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Summary: Damn Fine Beginner's Book !!!
Review: If you're fairly new to programming like I am, and especially if you've tried other, drier technical volumes, you'll absolutely LOVE Professor Smiley's approach to the C# language. His gift of explaining technical material in down-to-earth, everyday terms makes this book worth at least twice what they're asking for it. By book's end, you'll have completed a respectable and fairly complex C# program, giving you a solid foundation from which to build more complex programs in the future. Plus, you'll learn a little bit about object oriented programming along the way. For the non-nerd beginner, I know of no better C# book on the market today. BUY IT NOW! (P.S. I am not John Smiley nor do I work for him or the publisher; but I am highly enthusiastic about well-written technical books like this one.)
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Summary: Engaging, Completely Wonderful C# Sacred Scroll
Review: John Smiley has written a wonderful guide to learning - from the absolute beginning how to program with C#. I believe C# skills will become more and more valuable as other platforms adopt its use and wished to learn programming basics with this language. As a Network Administrator, I have scripted, et cetera without a formal programming foundation. Wishing to pick this up and learn the new .Net platform, this book was a Godsend. So thrilled that as part of his summer job/allowance, my 11 year old son is now working through the Visual Basic .Net version and there is no argueing. He loves it as much as I did the C#.
Thanks so much! Now to find an Intermediate C#.
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Summary: Great C# Starter Book
Review: Learn to Program with C# has to be one of the best programming starter books to date. Not only does Mr. Smiley present it in a classroom style but shows you in depth, how to get your career started in C#. I highly recommend this book for anyone looking to get into the world of programming. Great buy, Great lessons and Great Teacher...............Thank you Mr. Smiley
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Summary: Best Beginner Book Series For Programming
Review: No other author teaches programming concepts like John Smiley. After struggling with many texts..I am pleased that I found his series to get started with. If you want to really learn C# programming fundamentals...get this book...you will not be sorry.
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Summary: Great for BEGINNERS
Review: Please note that this book is great for "BEGINNERS". I've been in the programming profession for 9 years. If you have never programmed before this book is for you. (However, if you have programmed before then you may want a more advanced book). One of the things I liked is chapter one - there is no programming but Smiley discusses the SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) which is necessary for a job / profession! I also like the style where Smiley writes as a "conversation" between students and professor (himself). This is good because some of the questions that are asked and mistakes that are performed by beginner students are mentioned and resolved in the book. Additionally, I enjoyed the program "project". Smiley takes you through an entire program from chapter 2 until the end. So you get to see the progression of the program as well as learning the concepts in an easy to follow manner. Again, for a "beginner" or for a C# introductory book this is good choice.
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Summary: Very well written, clear concise
Review: Sure, some may argue that the author's writing style is wordy, but he makes sure that the reader has a clear understanding of the topics he's discussing in C#. There are some topics mentioned in the first chapter that are not discussed; however, the author quickly replied to an email I sent stating that it had to be edited due to "length/size" constraints. This is probably one of the finest beginner programming books on the market that I would wholewheartedly suggest to anyone seeking to learn C#
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Summary: Excellent Book for beginning C#!
Review: This book is a must read for those who would like to take a class in C#, but don't have the time. I personally like Professor Smiley's style with all of the dialog and by including questions that all students may want to ask, but are afraid to while in a classroom setting. Also, I wrote the author about a program example, suggesting an improvement, and he responded with encouragement. The only drawback is his lack of including the full code to the final project, so that I may check to see if I missed anything or see any better ways of completing the grades project. I will certainly buy his book on VB.net and look forward to his book on intermediate C#.
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Summary: Great for both novices and midlevel programmers
Review: True to the title, "Learn to Program with C#" clearly introduces the basic principles of computer programming while teaching Microsoft's C# language. This book will be useful to both novice programmers and to programmers, like myself, with some experience in another language. In fact, my earlier experience is in Fortran, Basic and Visual Basic, which I initially learned in a pair of courses taught by the author, John Smiley, several years ago. In reading a review copy of his new book I recalled Smiley's unassuming teaching style that allows each student to build confidence while learning the fundamentals of the language. As a programmer, but without knowledge of any version of "C," I was able to breeze through the introductory chapters, while refreshing my knowledge of concepts such as the "systems development life cycle," which are important to consider before embarking on any programming project. In this book, John Smiley places the reader in a university classroom with himself as the first-person narrator and instructor. Throughout the book, we follow the development of an actual C# application as a "class project" case study. The classroom concept, with named male and female students who ask intelligent questions, is easy to relate to and follow, but is not at all simplistic. This narrative format, unusual for a technical book, works well to lead the reader through the issues that arise during development of a project. Smiley has a very easy-going tone and seemed to anticipate questions that I had regarding the specifics of C#. For me, the most interesting chapters are numbers six through nine in which I learned about methods, instantiable classes, controlling access to object data, and inheritance. I even enjoyed learning about "overloaded constructors," which would have previously seemed to be an arcane concept. All the topics that Smiley undertakes to teach in his book are clearly explained and fully illustrated with "screen shots" and sample code that build pieces of the application that runs through the book. With Learn to Program C#, I think that I learned enough to begin writing C# applications capable of prompting for user input, creating forms with textboxes and buttons, manipulating data, and creating reusable objects.
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