Customer Reviews

C# Programmer's Cookbook (Pro Developer)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I too feel compelled to disagree with the 'Bad Review' that dismissed this book as being for beginners and just a repeat of the MSDN material.

I've been using .NET C# for years and I am not not a beginner to OO and have been a professional programmer for more than 20 years. I've spent many hours in the MSDN help files and searching the internet for esoteric answers. This book contains many succinct solutions to everyday problems. It's not supposed to be a `big picture' book or only focus on the esoteric. Sure, some of the recipes do qualify for trivial.

Before I bought it I was able to scan the table of contents and see solutions to tricky problems that I had solved and many others that I had interest in or could reasonably see needing. By scanning the solutions I was familiar with, such as cryptography, threading, and networking, it was clear the authors had a clear understanding of the problems and were able to boil it down to real solutions for real problems. While MSDN does contain many good examples, many times it misses the mark when it comes down to relevancy for solving a real problem.

If you are like me, and want solutions at your finger tips, and are willing to pay a little to save a lot of time, this book is a great tool to have available.

This book remains at my fingertips at all times. It's perfect as a reference for those little problems which we, as programmers, face every day.

Some examples of problems which the book covers are:
- Prevent People from Decompiling Your Code
- Sort an Array or an ArrayList
- Store a Serializable Object to a File
- Instantiate an Object Using Reflection
- Synchronize the Execution of Multiple Threads
- Use XML Serialization with Custom Objects
- Apply Windows XP Control Styles
- Reuse Data with the ASP.NET Cache
- Show a Dynamic Print Preview
- Calculate the Size of a Directory
- Download a File over HTTP
- Communicate Using TCP
- Host a Remote Object in IIS
- Restrict Which Users Can Execute Your Code
- Create a Cryptographically Random Number
- Use an ActiveX Control in a .NET Client
- Create a Windows Service

This is only about 5% of what the book offers. If you've ever wondered how to do any of the above or have ever needed to reference a short snippet of code for any of the above then this book is for you. The code snippets are all full complete programs so there's no confusion as to what references were used.

this book follows a "problem/solution/code" format that really helps to cut down the amount of fluff you always get in other books. it covers a wide range of subjects (including "beginner" topics) but in a very efficient way. even though all these topics could be dug up thru web searches, the quality of info here is far more consistent and reliable. i hope to see more books take this approach.

The book arrived on time and I found it to be in excellent condition as advertised. This isn't the first book I've purchased from this seller and I've found them to be great!
Thanks,

Tony

I've used this book several times to help with quick solutions to common problems. Deserves a sequel.

If you need to know how to do one of the items contained in this book it is an excellent source. Some of the examples were overly simple, but others were very insightful.

This book is in my favorite format for development titles: a "cookbook." When you have a specific application requirement to implement, check out this book first before you reinvent the wheel. Jones covers topics such as:

- delay signing an assembly
- creating an animated system tray icon
- performing screen captures
- protecting files with symmetric encryption

and much more. The C# Programmer's Cookbook is already one of my favorites. Note that it is aimed more at the intermediate developer, but .NET coders at any level will find useful explanations from this excellent publication.

This book has a lot of good info in it and its all right there at your fingertips. One of the main reasons for a book is just that. Many resources are available on the Internet but they have to be found and kept track of. This book puts a lot together so you don't have to do the search work. I like it!

Context: I've been developing software for 12 years (C++, Java, JavaScript, PERL and more). I've been using .Net (VB) for 2 years and C# for about 1 year.

Another guy I know from work bought this book. He seemed to like it because of the short descriptions for each of the recipes.
That is exactly why I don't like the book.

Okay, short descriptions would be okay, except many of them don't even provide example code or completely explain the solution.

I'm looking at recipe "1.14. Manage the Global Assembly Cache" right now and there is nothing about the winnt\assembly directory in there. Why not? Instead the author only explains gacutil /i and /u. Okay, but what does that do? How is it significant? Why do I want or not want my assembly in the gac?

Recipe "1.8. Create and Manage Strong-Named Key Pairs" is the same thing. He tells me how to use the sn.exe tool, but he does not tell me anything more about why or how. Very weak.

But the ones that really kill me are the ones where the author has a chance to really describe the thing using a code example, but then fails to do so.

For example, "Recipe 1.4. Create and Use a Code Library" begs to have some sample code, but none is provided.

"1.3 Create and use a code module" was the same thing.

The section titles promise so much, the text delivers so little.

It is perfect. The simple, to the point style makes this book an excellent guide to the real world problems.