.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2: Networking Library, Reflection Library, and XML Library (Hardcover)

~ Brad Abrams (Author), Tamara Abrams (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"This is a complete, authoritative, and truly useful reference for every .NET developer. It covers every aspect of .NET Framework library by providing concise descriptions with just the right number of examples. I would not start development of any significant .NET project without having this book on my bookshelf." --Max Loukianov, Vice President of Research and Development, Netpise Inc. "The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference is the one reference you really need when you use the .NET Framework library. The annotations provide clear insight into the design choices that the library development team made when building the library. Those explanations will guide you to the best design choices for your own application code." --Bill Wagner, Founder/Consultant, SRT Solutions, and author of Effective C#"More than just a reference, this book provides great insight into the massive amount of thought that went into designing the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is both entertaining and educational, combining interesting and sometimes amusing annotations along with the reference material."--Jordan Matthiesen, Software Engineer "Brad Abrams, Tamara Abrams, and the CLR team take readers on a journey through the backstreets of the . NET Framework, pointing out invaluable design decisions and performance best practices along the way. Not to be missed by any developer who has ever wondered why the Framework is designed the way it is." --William D. Bartholomew, Senior Software Architect, Orli-TECH Pty Ltd "This volume provides an in-depth review for every class method listed, including a CD with many examples of usage. The most valuable aspect of this book is the annotations provided; the annotators' thoughts about the design of the .NET Framework lets the reader develop a crystal-clear understanding of what can be accomplished with this fantastic technology." --Bradley Snobar, Software Engineer "The utility of a reference book is often a function of how easily you can find a desired subject and, once there, how clearly is it explained. On both counts, you should find that this book stands well." --Dr. Wes Boudville, Inventor The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2, completes the definitive reference to the .NET Framework base class library.This book-and-CD set offers programmers unparalleled insight into the ECMA and ISO specifications for the classes and members, while also explaining why they were designed as they were and demonstrating how to use them. This volume covers the Networking, Reflection, and XML libraries, complementing Volume 1's coverage of the Base Class and Extended Numerics libraries. The printed book contains high-level descriptions of each namespace, plus detailed descriptions and samples of each type, including annotations, inheritance diagrams, and a listing of members. The accompanying CD contains a vastly expanded version of the book's text that includes detailed descriptions of each member and samples for most members--almost two thousand searchable pages of immediately useful reference material, plus a full source-code archive. With the ECMA and ISO standards as its core, the combined book and CD include *A clear and complete overview of each namespace, describing its purpose and functionality and the inheritance hierarchy of types it defines. *Type descriptions.Each type is covered in its own chapter, with a quick reference to the C# declaration syntax for all members defined in the type, and a detailed description of how the type is used. *Annotations from key insiders: members of the Microsoft design team and the ECMA Standards Committee. These comments cover everything from design rationale and history to common problems and shortcomings, with exceptional clarity and candor. *Reference tabs and an exhaustive index, which allow readers to quickly and easily navigate the text. *Code samples. Types are illustrated by working code samples, with output included. *Reusable source code for the more than one thousand samples is supplied as an archive on the CD. All code has been tested with versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 of the .NET Framework and, where appropriate, with the .NET Compact Framework.

From the Back Cover

“This is a complete, authoritative, and truly useful reference for every .NET developer. It covers every aspect of .NET Framework library by providing concise descriptions with just the right number of examples. I would not start development of any significant .NET project without having this book on my bookshelf.”
—Max Loukianov, Vice President of Research and Development, Netpise Inc.

“The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference is the one reference you really need when you use the .NET Framework library. The annotations provide clear insight into the design choices that the library development team made when building the library. Those explanations will guide you to the best design choices for your own application code.”
—Bill Wagner, Founder/Consultant, SRT Solutions, and author of Effective C#

“More than just a reference, this book provides great insight into the massive amount of thought that went into designing the Microsoft .NET Framework. It is both entertaining and educational, combining interesting and sometimes amusing annotations along with the reference material.”
—Jordan Matthiesen, Software Engineer

“Brad Abrams, Tamara Abrams, and the CLR team take readers on a journey through the backstreets of the .NET Framework, pointing out invaluable design decisions and performance best practices along the way. Not to be missed by any developer who has ever wondered why the Framework is designed the way it is.”
—William D. Bartholomew, Senior Software Architect, Orli-TECH Pty Ltd

“This volume provides an in-depth review for every class method listed, including a CD with many examples of usage. The most valuable aspect of this book is the annotations provided; the annotators’ thoughts about the design of the .NET Framework lets the reader develop a crystal-clear understanding of what can be accomplished with this fantastic technology.”
—Bradley Snobar, Software Engineer

“The utility of a reference book is often a function of how easily you can find a desired subject and, once there, how clearly is it explained. On both counts, you should find that this book stands well.”
—Dr. Wes Boudville, Inventor

The .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2, completes the definitive reference to the .NET Framework base class library. This book-and-CD set offers programmers unparalleled insight into the ECMA and ISO specifications for the classes and members, while also explaining why they were designed as they were and demonstrating how to use them. This volume covers the Networking, Reflection, and XML libraries, complementing Volume 1’s coverage of the Base Class and Extended Numerics libraries.

