Customer Reviews

Learn to Program with Visual C# 2008 Express

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

 

 

I have had a few programming classes in the past (roughly 10 years ago) and I thought this would be a good way to get back into the groove. This book seems to be written for people that barely understand how to turn on a computer. If this is you, this book may be a good fit. If you have experience coding in any capacity, you might want to look elsewhere.

Outside of the elementary approach of this book, the one thing that was quite disappointing is the lack of assignments or practice work. I would have hoped that at the end of each chapter there would have been a few practice items. Instead, you simply read the book and type what the author says to type - with a good review of what each line does. For me, without using what I've learned, it's very hard to keep any of this in my head.

Otherwise, it's still a good book and recommended for the most basic beginners.

This book is a fantastic door to learning to program. The layout and method used to bring you into a classroom and work a project while learning the in's and out's of programming is groundbreaking. So many IT books are so technical that too much effort is required to follow the writing much less learn from it. The approach of this book uses a story combined with in class training and real project experience. That means this approach gives the reader all of that experience toward learning the Programming language in one tool. Those benefits in one book simply can't be beat.

John Smiley's books have always been presented as a university level class with students asking questions about the programming languages that he teaches. The book is an excellent introduction to whatever programming language he has introduced.

The course takes the students through a real programming assignment developing the basic ideas and solutions for that language. At the end of the course the students have a useful grasp of programming principles at an elementary, but practical level having developed a useful commercial level executive file. In the process John Smiley describes the programming interface, setting up that interface, and the debugging tools available in the Visual C# 2008 express edition.

I have no hesitation in recommending John's book to any beginning programmer who wants to learn C#!

Harry Goldstein

I've purchased these books and given them away to people with kids. I am working with my son using this book. What makes this different and great is that it is story-based. Real world example of how software development works. Walks the reader through the problem to solution. Along the way the reader learns what requirements are, C# Programming, usability, etc. It is very introductory. It is one of the few books that take you from start to end with a simple application. I wish the high schools would have a class that works from this book.