Programming C#: Building .NET Applications with C# [Paperback]

Jesse Liberty (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0596006993 | ISBN-13: 978-0596006990 | Publication Date: March 1, 2005 | Edition: Fourth Edition

The programming language C# was built with the future of application development in mind. Pursuing that vision, C#'s designers succeeded in creating a safe, simple, component-based, high-performance language that works effectively with Microsoft's .NET Framework. Now the favored language among those programming for the Microsoft platform, C# continues to grow in popularity as more developers discover its strength and flexibility. And, from the start, C# developers have relied on Programming C# both as an introduction to the language and a means of further building their skills.

The fourth edition of Programming C#--the top-selling C# book on the market--has been updated to the C# ISO standard as well as changes to Microsoft's implementation of the language. It also provides notes and warnings on C# 1.1 and C# 2.0.

Aimed at experienced programmers and web developers, Programming C#, 4th Edition, doesn't waste too much time on the basics. Rather, it focuses on the features and programming patterns unique to the C# language. New C# 2005 features covered in-depth include:

• Visual Studio 2005
• Generics
• Collection interfaces and iterators
• Anonymous methods
• New ADO.NET data controls
• Fundamentals of Object-Oriented Programming

Author Jesse Liberty, an acclaimed web programming expert and entrepreneur, teaches C# in a way that experienced programmers will appreciate by grounding its applications firmly in the context of Microsoft's .NET platform and the development of desktop and Internet applications.

Liberty also incorporates reader suggestions from previous editions to help create the most consumer-friendly guide possible.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jesse Liberty's Programming C#, 2nd Edition provides an adept and extremely well-conceived guide to the C# language and is written for the developer with some previous C++, Java, and/or Visual Basic experience. This second edition brings the book up to date, with examples that are guaranteed to run on the shipping version of Visual C# .NET.

It's no secret that many computer books are pretty much devoid of an authorial personality. This title is a winning exception. The author is able to weave in clever examples (using such topics as his own long experience in computing, his dog, Star Trek, etc.) without being coy or getting in the way of presenting real technical information. Liberty's wide experience in computers and general writing skill shows, as he is able to draw on a wealth of examples to move his text forward.

These are a couple of goals at work in Programming C#. First, it's an excellent language tutorial, certainly one of the smartest and best available guides to C# as a language. Early chapters explore basic and obscure language options using inheritance, delegation, interface, and the conventions in C# used to implement these techniques. The middle part of the book turns toward the .NET Framework itself, with two useful (and somewhat introductory) chapters on both Windows Forms and Web Forms, for standalone and Web-based applications, respectively.

Later sections crank up the technical knowledge again with several advanced topics on understanding .NET assemblies and deployment in detail, as well as "reflection" APIs that allow .NET programs to essentially modify their code at run time. (One technique, reflection emit, which literally writes bytecodes, will definitely interest expert readers, though it's unlikely most programmers will need to do this.) Final sections look at the .NET stream classes (rivaled only by Java's for complexity). Liberty looks at basic file and network I/O as well as how objects get serialized and marshaled both for SOAP and Web services and "normal" .NET remoting.

The author's sure hand in navigating the difficult waters of C# and .NET makes for a relatively concise text that is chock-full of useful information on C#. Filled with notably clever and inventive examples, this book is possibly this veteran computer author's best title to date, and it's sure to be a noteworthy resource for experienced developers, as they tackle C# for the first time. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to C# and the .NET platform
• A "Hello World" example in C#
• Tutorial to C# as an object-oriented programming language (types and variables, operators, namespaces, and preprocessor directives)
• Defining classes in C# (including static members, finalizers, overloading, and read-only fields)
• Inheritance and polymorphism implemented in C#
• Operator overloading
• Structures in C#, interfaces, arrays, and indexers
• Built-in .NET collections, strings, and regular expression support
• Structured exception handling
• Delegate and events
• Introduction to programming with Windows Forms
• ADO.NET database APIs (including basic XML support)
• Quick introduction to Web Forms and ASP.NET used with C#
• Introduction to Web services (SOAP, WSDL, and Discover services described)
• In-depth guide to .NET assemblies (including metadata, versioning, private and shared assemblies)
• C# support for attributes and reflection (including reflection emit techniques)
• Marshaling and remoting (with and without SOAP)
• Threads and synchronization
• Tutorial to C#/.NET streams (including basic I/O techniques, Web streams, and serialization)
• COM and .NET interoperability (including importing ActiveX controls in .NET projects)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"If the 4th Edition, whenever it's released, manages to at least mention the Open Source alternative - although more complete information would be better - that would definitely merit a Top Stuff award because finally the book would be complete. However, as things stand, this book falls short of greatness by a penguin's breadth - it's a solid reference guide that you'll keep returning to for years to come, but needs that little extra "oomph" to win us over completely." - Paul Hudson, linuxFormat, September 2003 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; Fourth Edition edition (March 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596006993
• ISBN-13: 978-0596006990
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (209 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #567,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Silverlight Geek. (Senior Program Manager, Developer Community Liaison; Microsoft.) Helping to build a Silverlight developer community at http://SilverlightGeek.me.

