Customer Reviews

C# Black Book

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

 

 

While the author seems to cover the topics well, including good useable code examples, much of the information is already obsolete. He obviously wrote this while the C# language was still in Beta 1, because many of the classes and methods he uses were removed, replaced, or renamed as of Beta 2. I can't believe they published a book written about a language before the language was officially finalized and released. It's very difficult to search the Internet, MSDN, etc. for all of the "equivalent" classes for the outdated ones the author uses... I recommend you find a newer and more accurate book.

This is the best book I've purchased yet that covers Windows Forms programming with C#. After the usual chapters that introduce you to the C# language, OO Programming, CLR and Microsoft .Net in general you'll find that the remainder of the book (About 40-45%) provides solutions and great code examples on programming Windows Forms Applications.

An earlier reviewer said he had trouble with delegates. I agree, he explains complicated things on a high level, then the simpler things that should already be known by programmers, he grinds into you. I went to a web-site and learned what I needed to about Delegates in one paragraph. Matt forgets to tell us (no pun intended) what delegates are... This is a decent reference, but as for learning the language, I would look to something else.

WHERE I'M COMING FROM: Computer science grad student with academic experience in C++. 2 years professional ColdFusion and SQL. 1 year professional Java and PHP.

WHAT I HAVE TO SAY: Eh. This book definitely doesn't talk down to developers with a medium level of experience, but it doesn't really spend all that much time on any one topic. Maybe I'm dense, but I still haven't caught on to its explanation of Delegates. This might be better for an Advanced Beginner than an Intermediate Programmer. This being my first C# book, I'm guessing it is middle of the road. I'm moving on to Petzold's Programming Windows with C#.

Has anyone else that's read the section on ADO.NET noticed that the objects are no longer SQLConnection or OLEDBConnection, and instead ADOConnection....???

Given that this guy works at MS, I'm thinking that there is a major change within ADO.NET in the final release of VS.NET that is going to be different than how it currently is with ADO.NET in the Beta 2 or Release Candidate.

Anyhow, good book, I've found it very informative and up-to-date (trust me...that's valuble) as a C# reference.

This book may be a great C# book, but in the first five pages I found so many inaccuracies, this author has lost all credibility with me. I am returning this book as soon as possible.

To illustrate either the author's utter lack of knowledge or his talent in Microsoft marketing tactics, I offer the following:

On page four, the author writes,

Int x = 3;
If( x ) {
}
...
int x = 3;
if( x != 3)
{
}

"These two code snippets are functionally equivalent in C++ and Java but do not behave the same (if fact, the first does not compile) in C#. This difference between C# and the other two languages is important and is one that avoids problems noticed in the past by programmers."

First of all, why don't we try for some consistency in the code samples? Secondly, the first example won't compile in any of the 3 languages since they are all case sensitive and therefore "If" is invalid. Lastly, and most importantly, Java does NOT behave the way he claims. It behaves exactly as C# does (Microsoft copied this behavior from Java) for the same reason C# does, meaning the first example will not compile in Java either.

This is not the only time the author does this. He also claims that Java and C++ do arrays the same. The then bashes the way those languages do arrays and claims that Microsoft, in its infinite wisdom, made arrays better. Wrong!!! Microsoft once again copied the functionality of Java arrays when creating C#.

This author would have you believe that C# is new and intuitive. He suggests that Java programmers will find a better language in C#, and tries to prove this by suggesting that Java works in one way and C# works a better way, when in fact, they both work the same, only Java has worked that way for more than six years.

This author ...should not be making such retarded statements, or he is pulling another Microsoft on us by making false statements about one technology in order to make their technology look better. Either way, I can't trust my learning to his myriad inaccuracies and must return this book.

I recommend avoiding this title.