Murach's C#

Rating:
Summary: Confidently recommended as one of the very best resources
Review: Computer software experts Joel Murach and Doug Lowe collaborate in Murach's C# in order to provide their readers with a superbly organized and thoroughly "user friendly', 750-page course on using C# programming. Readers will learn how to utilize C# and Visual Studio to design, code, and test Windows applications; handle dates, strings, arrays, loops, and collections; use structured exception handling; validate user input to prevent common exceptions; the use of object-oriented programming in considerable depth, an d so much more. Of special note is the five-chapter section dedicated to database processing using ADO.NET. Enhanced with model applications, end-of-chapter exercises; and a "paired pages" format; Murach's C# is confidently recommended as one of the very best resource and instructional manuals on C# available today.

Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: Computer software experts Joel Murach and Doug Lowe collaborate in Murach's C# in order to provide their readers with a superbly organized and thoroughly "user friendly', 750-page course on using C# programming. Readers will learn how to utilize C# and Visual Studio to design, code, and test Windows applications; handle dates, strings, arrays, loops, and collections; use structured exception handling; validate user input to prevent common exceptions; the use of object-oriented programming in considerable depth, an d so much more. Of special note is the five-chapter section dedicated to database processing using ADO.NET. Enhanced with model applications, end-of-chapter exercises; and a "paired pages" format; Murach's C# is confidently recommended as one of the very best resource and instructional manuals on C# available today.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Book
Review: I bought this book because I liked the Murach's ASP.NET book. This was was a huge disappointment. I found their coverage of .NET concepts such as delegates and interfaces to be very weak. Their ADO.NET examples were overly simplistic. Interesting enough this book is almost a complete rehashing of their VB.NET book, almost chapter by chapter with exact same code and examples, modified of course with the different language syntax. Plus they extend this extremely simple example of an invoice application way past it's utility. I feel this is just being lazy and money grubbing. One book with code samples for VB.NET and C# at the same price would have been better for the customer. The book is poorly edited as well, referring to PERL as Pearl, etc.

Rating:
Summary: Great C# Book
Review: I found the real-world examples and exercises really helped me learn the .NET OOP concepts such as Inheritance, Abstract Classes, and Polymorphism. This book did a much better job of explaining these concepts than other .NET books.

I was a bit cynical at the start of the paired pages concept where the detailed explanation of a concept is on the left page and the summary or graphical representation of the concept is on the right page. It seems a bit repetitious at first, but then I find myself remembering the concepts much easier this way. It's something that no other C# book has.

After reading this book, I feel very confident using classes in my C# projects. Before I was very wary of fooling around with object-oriented design.

The best part of the book was the examples of using business classes within a database project. I was able to put the OOP concepts into practice with the sample applications and exercises. Where this book beats the others is integrating these concepts into real-world situations that most programmers can identify with, instead of giving examples of ticks, fleas, widgets, etc.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to get to an intermediate level in C# quickly.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent beginner's book to learn C#
Review: I make no secret of being a fan of Murach books. This is the 4th Murach book I have read and the best so far. Murach books have a distinctive feel about them because of the way they are layed out. Every left hand page is a narrative and every right hand page contains diagrams and bullet points relating to the
narrative. This is a format that works for me, especially in the more involved chapters where the narrative can be read and then the important points revisited on the facing page. These bullet points are also useful for using the book for reference in the weeks and months after initially reading it.

The book follows a fairly conventional layout by splitting itself into sections and each section containing a number of associated chapters. Each chapter starts with a brief introduction and then list of topics covered and the page number the topic starts on. At the end of the chapter there is a short perspective paragraph and bullet points summary of what was covered in the chapter, a list of terms introduced in the chapter and some exercises to perform.

The book uses the Microsoft C# IDE v7.1 as the development environment (but nearly all examples will work with v7.0) and MSDE 2000 as the database. The book contains a brief overview on how to install Visual Studio, MSDE, download the source files and attach the database used by the source files to MSDE. There are 7 chapters available for free viewing.

Pros: The space in margins for making notes, the print is clear and there are plenty of diagrams and figures to supplement the text, the format of the book with regard to the left right page combinations, the information in the book is accurate with the few errors being highlighted on the publisher's web site, as applications are developed throughout the book the additional code is clearly highlighted making it easy to pick up on the additions, concepts are introduced in a logical and simplified manner being added to as the book progresses.

