Inside C# (Microsoft Programming) [Paperback]

Tom Archer (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0735612889 | ISBN-13: 978-0735612884 | Publication Date: June 2, 2001 | Edition: Bk&CD-Rom

For years, developers have wished for a programming language with the power and flexibility of C++ that's also easy to write, read, and maintain like Microsoft "RM" Visual Basic "RM". Visual C# "TM", the hot new Web-enabled programming language from Microsoft, satisfies those wishes. Its object-oriented, programmer-friendly capabilities make it vastly easier to learn and use than older languages such as C++ -- especially for developing Web application. "Inside C#" provides the ideal in-depth look at the architecture and programming elements of Microsoft Visual C#. While other books may concentrate on C# development and runtime environments, this book is devoted to the language itself. It will have an exceptionally long shelf life, since the core C# language will change very little over time, while environments such as Microsoft Visual Studio "RM" may change yearly. This book is perfect for any Visual Basic developer who wants to move up to the next-generation language, and for any Visual C++ developer who wants an eaisier language to use for developing Web-enabled applications for the Internet. It includes tips throughout that highlight differences between Visual Basic, C++, and C# to help select the best language for the job, plus C# sample code both in the text and on an accompanying CD.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at those with some previous programming experience, Inside C# shows developers the unique strengths, advantages, and tips for coding with C#. This fast-paced and in-depth tutorial will let you use Microsoft's newest programming language on the emerging .NET platform successfully.

The outstanding strength of this text is its in-depth language tutorial on C#, with complete coverage of basic and advanced object-oriented programming techniques. New language features like properties, indexers, and attributes get full coverage, alongside the basics of using classes and inheritance.

The book relies on using Visual Studio 6.0 and the command-line .NET tools for running programs. (Visual Studio.NET, the next version of Visual Studio, was unavailable when the book was written.) First to market with an in-depth language tutorial, the focus of Inside C# is on basic and advanced language features. By viewing generated code (using the ILDASM disassembler tool), the author examines how class design features work under the hood.

The language tutorial digs into features, beginning with a "Hello, World" program and delving into class design features before moving on to more basic features like expressions, operators, and flow control. This sequence makes the book best suited to the experienced developer, since some excellent in-depth material on the most advanced features of C# is presented before the basics of the language. Throughout, you'll learn the newest features of the language, how to use it, and a sense of its personality.

There's also plenty of material on the underlying Microsoft .NET platform, from the basics of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to assemblies (used to deploy .NET applications), plus getting older COM components to interoperate with the newer .NET standard.

For anyone who's programmed before and wants to learn C# quickly, this in-depth guide anchored with plenty of short, effective examples provides what you need. Inside C# shows off the unique strengths of this new and exciting language and provides a solid introduction to the .NET platform. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to C# and the Microsoft .NET Framework
• Tutorial for object-oriented programming
• A "Hello, World" program in C#
• Command-line .NET tools (including the C# compiler and the ILDASM disassembler)
• C# types
• Boxing and unboxing variables
• In-depth guide to C# class design (including members and methods, constructors, constants and read-only fields, garbage collection, and inheritance)
• Method overloading
• Virtual and static methods
• Properties
• Arrays
• Indexers
• Attributes
• Interfaces (declaring and implementing interfaces, plus interfaces combined with inheritance)
• Expressions and operators in C# (including operator precedence)
• Program flow control
• Exception handling classes and techniques
• Operator overloading
• Delegates and event handlers
• Multithreaded programming techniques (including thread safety and synchronization)
• C# reflection and metadata
• Using unmanaged code and pointers from within C#
• COM interoperability
• Assemblies and deployment in C#

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; Bk&CD-Rom edition (June 2, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735612889
• ISBN-13: 978-0735612884
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (91 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,562,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so good..., April 9, 2002

By 

Andrei Formiga (Joao Pessoa, Brasil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside C# (Microsoft Programming) (Paperback)

I beg to differ with most reviewers: the book is not so good to deserve 5 stars, or even 4. I give it 2 stars only because 1) it really is one of few books that focus in C# and doesn't go into a myriad of other .NET topics, and 2) some of the examples are insightful.

However, the book's goals are inconsistent in general. The first chapters give an overview of object-oriented programming, so it seems the book is geared towards beginners, who might not know C and C++. But many examples use language features that were not introduced before, and in some of them the author doesn't even try to explain what are these things and why were they included. Programmers experienced with other OO languages (mainly C++ and Java) will be able to understand, but these readers wouldn't need to read an introductory overview of OO concepts. That's why the book is inconsistent.

Unfortunately, there are more problems: some examples weren't particularly well-thought, and one of them (about user-defined conversions) is nothing short of horrible. Ok, so I may be stupid, but I had to type the code, compile it, and trace its execution step by step to really understand it. And after all this I could not believe what I saw: a Celsius object really stores temperatures in fahrenheit, and only when it is converted to a float through a user-defined conversion is that the numerical value of the temperature is converted to Celsius. The same happens in the Fahrenheit class (which stores temperatures in celsius, in the example). And this conversion to float is only required when the value of the object is to be displayed... talk about "textbook examples". Kids, don't try this at home. It's really terrible, terrible practice in real-world code.

