Customer Reviews

C# for Programmers (2nd Edition)

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

 

 

If you are into the big tome-style language books you will like this one. It's only 1,300 pages, but it feels like 2,000. The book starts with a language introduction. That's pretty solid. The object oriented material is presented well. That gets you to about 1/3 of the way through the book. After that it's a lightning tour through various parts of the .NET framework, including both desktop and web application development.

All of these books suffer from the same problem, too much content. So the content is thinned out a little bit in comparison to a full book on the same subject. For example, a book just on ASP.NET could take a 1,000 pages alone. In this book it's around 100 pages. If you have the cash, buy both a C# language book, and another book dedicated to the .NET application platform you are building on.

BTW, my three year old daughter picked up the book and said, "Too heavy." I agree.

1. This book teaches the syntax of C# -- that is why I purchased it. 2. This book also attempts to teach the reader UML. 3. This book also fancys itself a "best practices" reference giving tips and recommendations (which they sometimes don't follow in their code examples).

From the title, I was expecting an intermediate to advanced book designed for people who already knew what a variable is or a control structure. This book is more of an introduction to programming than a book for programmers.

This book tries to do too many things and as a result does not do any of them particularly well.

Recommendations - Cut the book down to 300 pages or so for someone who already knows how to program. Leave the UML to the OMG experts. There are plenty of good UML books without cluttering up this one. I would also recommend removing most of the tips and helpful hints. A developer can get better information from "Code Complete". These tips are distracting, disjointed and not particularly well presented. If the authors REALLY feel compelled to add helpful hints or a UML guide, I recommend putting them in the appendices or adding supplementary volumes each with a different emphasis.

This book was not what I expected from the title.

I have been programming for over 18 years and this is the book
I turned to when it was finally time to learn C#. The book
features a large number of sample programs that are easy to
understand. Each sample is followed by paragraphs that explain
what the code is doing, line by line.

The best way to use the book is to read a section, and then
build the sample program from scratch. There are a few instances
where the text is not perfectly clear on which elements to place
on the form, and there are a few errors in the sample programs.
In case you get stuck, all the sample programs are avaiable
(compiled) on the Deitel web-site.

I give the book 4.5 stars.

This book is good for beginning to intermediate programming. The chapters are well paced. It is easy to find information you need. They do not overdo the technical stuff for beginners and have enough chapters to get you into the intermediate work. I wish they had more examples though and a chapter dedicated to recursion. Overall 4 stars.

Wonderful tips, easy to follow, lucid explanations, BUT I would have given it 4 stars if the authors had explained the various concepts by using the Visual C# IDE from the get go. Who in blazes runs console applications in this day and age?

The weighty C# For Programmers by Harvey M. Dietel and Paul J. Dietel appears in its updated second edition to provide a powerful and comprehensive guide - over 1,300 pages worth - for any programming in C#. You must be a programmer with a solid background in C++, Java, or other high-level languages: this handbook applies the Dietel signature live-code approach to teaching programming and explores the C# language and its new options. Use it to understand the Dietels' approach to object-oriented programming, then build next-generation windows and web applications.

Deitel's methodologies and techniques for teaching C# prove quite reliable. If you learn well with a focus on theory first, followed by examples - then this book is for you. My only pet peeve with this book is its duplication of samples from other Deitel books - how incredibly boring if you already completed the examples from another. I found the examples near identical to How to Program Java or How to Program C++. Note the programmer series for Deitel books do not include the exercise sections at the end of each chapter like the `How To' series. That said, it gets the job done for teaching in a reliable fashion.

In general, I like this book because it covers a lot of material fairly systematically. As a tech writer, though, I've got one observation I haven't seen here before - I use the index quite a bit and I find that, in many instances, the page listed has nothing to do with the index topic. That's pretty bad. A reference book should have a better index.

This book is very comprehensive yet thorough for programmers who are new to C#. I enjoy the nice explanation of XML concepts at the conclusion of most of the early chapters although I have only read up to chapter 7. If you are late on the concept of object-oriented programming, it also gives a detailed explanation of how real-life objects can be applied to programming (go figure the concept object oriented-programming).

This book is a good blend of computer science and programming C#. I especially appreciated the treatment of UML. Of course, like any other book of this nature, it can't teach all you need there is to know on the subject. It is a very good starting point for learning programming. It's up to the reader to take the knowledge gained from the Deitel book and build upon it. Overall this is a very good book.