Cons: All examples are done using only the Visual Studio (C#) .NET IDE

Conclusion
This book is definitely aimed at the complete newcomer to C#. No previous knowledge of the C#, te Visual Studio IDE nor databases is required. The book will give you a good grounding in the basics of C# but will leave you wanting more, not through any fault of the book but simply because the basic concepts of C# are covered in such detail that there simply isn't enough room in a book of this size to cover more advanced topics. I am certainly hoping for a murach's advanced C# book.

If I had to sum up this book the term I would use is Clear and Concise. The authors very rarely labour any points and move on at a brisk but understandable pace. The accolade I can award to the authors is that after 20 years of trying and failing to find any enjoyment in programming in C this book has finally
won me over and I have already had to catch myself typing C# syntax into my VB.NET projects.A postive addition to my bookcase.

Rating:
Summary: Murach Makes Good on Their Promise Once Again!
Review: I own three other Murach books now (Murach's Beginning Visual Basic .Net, VB.Net Database Programming, and ASP.Net Web Programming with VB.Net) and have found them all to be excellent initial learning tools and post learning reference books. All of the books are well written, laid out in a thoughtful manner which makes it easy to learn and easier to use as a reference. Murach calls this layout "paired pages" which simply means putting the explanation of the concept on the one page with the execution or examples of the concept on the opposite facing page. I was nervous about moving from VB.Net to C# before reading this book, but since reading the book I have quickly moved from intimidated to making C# my language of choice. The fact that this process took me only three days using this book should speak volumes about how effective it is as both a learning tool and reference.
The C# book covers the same basic items that the Murach VB.Net book covers, but after the basics it takes a divergent path. The VB.Net book included only the basic information on database programming where the C# book goes in to how to work with data by designing your own classes. For VB.Net developers that topic was covered in Murach's database programming book. The VB.Net book also had a basic over view of ASP.Net coding and web services using VB.Net the C# book took up that space in the book with the extra exploration of database programming, a longer section on working with XML files and some information on working with binary files.

My level of programming knowledge is not what I would call extensive, but I am no longer a beginner as I was with the first Murach book. I don't have any background in C, C++ or Java programming though so the style of C# programming is totally new to me.

In order to write this review I am revisiting several pieces of code that I have written in actual business applications. To be honest I feel that some material is not covered in enough depth. The information for String.Format() was incomplete and left out the R or r and X or x format specifiers. These two specifiers aren't commonly used, but I feel that beginning level books should make readers aware of their existence even if they are not covered in depth. Absent as well was any information on using checked to specifically check and catch overflow errors; example:

try
{
long d = checked((long)Convert.ToInt64(s));
lblPlayerUID.Text = String.Format("Q$, d);
}
catch (System.OverflowException exception)
{
lblPlayerUID.Text = exception.ToString();
btnSubmit.Enabled = false;
}

The book does an excellent job of showing you how to connect to databases using the IDE to create connections, adapters and datasets for you or for building all of those objects in code. It even goes through making a class for all of you data retrieval and modifications. In my opinion the extra database material is fantastic since most business applications will make use of some database component. Writing a database class cuts down on the amount of code one has to write and makes the code much more manageable.
The book also does an excellent job of covering the object oriented programming concepts with two chapters devoted to building and using classes including tips on how to use XML to document them. It also includes a full chapter on inheritance and another on interfaces, structures, and class libraries.

In summary the book makes good on its promise of being "the C# book you'd wish you'd bought first". It is written in the same excellent style that gives you code snippets and explanations on the way to building a complete application and then gives you the complete code for that application at the end of each chapter. It is the perfect blend of teaching text and reference text. It uses the Visual Studio IDE unlike many books that seem to imply that using the tool makes you less of a "real" developer or include it as an afterthought. The book covered OOP better than any book that I have used previously and explored classes beyond anything I had seen. Despite the depth in this area the material was written in a clear understandable manner that made learning the concepts easy. The practice exercises included in the book server to reinforce what you have been taught while making you apply those same concepts. I used Murach books to teach myself VB.Net, ASP.Net and Database Programming using VB.Net and their C# book is exceeding my expectations in that area as well. I only hope that they produce an ASP.Net

Rating:
Summary: The Best
Review: I teach Microsoft Courses in all the .Net technologies. The Microsoft books are excellent reference books but poor books to learn by. Murachs book on C# Covers everything you need. Their chapter on arrays is much clearer than any I have seen and they specifically mention the built in sortedlist, queue, and other collections found in C#.