As a last note of discontentment, the book really should not be called "Inside C#". Aside from a few superficial looks at what the compiler is doing by examining disassembles of code, nowhere does the book treat the language in depth. It is more of a "fast overview of C# for people that already know at least C++". One of the many examples of shallowness that I happen to remember now is about method overloading: precise rules for overload resolution are not given anywhere, only hinted about.

Summing up, it is not worthless, but it's far from definitive. Better books on C# will surely appear, as we developers deserve. Right now I recommend "Programming C#" from O'Reilly over this one.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very introductory book, May 16, 2001

By 

[e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside C# (Microsoft Programming) (Paperback)

If you want an easy to read introductory book on C#, this is probably the best so far. If you want to learn how to build real world apps, look elsewhere, as this book does not cover the .NET Framework classes.

This bears repeating: This book focuses on C# and not the .NET Framework classes. It is useful for learning C#, but it is not useful for learning how to build business apps. As all of your data access is folded up into the .NET Framework classes, you will not learn data access from this book.

While most of the code is simple enough to work under beta 2, the book was written using beta 1. I have yet to run into code that blows up (technical term ;->) under b2, but it is possible. Since it does not cover the Framework, it is probably safe.

The strong part of the book is the breakdown of both beginning and intermediate concepts and the plethora of code samples (have to install from the CD to use). Each concept has at least one sample, and some concepts have many more, each building on the first.

I have to rate this book as average, as it does not quite measure up completely to the cover copy. I kicked it up one star (to four) as it is an Inside book, which are typically aimed towards the developer/user that is just starting out in a technology. I would have knocked off stars if the code would not compile under b2, as it comes out in the next few weeks. Since it covers the language more than the Framework, this is not an issue.

I am sure there are those who think this rating is a bit high, but let me explain. If you are advanced, or have played with C#, this book is not for you. As it is not aimed for the advanced market, per se, I cannot fault the book for what it is.

Conclusion: If you want to learn the C# language and syntax, this is not a bad book. As it does not touch the .NET Framework classes, it will not be completely obsolete in a month, as will large sections of every other C# book. If you are interested in learning more about the Framework classes, and building real world apps, I would wait until the next round of books come out. Those in the next couple of months will most likely either be rushed or error ridden, so watch the reviews before buying.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive tutorial on the C# language, May 16, 2001

By 

Richard Greene - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside C# (Microsoft Programming) (Paperback)

Unless you're just not paying attention, Microsoft .NET is poised to become the biggest thing to hit software development since the introduction of the Win32 SDK. At the forefront of this effort is a new language called C# (pronounced c sharp) - a hybrid of C++ and Java with the simplicity of Visual Basic.

Unfortunately, until now all of the first books on C# have really been little more than superficial coverages of the language's syntax where the authors spend little to no time detailing why and when one would want to use the different aspects of C#. What I wanted was a book that not only tells me how to use something (they have on-line help for that), but explains the concepts behind the feature's existence.

Now there is such a book: Tom Archer's Inside C#. Archer, who runs the CodeGuru Web site and writes the popular C#/.NET Web newsletter, offers the most complete tutorial on using this new and powerful language.

The first section of the book is an overview section aimed at the programmer new to object-oriented and .NET development. This section includes chapters on .NET and the CLR and provides a clear and concise explanation of how it all ties together. Once that is done, he then has a chapter devoted to writing and compiling your first C# application to make sure that your environment is set up properly.

From there, the second part dives into writing applications. Here you learn all the fundamentals of C# including its interaction with the .NET Common Type System, value types, reference types and the concept of boxing and unboxing. He then goes on to show how to define classes and struct and write applications using the basics of arrays, enums, properties and indexers. Archer finishes up this foray into the fundamentals of C# by explaining how you can extend the C# language with attributes and how interfaces enable COM-like interface-based programming in C#.

In the third section (Writing Code), Archer then covers the topics of expressions, operators, the controlling of program flow and exception handling. In addition, advanced topics such as operator overloading and the use of delegates in writing event handlers is covered.

Finally, the last section (Advanced C#) is easily my favorite. This section includes some of the best information I could find anywhere on such subject matter as multi-threaded programming, reflection and versioning. The Interoperating with Unmanaged Code chapter alone covers how to use COM components from C#, how to write "unsafe", or unmanaged code and how to use Win32 DLLs from C#.

Having read several of the C# books currently available (Eric Gunnerson's A Programmer's Introduction to C# and Ben Albahari's C# Essentials) I have to say that I was quite pleased that Archer didn't take the easy route in simply telling me how to use a given language construct - but instead took the time to fully explain when and why I would want to use it.