Rating: 
Summary: Great, Amazing Book
Review: .NET Framework has forced many of us to sit down and re-learn what we thought we already new. Concepts such as OOP to include Inheritance, Method Overloading, and etc. As a VB6 guru, there was not a big push to learn what we truly needed. However, this is not true within Microsoft's .NET technology. Therefore, if you truly want to start with a solid foundation learning OOP, I highly recommend purchasing this book. With the author's classroom approach, it captures your attention from chapter to chapter; and before you know it, you will have completed the book and awaiting his more advanced copy. If you want a ground level foundation, do not hesitate to include this in your inventory.
Rating:
Summary: Learn To Program With C# - Highly Recommended
Review: .NET Framework has forced many of us to sit down and re-learn what we thought we already new. Concepts such as OOP to include Inheritance, Method Overloading, and etc. As a VB6 guru, there was not a big push to learn what we truly needed. However, this is not true within Microsoft's .NET technology. Therefore, if you truly want to start with a solid foundation learning OOP, I highly recommend purchasing this book. With the author's classroom approach, it captures your attention from chapter to chapter; and before you know it, you will have completed the book and awaiting his more advanced copy. If you want a ground level foundation, do not hesitate to include this in your inventory.
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointed....did not have what I expected
Review: First of all, I do agree like most of the other reviews that Smiley is a good professor. He understands what it takes to make people learn any particular subject. Now comes my great disappointment. This is quoted from the horses mouth:"..we're going to concentrate on writing our first C# program...I then started Windows Notepad...Are you going to write this program using notepad?...Ward asked...Doesn't C# have an IDE?..if you own a copy of Visual Studio .NET, you can use the Visual Studio .NET IDE...Will be using the Visual Studio IDE to write our programs?...Mary asked...No, we wont, I answered" This was a bomb that was dropped on my foot. For some "educational" reason or because the IDE was too expensive to install on every students pc during the making of this book, we do not even get to see how the IDE looks in this book! I do agree that the first couple of programs can be done in notepad but, once you have a working knowledge of C#, one should grasp the IDE to familiarize yourself with the graphical environment. Besides, who would actually want to write a full fledge or even a small windows application using notepad? Doesn't the IDE make more sense, plus it's a great learning experience for those who are going to move on to programming in the real world. If there was anything that can be revised completely in this book, it would be that the IDE be included as part of the learning curve in this book. To sum everything up, if you are looking to learn the IDE (which I recommend from the beginning), do not buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Must book for the beginners
Review: I have yet to see a beginner's book on C# that even comes close to this one. It is amazing how hundreds of C# books out there misses a critical point that the reader may not understand the material very well unless it is explained in easy detail. This book does not miss its easy details. I have intermediate skillset in C# and I still found this book helpful because it provides a refreshing perspective on the fundamentals of C# programming. The book does not merely focus on how to program, but on what circumstances one should use certain features. This is something not every C# book will offer. If you read this book and still can't understand the basic of C#, then programming is not for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic book!
Review: I really liked this book. I've tried reading a few other books on Microsoft Java ... um, I mean C#, but this one really kept my interest. I enjoyed Smiley's style of writing, and I think that his teaching style is great. It's one of the very few computer books that I've actually managed to read cover-to-cover! Not that it's without its flaws, but they are so trivial (minor typos and capitalization errors, plotline inconsistencies, etc) in comparison to the rest of this work that they can be overlooked. I would recommend this to any beginning programmer or someone coming from a procedural language such as FORTRAN or COBOL. The sections on object orientation are very detailed and well-explained. It does not cover a GUI or other coding or debugging platform, which to me is a good thing. When I'm learning a new language, I want to know if I like it BEFORE I go out and spend money on it. Because of this book, I did buy the Visual C# platform and I want to learn how to use it. I think that's key: this book made me *want* to learn more about C#, made me *want* to program with it. I haven't felt this way very often since I graduated college almost 20 years ago. This is, however, rather a basic book. It doesn't get into any details about a GUI until the last few chapters. Of course, that may tend to keep people's minds on what's really important -- the code -- instead of the bells and whistles you can use to prettify a program. I think this is the best book on the market for learning C#, and I've looked through quite a few.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic book!