I give this book my unequivocal recomendation.

-An MCT

Rating:
Summary: This one stays on my bookshelf.
Review: Murach continues using the "paired pages" format. How-to on the left page and examples on the right. This style contributes to the effectivness of the learning process. Databases, classes, dates, strings, arrays, collections, and Windows forms are but a few of the items covered in this book. Murach's C# (.Net Developer) is a great learning and reference book.


Rating:
Summary: Good intro to C#
Review: One of the few really good introductions to C# syntax. The book is an excellent foundation. The examples are straight forward and I had no problems running them. The paired page format works really well especially when reviewing.

Rating:
Summary: Murach's C# is a great place to begin learning C#
Review: The tag line of Murach's C# is "The C# book you'll wish you'd bought first." That was certainly true for me. I decided to learn an Object Oriented (OO) programming language just for the fun of it. After purchasing another book and struggling through over 200 pages of worthless information, I admitted I had made a mistake. Murach's C# certainly was the book I should have bought in the first place. There are at least six reasons for this.

First, the quality of the writing is first rate. Murach and Lowe are no strangers to the English language. You can hardly say that about many authors in this field. The sentence structure is clean, descriptive, and short. They do not waste space with cute diversions, but present each concept as a tight paragraph. They understand the use of the topic sentence.

Closely related to the first point is the layout of the book. The text of a chapter is found on the even numbered pages with a clear example on the facing odd pages. For example on page 6 you find an explanation of Windows forms and Web forms. On page 7 is Figure 1-2 an example of a Windows form and a Web form. When they get into the coding examples the left hand text fully describes the example code found on the opposite page. Sometimes they must depart from this style when the example runs longer than a single page, but happily this is not often.

The third reason is the quality of these examples. They are lifted straight from real life business applications. Now I must admit that my interest lies closer to accounting systems then systems programming so I could be biased in my opinion, but I think the authors made a wise decision here. Almost everyone can relate on an intuitive level to making a purchase. Therefore, examples from inventory and customer order entry can be meaningful to any reader. Not everyone can relate to a security login example as one book used. In addition, the order entry example runs consistently through the entire book. They do not jump from examples of a deck of cards when they are talking about enumerations, to cats and dogs when they discuss classes. By the time you reach the midpoint of the book, you can build a fairly realistic, if small, order entry system. By the end you can build one for a fairly large firm.

C# is a powerful, large, and complex system. It is far more than just a language. The book does not attempt to show you everything you could do with C#. Its focus is business applications built on a database foundation. Murach goes into the details of how ADO.NET is used to make C# work in concert with SQL Server. You do not need access to SQL Server to develop these applications because the book gives you instructions on how to download and implement the free personal edition of SQL that Microsoft makes available to users of Visual Studio. You will need Visual Studio running on your computer if you are going to make effective use of this book.

The fifth reason is teaching style. They start with a meaningful division of the book into 26 chapters. This would be an excellent text for a two semester course on an introduction to programming at the college level. Each chapter lays out its objectives for the unit right up front. In fact each chapter starts with a table of contents. Every topic is presented using the left hand page as described above. The examples, on the right, flow naturally from the text. The chapters end with a topic called Perspective. It starts with a paragraph or two stating what the chapter was trying to accomplish. Then there is a chapter summary presented as a series of dot points. This is followed by a list of terms that were developed in the chapter. Next, is a topic called Objectives explaining what the reader should be able to do now. And finally are a series of Exercises where the student develops his business application.

The last reason why I think this is an excellent book is that it accomplished my objective. It taught me OO programming. This is not a trivial task. OO programming is both complex and comprehensive. If you are new to this field concepts like polymorphism, encapsulation, and inheritance can be daunting for the novice. Murach's C# allows you to master all of these and allows you to write meaningful programs in the language. That is not to say you are an expert after finishing the book, but you certainly are a journeyman programmer.