Customer Reviews

Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform (Windows.Net)

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Visually this book is easy to read. A detailed 37 page index and bold page numbers at the top of the pages make it easy to quickly locate desired information.

Sometimes the term "Pro" is used in the title of books that don't really deserve that classification. In my opinion, this book has very much earned the "Pro" designation. While the C# language is covered in detail, no time is wasted describing what an array or variable is. Another example, the book spends more time explaining how to implement encapsulation, inheritance and polymorphism within the language than explaining these basic OO concepts. So if you are new to programming, look elsewhere.

The style of writing might be described as a touch dry. Not much in the way of humor or such, but then again this is a "Pro" book. You are reading it for information, not entertainment.

In many respects this book is a two in one deal. The first ~450 pages are a thorough coverage of the C# language. The remainder being an extensive look at the .NET framework.

In short I would describe the book as a very comprehensive guide to C# 2008 and the 3.5 version of the .NET framework recommend it highly.

I purchased this book to help me get up to speed with .NET 3.5 as it relates to C# and WPF. I was not disappointed with the C# coverage, and at 1332 pages, the author had to draw the line somewhere. WPF gets introductory treatment, but as the author points out, the subject is too large for this book (and he points the reader to a soon-to-be released book that specifically covers WPF).

Beginners to C# will find a thorough, readable presentation of the language with many short example programs from basic to advanced topics. Intermediate to advanced users will find this work a handy reference, with no dark corners of C# left unexposed.

ASP.NET and ADO.NET are given several strong chapters (including an excellent introduction to LINQ), and WCF and WF each get a good introductory chapter; WPF gets good (but admittedly not-comprehensive) coverage starting at XAML, proceeding to working with WPF Controls and ending at 2D graphics, resources and themes. Of course, Pro C# 2008 really shines in presenting the new C# .NET 3.5 additions, why they are there, and when to use them (think "LINQ").

There is even a very good appendix on getting C# to interoperate with non-managed COM code.

Beginners on up will find this a valuable addition to one's programming library.

Troelsen's 3rd edition was one of my most thumbed-through C# books on my bookshelf. I found myself invariably rereading the same chapters each time gleaming just a little bit more than I had previously - and that for me is a good thing and what I really appreciate in his work; the examples he gives are ones which seem to keep on giving. On the first read through you get an appreciation for the technology used, subsequent perusals allow me to really hone down and understand the magic behind the code.

The 4th edition continues this trend and it is obvious that a huge amount of work went into keeping this book up to date. Where advances in the framework or language allow, you'll find that previous examples from the 3rd edition are still there but are now supplemented and enhanced by their younger 3.5 and 2008 siblings. Many aspects of the latest language editions are given enough coverage as to be useful without overbearing the overall tome (for example LINQ). In addition the author provides a good explanation as to the background for some of the new language features which, at first glance, may seem somewhat superfluous.

If there is to be any complaint at all it would be in the index, for example Extension Methods merits but a single page entry which directs you to a page in the "Introduction to LINQ chapter", despite the fact that the subject itself is covered in its own section over nine pages in the previous chapter! In addition the pages feel a tish thin which doesn't help when the opposing page have one or more console screen shots (with black backgrounds) - but that's a minor gripe.

Given the books size (it tops out at a toe-crunching 1370 pages) it's tough to see how much more the author could have packed in to this treat!

Highly recommended.

Andrew hits the mark again. This is the 3rd version of this book I own. Everyone of them does an excellent job of covering all the new features in the latest release.

I skipped the .NET 3.0 version because there weren't many new features added to the C# language itself. I am glad I got this book for this 3.5 release because there are a ton of new features. This book covers all of them in detail.

If you have never bought one of Andrews books, and you a serious about programming C#, you simply have too. He relates the language features to the pillars of OOP (inheritance, encapsulation, and polymorphism) in great detail. Understanding these pillars is a definite prerequisite to moving into and understanding design patterns.

One of the other things I like about this book is the material on programming with .NET assemblies. The key to good architecture is developing with components. This material teaches you everything you need to know about .NET assemblies which you need to know in order to develop with .NET components.

This is a must have for every C# developer. If you have not read this book, you are definitely not taking advantage of all the C# / .NET 3.5 language features in the language.

I've read chapters 1-13 in their entirety read part of 14 and 15 and skimmed the ASP.NET chapters. It may be a while until I look through the rest of what's in this huge book, so I may as well review it now.

This book is really two books in one. The first part, Chapters 1-14, cover C# the language. The rest of the book covers stuff about the .NET platform.

