The first edition of this book was released at the 2001 Tech Ed conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Since that time, this text has been revised, tweaked, and enhanced to account for the changes found within each release of the .NET platform (1.1, 2.0, 3.0 and now 3.5).

The last version, .NET 3.0, was more of an augmentative release, essentially providing three new APIs: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF). As you would expect, coverage of the "W's" has been expanded a great deal in this version of the book from the previous Special Edition text.

Unlike .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5 provides dozens of new C# language features and .NET APIs. This edition of the book will walk you through all of this new material using the same readable approach as was found in previous editions. Rest assured, you'll find detailed coverage of Language Integrated Query (LINQ), the C# 2008 language changes (automatic properties, extension methods, anonymous types, etc.) and the numerous bells and whistles of Visual Studio 2008

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 62 Ratings

Excellent Book - a must buy. - 2009-10-15
Reviewer Rating:
I sometimes read peoples reviews and wonder what planet they come from.

Simply put, if you're an intermediate developer in C# and you buy this book, you will save yourself a lot of stress/heartache in the future.

I've read a couple of other C# at intermediate level and here's the rub: For myself, I personally try to gauge if the book is for me by looking at the first couple of chapters or so and speed read the content to gauge the authors quality. You can easily do this here because it will most likely cover aspects you already know and so you can make a call to its quality. I'll then skip to the meatier sections to see if the desireable content is there. Natuarally you'd assume the later chapter would be a natural progression from the earlier content.

What I've found to happen with most developer books is that they start off with clarity until about the 5th chapter then hit you with a tangental curve ball. It's as if the author got sick of authoring and got lazy with the explanation of things and also decides do add to the mix by deciding to gear things up a couple of levels. After checking the pages, to make sure none have dropped out!, I sometimes come to the conclusion that its probably because the author has the word 'professional' in the title and so feels the content should reflect something at least a 'difficult' level. I find this HUGELY frustrating and feel duped only to find myself usually reaching for MSDN and Google to further research the holes in the text. I believe there's a lot of developers who give up with these type of books at this stage and start to look elsewhere. The book becomes a coffee cup mat!

This book, however, explains its content with crystal clarity - and it's good quality crystal at that! It starts off at an easily understandable level, and ramps you up progressively through the chapters. A word to the wise: You are NEVER EVER going to be able to cover ALL the aspects of any section completely. This is true for ANY book. If you did that, every section would be a couple of books in their own right. The author has to make a call to what content the book must cover. Some things will be left out - period! I believe the author in this instance has got the balance perfect. Why do I believe that? Simple, because the bits you learn are totally used progressively throughout the book. That's why the book is so good. No ambiguity. No MSDN. No Google! The example classes used are as simple as possible - allowing you to concentrate totally on the points being put forward.

I gaurantee that if you read this book all the way through and take your time to understand its content (which is totally painless) you will have a quality foundation. It's true you can buy other books with more indepth content but these books will simply be more specialized and so cover a narrower subject framework.

Here's an example. Not many developers will question the quality of Jeff Ritchers 'C# via the CLR' - and rightly so in my opinion. But you'll not find much in there in terms of ContectBoundObjects for example. Whereas Don Boxes equally excellent book 'Essential Net Volume 1 The Common Language Runtime.' does. You see, they specialize in areas that they feel you should find interesting/need. They are both clearly aimed at the professional audience. But reading these books simply isn't a panacea that will convert to a professional developer. They are simply another step up on the professional ladder (albeit a quality step!) and offers an insite to about 1% of the .NET arena. That's why I believe that some developers incorrectly slate some books that don't deserve it. It is they who are at fault - not the author.

There is ONE chapter I would have liked to see more content on, and that was generics. But put into perspective, this is a mere blip.

If you're looking for a specific part of the .NET runtime, this book isn't for you.
If you're looking for a solid foundation spread across the .NET runtime one day you'll realise after a great deal of work that this book is worth its weight in gold and you were foolish for not buying it.

Fantastic C# Book, I highly recommend this book - 2009-08-26
Reviewer Rating:
This book goes into great detail on the core features of C# and then introduces the basics of a number of more advanced features. It's clearly written and easy to understand. You will probably find yourself skipping about in the book and hitting on the features that are important to you at the moment. Don't expect to become an expert on WCF or ADO.NET with this book. That's not what it's about. It will give you a good introduction to the more advanced topics that will allow you to easily move to a WCF or ADO.NET specific text without feeling overwhelmed. If you have no c# or .net experience, this probably is not the best book to start with. It skims over the basics fairly quickly. If you have a bit of experience, then this is the place to go.

Absolutely Superb - 2009-11-08
Reviewer Rating:
This book is worth every penny! Each .NET platform feature is explained clearly, with the right level of help to allow the reader to become productive in very short amount of time.

great book - 2009-09-12
Reviewer Rating:
good book - as expected. Didn't read more than 10 page so can't give comment on content. Sorry lazy guy

Brilliant Text - 2009-08-20
Reviewer Rating:
I am still reading this book, but it wonderfully describes in detail every aspect of C# and .NET without losing readability. I intended to simply use this text as a reference for my C# programming, however, I read the first couple chapters and now am unable to put it down. Every chapter I find an interesting detail that just crystallizes the concept for me. I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn C# with a strong programming background, or even if you just need a good C# reference.

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