Customer Reviews

C# Programming with the Public Beta

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've been using VS.NET and C# since the PDC in Summer'2000 and happen to like it a lot. I got this book with the impression that I would learn some new tricks on C#. I was in for a surprise: I found about one serious mistakes per page.

This is a dangerous book because it might be mistaken for a good one IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE SUBJECT. I guess that readers would be puzzled when they found out that the product isn't exactly what the book says it is.

One example: exception handling. They say that you are forced to handle exceptions and if you don't your program terminates. That is only true for console applications. They say that the compiler handles quietly division by zero exceptions. Dead wrong! The compiler does generate division by zero exceptions for integer and decimal types. When using floating-point types (float and double), the compiler does not generate exceptions, period. It returns "infinite", which by the way, is what the Pentium processor does. This behavior is by design. Then they suggest you to handle "empty" exceptions, where you don't give a specific type like "FormatException" but bare "Exception" instead. This is a very, very bad programming style. To add insult to injury, when they touch the subject of "try...finally" they don't say a word about freeing resources - the very reason for try/finally to exist at all - simply that it's an optional clause to the try/catch block and that it may appear by itself (for no reason).

In short: they don't have the faintest clue on how exception handling works. It seems that they read the help file and wrote something that could pass as a lesson on exception handling for someone that knows a little less than them. The whole book is like that.

I usually regard highly books from Wrox. This book is a sad surprise. If you feel like reading something on C#, go get the reference manual, freely downloadable from Microsoft. A bit dull, but correct.

This books have cover most of the critical aspect under C# programming language and I like the way the books structured. It describe the language syntax in 2 short chapters, which is good coz most of the time, the syntax for programming language is quite similar and for the case of C#, it very similar to syntax like C++ and Java and the author uses the C++ and Java syntax comparison approach which I find very easy for me to learn up the syntax. This is very valuable to me and the remaining of the book cover other critical aspect of .Net such as Assemblies and Manifest, COM+ Services for .Net Components, Web Services, Webform (ASP.NET) and Winform, which is important for further understanding the usage of C# in .Net platform.

Now, I'm waiting for the Inside C# book from MS Press, which suppose to have more in-depth coverage of C# programming language. Moreover, I'm looking forward for a book that provide example for .Net Framework using C# (MSDN, CodeProject, VisualStudioWire, Wrox did provide those information but is better to have a complete guide on this) coz I feel that after picking up this language, the next hurdle is to understand the .Net framework well in order to do real world coding for .Net apps, where the current .Net Framework SDK have a lot of missing information.

But overall, this book did provide me a good start on C# and is far more better then others C# books in the market currently, even most of the chapter provide quite limited information on the particular topic but this is what we can expect for technology under BETA stage and this is only the beginner guide.

Great work [authors], keep it up for the next release, the Profesional C# (suggestion).

Thanks for reading my review:-)

Once again, it seems like Wrox is rushing to be the first with a comprehensive work. Fortunately, this one is better than the book Introducing .Net. And, for sheer learning, it is the best book on C# on the market so far (still awaiting Inside C# from MSPress to see if they up the ante).

The first couple of chapters deal with very introductory level information. If you have been studying .Net, you will likely skim through these chapters. While there is some useful information, there are plenty of resources on this material.

The rest of the book breaks into C#. If you are a language purist, and good at reading material that is more like specs, you will likely find Eric Gunnerson's book more up your alley. For the rest of us, this tome is a far better option.

Of particular note is the fact that chapters have been thrown in on using COM and COM+ with .Net. As the help file is largely garbage on this, and experimentation is the way most of us are learning this, it is nice to have a runthrough of how to use legacy code (is it okay to call COM legacy now?) in our .Net apps.

The ASP.Net chapter gives enough information to get you started, but a few more chapters would have really added some meat to the book.

My personal favorite is the assemblies and manifests chapter, as the other C# books do very little to broach these subjects.

One thing I would like to see, once the technology has settled down (beta 2 is supposed to be feature complete), is a book on the .Net framework. I disagree that this book should have been the book to concentrate on that, but a bit more in depth traveling into the base classes would have been nice.

I am thankful that Wrox decided on four authors for this one, instead of the trend, as of late, of publishing yearbooks. It makes for a bit more consistent ride and less overlap of material from chapter to chapter. There are also fewer holes in this book than the Introducing .Net book.

If you want to get into C#, this is the book (at least as of February 2001). Once the technology is complete, all bets are off.

