a success in this arena - the approach is a "this is how you get your job done" versus "this is how it will theoretically be done after you consult the online documentation".

This book also has a few negatives. The writing can be dense, due at least in part to the vastness of subject matter. I ended up rereading sections over and over again, and at times I've had to resort to other references to make sense of parts of this book; e.g., the section on security is filled with so many keywords and layers of detail that I had to start writing terms and definitions down to keep them straight ( a table or detailed diagram would have been nice ). In this sense the writing is often ... linear, which doesn't take away from the density of the topic. The example-based approach the authors chose works very well, but I personally prefer full source listings to the clips and snips from downloadable example code that are used in most places in the book.

Past those few negatives, there is a lot of useful information in the book and its example code. Recommended; invesigate other options if you want, but you'll definately get a lot of use out of this book if you're working with the .NET platform.

While most books on this subject tend to jump around and offer a lot of code snippets that may or may not apply to your application this book uses a sample application "Hotel Reservations" throughout that illustrates nearly all of the language fundementals while emphasizing the .NET framework. The application is developed in a way that does not necessarily tie you to the Visual Studio.NET development environment but still illustrates many of its features. It provides a very good overview of the .NET framework and covers all aspects of the development interfaces from User Controls to Web Forms Page Life Cycle.

This book was used as a text in a class of 9 and all reported that they found that it would help them do their job better. I use this book frequently when looking for examples of how to employ a particular C# feature such as Asynchronous Callback or Disconnected DataSets.

Thanks to the Authors for a job well done!

Unlike some technical texts, this C# book by Robert Oberg is actually pleasant and straightforward to read. There is a good balance of narrative and examples, new features being introduced, explained and demonstrated. There are helpful hints along the way for experienced Java and C++ programmers.

The book focuses on the C# language but the coverage of ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Visual Studio.NET, web forms and web services is all there. OO is covered nicely but this is by no means a book on OO programming. I'm sure that there is a need for a .NET book on OO given that many adopters will have no background in this -- something similar to the Java Objects wrox book perhaps.

You can't expect a book on such a broad topic as this to be completely successful. This book is an excellent resource for explaining the new C# language. However, when it delves into the meat of the .NET software it lacks in some areas. I found myself laboring to find out things that I feel the book should have explained. Other books explained those concepts very well. The sample code was very well done although frustrating to implement because of the placement of the documentation in the book. The Web Services portion of the book is probably the poorest. I found Web Services easily explained in other books.

I am new to .NET but I've read 4 other books including one that tries to cover all aspects. In some ways I believe the authors tried to cram too much into one book and parts didn't work out so well.

This book picks up and overlaps a little with Robert Oberg's "Introduction to C# using .NET" which I believe is mandatory reading for C# programmers.

There is more detail and lots more information on the .NET framework itself. It's a thorough grounding in the general framework stuff.

It is not, however, an exhaustive look at everything that you can do with .NET. A lot of subjects are given very cursory looks and you will need to add extra books to your collection for in-depth coverage of more of the details.

Reading this book and its predecessor will definitely get you a solid grounding with .NET, but you must do it with a computer in front of you working through the examples and case studies.

It's hard to categorize this book. You not only you get an overview of C#, detailed emphasis on some aspects of application development, but it also provides an overview of .NET technologies, like various other .NET "Programming" books. So it's like one and a half books in one. You should certainly study a beginner's book on C# before reading this (mine was C# Primer Plus, which I recommend), though read this you should, because it's extremely well written and covers many aspects of .NET with crystal clarity, surprisingly so for a book of this scope. About 3/4 of the book covers core C# and overview of technologies, and then two or three chapters are dedicated to core .NET issues. So it's more of a "Programming/Overview" type of book than anything else; the best one I've read though. I would've preferred more emphasis on .NET fundamentals, and application design development. Nevertheless, I'm impressed.

I'll keep an eye out for future books from this author!

This book is among the best I have read while preparing for my MCSD.Net certification. It explains in very expert and easy to understand way how a real world application can be developed, using different pieces if .net framework. Each code fragment is expalined in detail. It gives reader code tamplates which can be reused in verious projects. Chapter organisation and excerises are also excellent. It also offers console application development without Visual Studio and also through Visual Studio environment. Various aspects of application developemnt using database is covered very intensely. It covers also ASP.NET and Web Service. And last but not least it does not have any typos!
It is a great book have as learning and as reference.

This book gives experienced developers all the practical insight they need to build enterprise applications for Microsoft's .NET platform using C#. This book covers important topics in the .NET Framework for experienced programmers. This book is perfect for programmers who have basic knowledge in object-oriented languages such as C++ or Java but no need of prior experience in C#. The self-reliant treatment provides an easy and concrete insight to application development in C#.

This book gives experienced developers all the practical insight they need to build enterprise applications for Microsoft's .NET Platform using C#. A seasoned Visual Basic programmer who has experience in working with objects and components in VB could also read the book.Using extensive code examples and a running case study, the authors cover the complete process of constructing a .NET application: creating a monolithic C# console application; enhancing it with a Windows Forms interface; isolating functionality inside components; adding database access and security; and finally delivering functionality through ASP.NET and Web Services.this book is intended for experienced developers and provide all the practical insight they need to build enterprise applications for Microsoft's .NET Platform using C#.

This book is clearly defined, in-depth and example-rich. The major case study, the Acme Travel Agency, is progressively developed in Chapters 4 through 12. It illustrates many features of C# and .NET working in combination, as they would in a practical applications. The experienced C++, Java and VB programmers become efficient with .NET with the help of this book.