Programming Microsoft® Visual C#® 2008: The Language (Perfect Paperback)

by Donis Marshall (Author)
Key Phrases: advanced debugging, operator overloading, target name, Visual Studio, Core Skills, Core Language (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Get the in-depth reference and pragmatic, real-world insights you need to exploit the enhanced language features and core capabilities in Visual C# 2008. Programming expert Donis Marshall deftly helps you build your proficiency with language features such as classes, structs, and other fundamentals, and helps you advance your expertise with more-advanced topics such as debugging, threading, and memory management. Combining an incisive reference with code samples and best practices, this developer reference focuses on details of the C# language you need to build innovative solutions.

Key Book Benefits:

Delves into the core, must-know topics for developers working with Visual C# 2008, and advances their mastery with essential skills

Thoroughly explicates language features such as generics, code snippets, and anonymous methods, while also providing updated information about classic features such as namespaces and metadata

Provides code samples to illustrate concepts and build skills mastery

About the Author
Donis Marshall is a trainer, a consultant and an author with 20 years of development experience and an in-depth background on Microsoft .NET technologies. He is the author of several books, including .NET Security Programming. Donis teaches classes on .NET programming, debugging, security, and design and architecture. In addition, he is the president of DebugNow.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 912 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 2nd edition (June 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735625409
• ISBN-13: 978-0735625402
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 7.2 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #324,997 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book will make sense to you if you already know C#, December 2, 2008

By	Michael Beane (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This would be a rough way to try to learn C#. The stylistic hallmark is short declarative sentences which are accurate but not necessarily helpful to the learner. For example, consider this gem of a definition of generic methods from chapter 7: "Generic methods have type parameters. These parameters can be used in the method header or body. An open method has type parameters, which are nonspecific. A closed method has type arguments, where specific types are substituted for type parameters. For a generic method, the type parameters are listed after the function name. The type parameter list is enclosed in angle brackets. Each parameter is comma-delimited." Accurate? Sure. Will you know how to write a generic method, or why you would want to? Hardly. This is by no means an isolated example.

The alert beginner will know they are in trouble in the first chapter, when the obligatory "Hello, World" program is presented. This one includes a wrinkle I have not seen before and hope not to see again: it uses delegates, a fairly advanced C# feature. The explanation that follows the program source says, "Delegates define a type of function pointer." That's it. Next!

You really get the sense that the author's purpose is more to demonstrate how much he knows about the subject than to help you understand it. I am not looking for hand holding of the "3 comes after 2, am I going too fast?" variety. But this is ridiculous. The organization of the book -- broad and fairly thorough coverage of C#, with extensive coverage of .NET and Visual Studio as well -- might lead you to believe it is an appropriate first book. It isn't.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! The must-have C# reference..., July 9, 2008

By	John Bruno (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the only C# reference book you need! Donis Marshall does a great job leaving no stone unturned as he provides detailed explanations of all the great new features in Visual C# 2008. Of all the C# books in the market, this is the definitive reference. I have all of Marshall's books and am never disappointed.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST have C# book, July 9, 2008

By	Rich Turner (Redmond, WA) - See all my reviews

Anyone can learn C# in order to complete a given task. Mastering C#, however, is another matter.

While one can combine several resources (magazine articles, web pages, friends, colleagues, etc) along with considerable time to learn C#, what one often needs is a good book. A GREAT book will guide you through the design of the language and help you understand how to use all its features to accomplish more with less effort.

Donis' book is a great example of a really GREAT book that will save novice C# developers weeks of effort and will help experienced developers solidify their knowledge and skills.

And unlike many existing texts, this book is bang up to date covering some of C# 2008's awesome and much misunderstood features such as generics and anonymous methods.

In short, if you want to REALLY get to grips with C# and master this amazingly powerful language, this book is an essential purchase that will pay for itself many times over.