In this world of mediorce technical books that echo available documentation, I have come to depend on Wrox Press, to provide books for actual working developers, that want to get their hands dirty. This book is no exception. The authors provide a very good overview of the .NET framework and the C# language in the first two chapters. Then its on to writing code in C#. Advanced topics in C# are covered well. Developing every day in this language and these technologies, I was still able to expand my knowledge nicely. Later chapters cover COM Interoperability, COM+ Services, ASP.NET and Web Services. This book provides much deeper detail and real code than previous books on C#. I would have liked to see more on the .NET Services and Libraries, which is very important as well as more detail on the IL language. However, this book serves its purpose quite well.

A good book for seeing C# in context, a bad book for the C# language. You will need to buy Eric Gunnerson's book for C# language issues, this book is just too skimpy on language stuff for my taste. Thus, you really need to buy both this book and Gunnerson's book at the present time for C# unfortunately. (Maybe Archer's book will combine the best features of both Gunnerson and this book) . Avoid "Presenting C#", it is a total waste of money however IMHO.

Firstly, this review is targeted only to persons who loved Wrox books specially their Beginning series, which helped people like me to gain a thorogh understanding of subjects like ASP and ADO and helped us move into the programming profession. The exceptional teaching, the method of explaining thro' examples and then explaining each line of the example, the excersises at the end of each chapters, speaking each word in a manner understadable to averages blokes like me....

All that is now becoming a dream with each and every new book Wrox is bringing out...and now with the C# book I am aghast. No doubt the book gives a fair knowledge about what c# is, it turns the C# subject inside out and shows it to you.But it does just that. Talk and nothing else, for which I could have gone to the C# websites. SO is this the only thing I was looking for in the book? Is this the kind of a book, that attracted me to Wrox in the first place? What difference does then remain between Wrox and the rest of the publications? None. None whatsoever. With this book the famous red covers differ only in having their authors pictures on the cover , nothing else. Whatever is there in the book can be gathered from the top 3 C# sites. Infact the sites help us better in how to work on C# thro the visual studio for example. This book will not help you in getting up, rolling your sleeves and punching your keys to type in C# programs like the wrox earlier begnning series. This book will not help you create your own C# programs, neither will it help you stand up and say to yourself at the end of the book - "I am confident in writing my own C# programs from now on", NO IT WILL NOT GENERATE ANY OF THESE PASSIONS IN YOU, UNLIKE THE EARLIER WROX BEGINNING BOOKS.

The whole concept behind this book is just to be among the first, riding over the famous wrox-wave, and raking in the moolah.. The message looks clear ,we wont be seeing any of those passionate teachings in the beginners books anymore. A tragic end to one the best books series....

This is a great book and by far the best book available on C# as of Jan 28, 2001. Because it assumes that readers are familiar with OOP concept, it mainly focuses on c# and does a very good job of describing c#, what it provides, and what it doesn't provide, and often makes a comparison to C++ and Java which made it much easier to understand.

Overall, a definite must read if you want to get a quick start in the .net environment

This book not only gives you a great introduction to programming in C#, but also delves into topics such as .NET framework, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Web Services and Win forms. I specially liked the coverage on Assemblies and COM Interoperability. My only disappointment is that the author didn't include more on .NET base framework classes. Overall, this book touches all the .NET related topics with out going too deep into any of them. After completing this book, you will have an over all idea about how C# fits into .NET framework and its related technologies. I think it's a better buy than the other similar books, which are currently floating in market.

The coverage of C# syntax and structure is adequate, but there are already decent C# language references available (some of them free for the taking). The book's coverage of .NET architecture is rather opaque and not really useful beyond trivia. The updated and new technologies that glob-on to the .NET platform, like the new editions of ASP and ADO, Web- and Win-Forms, etc., are not discussed to a depth that proves useful when you crack open your editor and start writing code.

Taking all of that into consideration, I can only surmise that this book is targeted at people with no programming experience who want a glossy overview of C# and .NET. There is very little, if anything, here for those with any level of programming experience in C++, VB, Java, or even jscript.

Do NOT get this book. It is a sham. It is unfortunate that I have to say that because I LOVE Wrox books. I have to say this is the first Wrox book I have ever been dissapointed with. There is nothing of use in this book. The examples are useless, too short and not explained at all. You want to learn C#? Just get the free Beta and go through the tutorials included in the MSDN package - they're really good.