The first 13 chapters of this book are nothing short of outstanding. I have many years of experience working with C#, but I haven't done any C# programming at all for the last year, so I felt that I needed to refresh my knowledge of the language, as well as learn about what has been added since version 1.0 This book was EXACTLY what I was looking for. Not only did I relearn everything about C# that I had forgotten, I learned a lot more than I ever knew. I feel like I know C# better now than I ever did before.

The author of this book doesn't just explain the language, he also explains what's going on behind the scenes in the CIL, so you really get a full understanding of exactly what's happening when your C# code is compiled.

Delegates are the part of C# that I always found the hardest to understand. This book explains delegates better than anything else I've read, I feel like I finally understand them.

The author of this book also avoids the two things I hate most about certain other computer books: (1) He never uses unprofessional nerd-language like "Wow, this technique is really cool!" Yes, some computer books have sentences like that and I think its demeaning to the programming profession. I don't recall reading through any bad grammar--the author is a very good writer. (2) The code samples are short and to the point. There's nothing I hate more than unnecessarily long code samples (except for the nerd-speak).

But is this book all perfect? Not really. I wish the author just cut it off at chapter 14 (which introduces LINQ but really doesn't go into enough detail for one to understand it) and sold the book for half the price. This book is too big and too expensive.

For example, the ASP.NET chapters don't seem very useful. ASP.NET is a huge topic, way too big to be covered in three chapters. I think the three chapters here would be too confusing for an ASP.NET beginner, and not comprehensive enough at all for the professional ASP.NET programmer.

Despite my annoyances at the books size and coverage of material that's unnecessary, I'm so happy about the quality of the first 13 chapters that I give it 5 stars.

I sometimes read peoples reviews and wonder what planet they come from.

Simply put, if you're an intermediate developer in C# and you buy this book, you will save yourself a lot of stress/heartache in the future.

I've read a couple of other C# at intermediate level and here's the rub: For myself, I personally try to gauge if the book is for me by looking at the first couple of chapters or so and speed read the content to gauge the authors quality. You can easily do this here because it will most likely cover aspects you already know and so you can make a call to its quality. I'll then skip to the meatier sections to see if the desireable content is there. Natuarally you'd assume the later chapter would be a natural progression from the earlier content.

What I've found to happen with most developer books is that they start off with clarity until about the 5th chapter then hit you with a tangental curve ball. It's as if the author got sick of authoring and got lazy with the explanation of things and also decides do add to the mix by deciding to gear things up a couple of levels. After checking the pages, to make sure none have dropped out!, I sometimes come to the conclusion that its probably because the author has the word 'professional' in the title and so feels the content should reflect something at least a 'difficult' level. I find this HUGELY frustrating and feel duped only to find myself usually reaching for MSDN and Google to further research the holes in the text. I believe there's a lot of developers who give up with these type of books at this stage and start to look elsewhere. The book becomes a coffee cup mat!

This book, however, explains its content with crystal clarity - and it's good quality crystal at that! It starts off at an easily understandable level, and ramps you up progressively through the chapters. A word to the wise: You are NEVER EVER going to be able to cover ALL the aspects of any section completely. This is true for ANY book. If you did that, every section would be a couple of books in their own right. The author has to make a call to what content the book must cover. Some things will be left out - period! I believe the author in this instance has got the balance perfect. Why do I believe that? Simple, because the bits you learn are totally used progressively throughout the book. That's why the book is so good. No ambiguity. No MSDN. No Google! The example classes used are as simple as possible - allowing you to concentrate totally on the points being put forward.

I gaurantee that if you read this book all the way through and take your time to understand its content (which is totally painless) you will have a quality foundation. It's true you can buy other books with more indepth content but these books will simply be more specialized and so cover a narrower subject framework.

Here's an example. Not many developers will question the quality of Jeff Ritchers 'C# via the CLR' - and rightly so in my opinion. But you'll not find much in there in terms of ContectBoundObjects for example. Whereas Don Boxes equally excellent book 'Essential Net Volume 1 The Common Language Runtime.' does. You see, they specialize in areas that they feel you should find interesting/need. They are both clearly aimed at the professional audience. But reading these books simply isn't a panacea that will convert to a professional developer. They are simply another step up on the professional ladder (albeit a quality step!) and offers an insite to about 1% of the .NET arena. That's why I believe that some developers incorrectly slate some books that don't deserve it. It is they who are at fault - not the author.

There is ONE chapter I would have liked to see more content on, and that was generics. But put into perspective, this is a mere blip.

