Programming C#, Third Edition

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as I expected
Review: I select this book as my formal textbook. But after reading the part1, I have to say "It is not a great work". I think the author is a professional writer, but can not be entitled guru compared with the author of "The C Programming Language" or "Core java" who can present the core very systemeticaly and cystally clear.
Anyway, this book can be use as a warm-up for learning C#.

Rating:
Summary: Microsoft MVP Reviews Programming C#
Review: I have mixed feelings about this book. It wasn't until I had finished reading it when I began to understand why. The author is clearly very knowledgable in many areas. So much so that he appears bored with certain key topics and thus skims over them. On the other hand, more complex topics such Remoting, Streams, Marshaling, etc... were discussed thoroughly.

The opening sections on the .NET framework are light. If you are looking for background information on how this new runtime works in comparison to other environments, you'll need to look elsewhere. This 5 page section gives you the basics and that's about it.

The chapters on ADO.NET didn't have enough coverage and had a relatively small amount of code samples in comparison to other C# books. Most applications written in C# will utilize ADO.NET and developers need a lot more information than this to be successful.

Arrays, Collections, and Stacks are covered comprehensively to say the least. You'll get more than enough examples and tutorials to create complex methods. The discussion on the differences between Queues and Stacks was quite helpful.
The threading section was a bit weak. You'll get the standard explaination and examples found in just about any threading article on the web. The good 'ol counter example with two different threads. I would have enjoyed a detailed discussion on thread pooling especially with network requests.

If you are new to the object oriented approach to programming, the author does spend a good amount of time in this area. By the time you are finished with these chapters, you'll be able to create more complex implementations. You'll undoubtedly refer to this section many times as part of your design review for the do's and don'ts.

I got the most out of the chapters on Streams and Remoting. They contain a wide variety of detailed code samples that are extremely helpful. Especially the Streaming example of a Network Streaming Client/Server implementation. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the entertaining Captain Kirk reference during the explaination of marshaling across app domain boundries.

If you plan on writing applications that are dependent on networking remote objects and streams, then this would be a great book to pick up. It really clarified quite a few questions that I had on the subject and prepared me to create some interesting network based applications. However, if you really just need the nuts and bolts of C# and ADO.NET, there are better books out there.

(...)

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: Great for the new C# programmer. You really need to have an understanding of programming concepts to get the most out of this book though.

Very good examples of ADO.net and real-world applications.

Rating:
Summary: Practical, concise C# for intermediate and new developers
Review: Practical, concise C# for intermediate and new developers.
Liberty covers some essential topics needed for introduction to C#. The examples are great; hopefully there will be more examples with a scale of difficulty, and more tutorials for future revisions (reason for 4 out of 5 star). I believe, one needs to master this book and then you'll have a fair understanding of programming in C# and .NET.

Thank you Jesse,
-Andy

Rating:
Summary: Great for people moving from VB to C#
Review: I am an experienced VB programmer who needed to learn C# in a hurry. This book was fantastic. The title is misleading because it is not a reference book for "Programming C#". If you already have an overview of C# then do not get this book. If, however, you need to learn all the basic in's and out's of the language it would be hard to do better than this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book... Very easy to understand complicated concepts.
Review: I must say that I'm impressed with this book. I have read so far approx. 200 pages and Jesse explains the concepts with such clarity that even people with no OO programming experience will be able to understand the basics. Don't get me wrong. This is not a beginners book, but it does not use complicated terms to explain simple concepts. In some other programming books you would have to read the same line 4 times before you get the idea. That does not happen in this book.