C# Essentials (2nd Edition) (Paperback)

by Ben Albahari (Author), Peter Drayton (Author), Brad Merrill (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
If you want to learn Microsoft's new C# programming language quickly, you can perhaps do no better than C# Essentials, a compact and extremely intelligent guide.

While most of today's programming books seem to be trying to outdo one another in sheer page count, this one bucks the trend with an extremely concise--yet entirely thorough--treatment of C#. This is an efficiently packed, language-based guide that's perfect for those with some previous object-oriented programming experience. It covers all C# language keywords, with particular attention to class design constructs. Short code excerpts, rather than full-length programs, are used to illustrate every feature of the language, from basic design types to data types, class design constructs (including all the details of inheritance), and the basics of the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). You'll learn how to model classes correctly using the most advanced features (such as reflection and attributes) that help make C# particularly powerful and elegant.

Advanced topics include a guide to making Win32 API calls from within C#, new threading options, and how to interoperate with legacy DLLs and COM objects in C#. At just 200 pages, this text still manages to cover a lot of ground with the specifics of C#, and with many of the features that help give C# its personality as a programming language.

Admirably concise, yet filled with expert knowledge for exploiting both basic and advanced features, this title earns high marks as a tutorial for learning Microsoft's latest programming language. It's sure to be a useful choice for any experienced programmer tackling C# for the first time. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction and tutorial for C#
• The Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• A minimal program in C#
• Identifiers and variables
• Inheritance
• Classes and interfaces
• Arrays
• Enums
• Delegates
• Events
• Exception handling
• Attributes
• Unsafe code
• Programming with the built-in .NET Framework classes
• Math and string classes
• Collections
• Support for regular expressions
• I/O and networking classes
• Threading
• .NET assemblies and deployment issues
• Reflection
• Interoperability with COM and .NET
• Overview of .NET packages for common programming tasks (including collections, Web services, XML, and Web-based applications)
• Essential .NET tools
• References to C# keywords
• References and format specifiers

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

Review
'A good way of getting up to speed on CSHARP for object-oriented programmers.' Computer Shopper, Dec (HIT!) '...I found all the explanations very clear and concise. I don't think there was anything left unanswered... Priced at ?13.95 it's certainly cheap and doesn't take up half your shelf space as other massive volumes tend to. If you're at all interested in learning a great new Object-Oriented language, then I recommend you give this book a go. O'Reilly also have another book that gives the .NET Framework the same treatment, this may be a worthy edition so you can use Microsoft's new .NET technology to its full potential.' - Peter Waller, new@UK, December 2001 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 2nd edition (July 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596003153
• ISBN-13: 978-0596003159
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #237,560 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short and to the point, March 22, 2001

By	Seattle Doug (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: C# Essentials (Paperback)

The joy of O'Reilly books is that are concise. You can pick up this book and read it in two days and start writing C# code immediately. This book covers all of the major elements of C#, but without lots of handholding.

If you're a beginning developer, this will be a poor choice. However, if you you're a fairly experienced C++ developer, I would strongly recommend this book.

I've printed out the C# Language Reference. I know all the answers are in it somewhere, but it's nearly 300 pages of dense writing. Rather than wading through it, I paid $15 for this book and I'm now writing C# code steadily and easily. I refer back to this book for quick reference questions (what's the format for setting a property, what does a COM interop call look like etc.) and then go online or to the language spec for deeper questions.

If you want to get up to speed on C# quickly, this book should meet your needs well.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The essentials of C#, March 12, 2002

By A Customer

C# Essentials is perhaps the best, most compact introduction to the C# language that you can find. If you don't have much programming experience and want to get into .NET, I'd suggest finding another book. However, if you're a professional programmer or have some pretty good experience in C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, etc. you'll find this book very accessible and a good introduction to the C# language.

While the book has a total of five chapters, there are really only two chapters with any meat to them. Not to say the other three are worthless, they just don't have quite the depth of information contained in the other two.

Expect to learn everything you need to know about data types, conversions, access modifiers, interfaces, events and delegates, and even unsafe code (using pointers). The examples are short and to the point. You will probably want more detail or another example for some of the topics covered, but enough is presented to give you a good start.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Short and to the Point, March 17, 2006

By	Ray Burkholder (Bermuda) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cruising through book stores, I usually encounter the 800 page behemoths that 'teach you programming in 24 hours' or something similar. I suppose those are good for getting you programming with lots of examples.

However, I like to think I'm a pretty good programmer, having grown up with Pascal, C, and C++. I may be aging myself with that first one, but anyway.

I had thought C# was a toy language, ranking right up there with VB. That was until I encountered a powerful .NET financial development package out there on the 'net from SmartQuant. That started me thinking there must be something to this language. I started reading The C# Essentials on one my connections to SaharaBooks online.

Having a programming background, I was able to quickly grasp the basics of the language as they compared to what I already knew. The concepts of delegate functions and events took a while to wrap my head around, after being used to C++'s pointers and function passing. Once understanding the power of events, and how they manage multiple registrations as well as static and object based instantiations, I was sold.

However, I think C# loses it's power due to de-emphasizing the deconstructor and reverting to automated garbage collection. I can see the benefits, but I enjoyed the manual tuning I do with C++.

Well, having digressed to the language itself, now back to the book. The book covers the language itself, in what I think is a very fine balance. The examples are short, sweet and succinct in showing many of the fine points of the language specific it is covering.

I must admit though, that there are language features discussed in the book that do have examples, but still leave me wondering what they mean and how they fill in the big picture. I think they will fall into place as my experience grows, and I find scenarios where they start to make sense.

The book does not cover the .NET run-time library. That is best left to the 800 page reference behemoths, or simply the online reference library provided by the Integrated Development Environment.

I give the book two thumbs up. After a year of programming C#, it is still my primary quick reference on basic language idioms.