The printed book contains high-level descriptions of each namespace, plus detailed descriptions and samples of each type, including annotations, inheritance diagrams, and a listing of members.

The accompanying CD contains a vastly expanded version of the book’s text that includes detailed descriptions of each member and samples for most members—almost two thousand searchable pages of immediately useful reference material, plus a full source-code archive.

With the ECMA and ISO standards as its core, the combined book and CD include

• A clear and complete overview of each namespace, describing its purpose and functionality and the inheritance hierarchy of types it defines.
• Type descriptions. Each type is covered in its own chapter, with a quick reference to the C# declaration syntax for all members defined in the type, and a detailed description of how the type is used.
• Annotations from key insiders: members of the Microsoft design team and the ECMA Standards Committee. These comments cover everything from design rationale and history to common problems and shortcomings, with exceptional clarity and candor.
• Reference tabs and an exhaustive index, which allow readers to quickly and easily navigate the text.
• Code samples. Types are illustrated by working code samples, with output included.
• Reusable source code for the more than one thousand samples is supplied as an archive on the CD. All code has been tested with versions 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0 of the .NET Framework and, where appropriate, with the .NET Compact Framework.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 512 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (September 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321194454
• ISBN-13: 978-0321194459
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #646,232 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The Microsoft .NET Development Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Worthwhile Reference, but could use more annotations., September 14, 2005

By	Phillip Haack ".NET Maniac" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Having read both volume 1 and volume 2 of .NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference (SLAR as it is affectionately known), I can easily recommend it as a very worthwhile reference for the serious .NET developer.

Volume 2 takes the reader deeper into the framework than Vol 1, spending more time in the XML, Reflection and Network libraries among other areas.

Although Volume 2 was informative, it wasn't as insightful as Volume 1, partly due to the fact that it covered classes less used than Vol 1. Also because of the absence of Jeffrey Richter as a commenter.

The annotations on the Socket related classes were quite skimpy, which was a disappointment for me personally, but might not matter to most developers.

Thought I would prefer even more annotations, the existing annotations are very insightful and provide a lot of valuable information.

Every type is clearly presented alongside working source code that demonstrates the given type. That, and the fact that all the code and types are searchable on the accompanying CD makes this a must have for your .NET bookshelf.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WinFX, WCF, WPF, WWF. Everything runs on top of this., September 17, 2005

By	Alfred Gary Myers Jr. "Alfred Myers" (São Paulo, SP Brazil) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Being a reader of Brad Abram's blog, I had found very interesting the posts, taken from SLAR vol. 1, dedicated on commenting a subset of the Framework Class Libraries (FCL).
So when he asked for volunteers on reviewing the second volume, I didn't think twice in being one of them.
In the weeks that followed I shared my time between working, studying for 70-320 and reviewing annotations and code samples.
I have to tell you: I really believe in the idea of telling us mere mortals the stories behind the scenes on developing the FCL.
Only on this two part series, you get to know why the things were done the way they are.
Since much of the book's value is in its annotations, the Annotation Index is extremely useful in finding comments made by a particular contributor.
I missed the poster that volume one had and the contributions of Jeffrey Richter, Kit George and Anders Hejlsberg. Maybe they didn't have much to comment on the libraries covered by this volume.
On the other hand, in this volume we have great contributions from Adam Nathan (COM Interop), Suzanne Cook (Fusion), Joel Pobar (Reflection, Rotor).
WinFx is coming with all those new shinny APIs such as WCF (Indigo), WPF (Avalon), WWF (Workflow), etc. But don't you forget that they are all developed on top of the libraries contained in these two books.
If you want to be a reference within your team for the years to come, these two books are among the ones to read to pursue this goal.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars take a look at the internationalisation classes, September 16, 2005

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The authors continue the exposition of Volume 1, into these classes of .NET. Here, the topics include networking, XML and reflection. The number of XML classes is less than for the others. But they give solid ability to read and write XML data. The XML functionality seems on a par with what is currently offered in Java 1.4 and 1.5.

The importance of the networking classes is because so much of our efforts revolve around the Internet these days. So you can find out how to make a request to a web server using http. Plus classes for credentialling and security. There is even a neat little IWebProxy interface, for getting to hosts using proxy servers.

Under the rubric of reflection, .NET also includes internationalisation [i18n] issues. They call it globalisation, which I think is basically the same thing. There are classes that encode culture-specific data, like calendars and languages. Microsoft has built out .NET with scads of this information. It's a global marketplace for your efforts, right? .NET lets you take advantage of this.

Like the first edition, the book goes beyond being a mere printing of man pages. Each class gets example code that may often be the simplest way to get a quick understanding of a common usage of that class. Plus the informal remarks help this understanding along.