Review: I really liked this book. I've tried reading a few other books on Microsoft Java ... um, I mean C#, but this one really kept my interest. I enjoyed Smiley's style of writing, and I think that his teaching style is great. It's one of the very few computer books that I've actually managed to read cover-to-cover! Not that it's without its flaws, but they are so trivial (minor typos and capitalization errors, plotline inconsistencies, etc) in comparison to the rest of this work that they can be overlooked. I would recommend this to any beginning programmer or someone coming from a procedural language such as FORTRAN or COBOL. The sections on object orientation are very detailed and well-explained. It does not cover a GUI or other coding or debugging platform, which to me is a good thing. When I'm learning a new language, I want to know if I like it BEFORE I go out and spend money on it. Because of this book, I did buy the Visual C# platform and I want to learn how to use it. I think that's key: this book made me *want* to learn more about C#, made me *want* to program with it. I haven't felt this way very often since I graduated college almost 20 years ago. This is, however, rather a basic book. It doesn't get into any details about a GUI until the last few chapters. Of course, that may tend to keep people's minds on what's really important -- the code -- instead of the bells and whistles you can use to prettify a program. I think this is the best book on the market for learning C#, and I've looked through quite a few.
Rating:
Summary: A true beginners book.
Review: I took a chance on this book because it said that it was a "true beginners book". I had zero computer programming skills or knowledge. I knew some basic PC tasks, like using word, the internet and manipulating some pics I got off my camera, but again zero programming. Everyone I talked to recommened books that were supposed to be for the beginner but everyone of them required at least some elementary background with basic programming terms. I was very frustrated until I found John Smileys book. His unique classroom style writing approach let me feel apart of his class. What most impressed me was that nothing was taken for granted and nothing was presented or used in the examples without detailed and complete explinations. Most other books I came across program concepts that they dont explain until 3 chapters later. I was never lost or confused at any stage of my study with this book. Not only was it a complete teaching but the book doesnt requier you to purchase expensive software in order to learn C#. In fact his approach better prepares you to later learn Visual Studio because you now understand how the code is generated and can go in and code on your own if you wanted. The book built my understanding of C#, my vocabulary for future programming, it gave me confidence that the C# mountain could be conquered, and it left me with the ability to pick up any other C# book and learn.
Rating:
Summary: A true beginners book.
Review: I took a chance on this book because it said that it was a "true beginners book". I had zero computer programming skills or knowledge. I knew some basic PC tasks, like using word, the internet and manipulating some pics I got off my camera, but again zero programming. Everyone I talked to recommened books that were supposed to be for the beginner but everyone of them required at least some elementary background with basic programming terms. I was very frustrated until I found John Smileys book. His unique classroom style writing approach let me feel apart of his class. What most impressed me was that nothing was taken for granted and nothing was presented or used in the examples without detailed and complete explinations. Most other books I came across program concepts that they dont explain until 3 chapters later. I was never lost or confused at any stage of my study with this book. Not only was it a complete teaching but the book doesnt requier you to purchase expensive software in order to learn C#. In fact his approach better prepares you to later learn Visual Studio because you now understand how the code is generated and can go in and code on your own if you wanted. The book built my understanding of C#, my vocabulary for future programming, it gave me confidence that the C# mountain could be conquered, and it left me with the ability to pick up any other C# book and learn.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book to learn C#
Review: I'm using this book to teach C# at the University level and I find it to be an excellent book to teach students the new C# language, expecially those with no prior programming experience. I've used John Smiley's other books on programming languages in other classes I've taught, and believe me, it makes the instructor's job easy. The book is full of examples, and has an ongoing case study which my students found very useful. In addition, the author has a great support site for this (and all his books) at ...P>From my perspective, that's a good thing for three reasons. First, C# is a language that is in theory, Platform Independent. That means that the language is not designed to run on one specific Operating System such as Windows. In time there will be C# compilers that run on Unix, Linux, and Macs in addition to Windows. I think not 'marrying' the book to a specific Operating System or IDE is a good idea. Secondly, because the author doesn't use Visual Studio to teach C#, my students didn't have to purchase it--all they needed to do was to download the .Net framework from Microsoft--and that's free. Thirdly, as a computer science instructor, I can tell you I prefer my students not to use IDE's, at least in the beginning. It can take several weeks for a student to get comfortable with an IDE, and it detracts from what is really important, learning the language. IDE or not, this book will take you from no knowledge to a complete Windows program at the end. And if you are like my students, you'll find the journey to be fun and enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Best C# book for people with no programming experience
Review: If you have absolutely no programming experience, I highly recommend this book for starters. Or for those with little programming experience. The book is written in an entirely different way than the average programming book. The author brings the reader into an imaginary classroom, where dialog is exchanged between students and the teacher on how to program using C#. Being new to programming, .NET, and C# myself, this would be the first book I would get if your interested in learning C#. The book really doesn't use Visual Studio.NET for examples, but for the most part this isn't a big deal because the book is really focused on learning foundational topics in C#. If your looking for a good book for learning Visual Studio.NET, try Effective Visual Studio.NET by Wrox. If your looking for a good starter book on C# and ASP.NET(together) try Sams TY C# Web Programming in 21 Days.
| 