Author of two dozen books on .NET and object-oriented programming including Programming C#, Learning ASP.NET with AJAX, Programming .NET 3.5 and forthcoming Programming Silverlight 4.

Queer Activist since 1971, father since 1989, avid reader since forever, eclectic music and film tastes, amateur photographer, programmer, writer, and loudmouth.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars O'Reilly does it again, August 10, 2001

By 

Geoff T. Moller "Mojo" (Santa Monica, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming C# (Paperback)

Direct and Intuitive...these are my two words to describe this book. Jesse has exceeded an already high O'Reilly standard with this offering.

I have a basic web background (HTML, XML, JavaScript, CSS, Graphics) and was looking for the one (hopefully) book to help me catch on to C# and the many advanced object oriented concepts that come along with it.

Jesse knows exactly what the object oriented newbie is going to ask, and lets you know exactly what is happening. He knows what will confuse you (me), and clarifies IMMEDIATELY. Having this kind of foresight makes it possible to read this book cover to cover without jumping back to re-learn something that was explained poorly in the first place. The layout in this book is top-shelf.

As C# is completely dependent on the .NET Base Class Libraries, any text on the matter is incomplete without examples of and references to Windows and Web Forms. This book covers Windows Forms, Web forms, Web Services and ADO.NET. (The ADO.NET section is OUTSTANDING)

(If you are ever in doubt about an O'Reilly book, they have the table of contents listed for every item at their site)

I have yet to find a more efficient and easy to read text. Every time I think O'Reilly can't do any better, they come up with something like this.

Your money is well spent here.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for learning C#, November 9, 2002

By 

Kevin Pike (Concord, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming C# (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

This is a great book for learning C#. The first part is an excellent tutorial in the language, just right for experienced C, C++ and Java programmers and for advanced VB6 programmers.

The second part introduces how to use the language to create .net programs. This is a bit superficial, but his goal was only to provide an introduction, and it is a very good introduction. For more detail on really building advanced applications you will need an additional book (like his book on ASP.NET).

The third part of Programming C# goes into advanced topics you won't easily find elsewhere, with excellent coverage of (for example) threading, remoting, reflection, streams and so forth.

Liberty writes well, his examples are terrific, and he makes complex material easily understandable. Further, he supports his book on his web site where he provides not only source code but a discussion center where you can ask questions.

I highly recommend this excellent tutorial.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not good, November 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Programming C# (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

When I purchased this book I had little knowledge of C#. After reading the book and building all of the samples, I discovered that my lack of knowledge was something I had in common with the text. A bold statement, so let me explain.

Teaching effectively requires a deep understanding of the material, so what is important is emphasized at the expense of the trivial. In this book, everything is given equal importance, so the important material is lost in the trivial.

The text is frequently written "out of order", that is, statements are made, and then a later statement includes something you needed to understand the previous one. This is evident in the line by line code samples, where the author frequently describes line 3 of the code, and then says "but before we do that, we need to do line 2". This is confusing and not helpful.

While on the subject of the code samples, the samples frequently include a lot of useless code that just confuses the point. I ended up stripping the samples to the basics myself, and in virtually every case I ended up with a 50% or more reduction in lines of code, and a much clearer sample. Even worse, the samples could be done in much better ways, so in addition to being confusing they teach bad usage of the language.

The main problem with the samples is that many of them are taken directly from the SDK. The SDK samples are not designed to teach programming, they are designed to demonstrate how to solve a specific problem. This makes them inappropriate for teaching a language. The ones on ADO, for example, contain complex table joins, which are SQL constructs and have nothing to do with ADO or C#. The reflection API samples includes one where it writes IL directly, certainly not something that most programmers are going to do. And the text never explains the IL that is written.

I own dozens of O'Reilly books, and most are excellent. Unfortunately this one and UML In A Nutshell are the exceptions.