If you're looking for a specific part of the .NET runtime, this book isn't for you.
If you're looking for a solid foundation spread across the .NET runtime one day you'll realise after a great deal of work that this book is worth its weight in gold and you were foolish for not buying it.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning C# and is coming from an older .NET platform or from previous C/C++ experience. The book is extremely thick, yes, but wastes little space. The examples are detailed in explaining the topic at hand but do not carry extraneous details that could distract from the current topic.

I would also recommend this book to anyone who might not have constant access to a computer to test out the topics. I find this book to be one of the few programming books that I can sit down with in front of the fire and read without having to get up every five minutes to see how an example really works. This book manages to fully explain the topics in such a way that the explaination is complete; a visit to the computer to try and understand the text is rarely needed.

I needed to catch up on .NET 3 and 3.5, after reading reviews I selected this title. Being a very experienced developer I didn't want another start from the beginning and target everyone book.

I have mixed opinion on the book, while there is a ton of info here, I find myself spending lots of time skipping around and over stuff. I was disappointed with such little part of this very large book actually being on the '.NET 3.5 Platform'.

Experienced developers don't need a book, targeted to a 'platform', teaching object oriented programming theory. I would have much rather seen these chapters devoted to the 2008 VS IDE.


I think all of the info in the book is great and I am sure I will go back to various parts of the book to review 'old' stuff now and then. Generally speaking from a very experienced developer point of view I would guesstimate that I will only use 25% of the book.

To summarize, great general resource for lesser experienced developers not as good for the very experienced wanting to update 2008 .NET 3.5 skills.

Even though I find the Apress look and design to be a bit dry and blah, the content of their books cannot be ignored. With 'Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform', Apress continues their wonderful tradition of great books and this 4th Edition is no different.

With long books like this I like to give a Chapter Overview as I feel it gives a good flavor for BIG books which is necessary:

01. The Philosophy Of .NET
02. Building C# Applications
03. Core C# Programming Constructs, Part I
04. Core C# Programming Constructs, Part II
05. Encapsulated Class Types
06. Inheritance And Polymorphism
07. Exception Handling
08. Object Lifetime
09. Interfaces
10. Collections & Generics
11. Delegates, Events, Lambdas
12. Indexers, Operators, Pointers
13. C# 2008 Language Features
14. LINQ
15. .NET Assemblies
16. Type Reflection, Late Binding, Attribute-Based Programming
17. Processes, Appdomains, Object Contexts
18. Multithreaded Applications
19. CIL And Dynamic Assemblies
20. File I/O And Isolate Storage
21. Object Serialization
22. ADO.NET Part I: Connected Layer
23. ADO.NET Part I: Disconnected Layer
24. Programming With LINQ APIs
25. Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
26. Windows Workflow Foundation (WFF)
27. Programming With Windows Forms
28. Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) + XAML
29. WPF Controls
30. WPF 2D Graphical Rendering, Resources, Themes
31. Building ASP.NET Web Pages
32. ASP.NET Web Controls, Themes, Master Pages
33. ASP.NET State Management Techniques
A. COM & .NET Interoperability
B. .NET Development With Mono

As can be seen, this is a VAST book that spans a ton of topics. The only "problem" with books of this sort is that they are not great teaching books in my opinion. You can learn from them, but they are better served as references and a book that has more brevity used to learn the topics here. I would advise the same thing. Programmers that open this book up should have a solid background with a programming language already and if this is the case they will have a lot easier time mucking their way through this text.

Another issue to bring up is that a book this large cannot focus specifically on one topic too much or the length would be 2-3x larger which certainly doesn't work for a 1,500 page book as is. If you need the focus to be web development, this book does a good job of introducing the reader, but only around 100 pages are spent over a couple of chapters. When picking this book up, keep in mind that you are getting a full overview of C#. If you do that you will find this book immensely useful and educational.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

Well, I used the eBook edition, which has 1402 pages. Plus there's the bonus material you can get, taken the book to much longer. And still there are times when you want it to go just a little deeper into some topics.

But what a great book!

It reads well, so there's no problem going from cover to cover. But as well as that, it's nicely arranged into sensible chapters, so you can come back to it as a reference as well.

Of course it doesn't go very deep into many areas. It's not a book about WCF, but gives a good overview and foundation of it. The same applies for those other .Net 3.5 areas. But this is a book mainly about C#, and it would be three times the length if it tried to comprehensively cover all the rest.

Andrew Troelsen has done a really good job with this book - it's going to be one that I leave (electronically) on my laptop so I can get to it quickly.