|
| Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Language (Pro Developer) | 
 enlarge | Author: Donis Marshall
Publisher: Microsoft Press
Category: Book
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $2.92
You Save: $47.07 (94%)
New (30) Used (14) from $2.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 94120
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 704
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.9
Dimensions (in): 9 x 7.2 x 1.8
ISBN: 0735621810
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.133
EAN: 9780735621817
ASIN: 0735621810
Publication Date: February 22, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Get the in-depth reference and pragmatic, real-world insights you need to exploit the enhanced language features and core capabilities in Visual C# 2005. Programming expert Donis Marshall deftly builds your proficiency with classes, structs, and other fundamentals, and advances your expertise with more-advanced topics such as debugging, threading, and memory management. Combining incisive reference with hands-on coding examples and best practices, this CORE REFERENCE focuses on mastering the C# skills you need to build innovative solutions for smart clients and the Web.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 Language guide...NOT a programming reference February 18, 2006
56 out of 67 found this review helpful
The title of this book "The Language" is very appropriate: it offers a very in-depth description of the C# 2.0 language and also covers related topics such as MSIL, Visual Studio 2005 (overview only) and its debugger.
The book is very extensive and every topic (read: language element) is described in extreme detail. Unfortunately this is done using very abstract terms and the entire book looks like a list of syntax definitions. This makes it very tiring to read and the massive number of senseless lines ("Instance members are inexorably linked to an instance and are accessible from the point of instantiation.") and grammar errors compund this.
If you are looking for a very comprehensive language syntax description, I highly recommend this book. If you are looking for a reference guide to help you program...look further.
 Don't rely on the information in this book. July 23, 2006
54 out of 60 found this review helpful
This book is CRAWLING with errors in it. The Microsoft Knowledge Base doesn't even cover many of them, either. The errors aren't just typos either. I'll give some examples of why you shouldn't waste your money on this book:
* Page 54: "Volatile Fields"
"Locks are explained in Chapter 9, Threading".
Chapter 9 in the book is "Exception Handling", and nowhere in the book is Threading mentioned or given as a topic.
* The author discusses writing an equals() method for classes and states : "Objects that are equal should have the same hash code. Therefore, equality can be based on comparing hash codes."
This is so wrong it's not funny. Two completely different objects can have the same hashcode and still not be equal. What is he thinking?
* The author writes a paragraph in the book (page 93):
"Hash codes are recyclable. When a reference is garbage collected, the hash code is returned to the available pool. The hash code is then assignable to a future instance. For this reason, you should remove dead objects from any collections."
I do not know what he means by "recyclable" or "available pool", nor what a "dead" object is. I checked the chapter on collections and GetHashCode() is not mentioned anywhere.
* Page 95, code sample is incomplete. The author left it incomplete, yet uses the example (and discusses the details he left out to prove a point -- which happens to be wrong, too). He speaks about MemberwiseClone() and how it does a bit-wise copy of all the fields (including references). This means that a cloned object will be a shallow copy and still point to the same underlying objects for all of the references. Well, he then essentially says that assigning a new string to one of the references in the original object will also change the cloned object's string. This is absurd and I really think he needs to either go back to C# 101 or pay more attention to writing books because people are spending their hard earned money on this stuff.
I seriously doubt the author is incompetent. I just think it's a matter of carelessness. Either way, I wouldn't buy this book if you are looking for accuracy and good guidance. I recommend Jesse Liberty's book (O'Reilly) over this one, however, Jesse's is a bit dated.
Adequate but full or errors February 26, 2007
17 out of 18 found this review helpful
Like many other reviewers, I purchased this book alongside the MS Press 70-536 Training Kit. This book really can only be useful for an experienced C# developer who is looking to fill in any knowledge gaps concerning the language itself. Such a person would be able to spot the numerous errors and move past them without harm done. However, I could not, in good conscience, recommend this to anyone actually seeking to learn the language.
As an example, on page 21, the unary operators are described with examples for each. However, the postfix increment "++" and postfix decrement "--" operators have their examples swapped. Once again, someone already in the know wouldn't be too bothered by this and would figure it out immediately, but for others, it could result in quite a bit of confusion.
 Awesome Book! February 3, 2006
14 out of 18 found this review helpful
This book is great. I have been reading the chapters on Reflection and Debugging, and I'm amazed at the information that this book has over the other books that I've read.
I was looking for an author who could describe generics and anonymous methods, and provide meaningful examples, and Donis Marshal gave me exactly what I was looking for in this book.
I bought this book and several other C# 2.0 books, and what I found is that this book is the one that I contantly come back to. I hope to see more titles from this author.
 Excellent C# Reference for Experienced Developers June 22, 2006
14 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is the book I'll use when I need to know how something in C# works, in detail. 95% of what we do as developers doesn't require in-depth knowledge of the language we're using. But the 5% that does can be the most time consuming and painful. When I'm stuck, and I don't understand WHY C# is doing something a particular way that doesn't make sense to me, this is the book I'll be reaching for! Have I read the whole thing from beginning to end? No. This is the type of book you reach for when you're in trouble, and you have to know the inner workings of C#. It's the book that saves your bacon at 2am when you have a project due. My recommendation: read the debugging chapter first. Not 1 developer in 20 knows the debugger as well as they should. That section alone was worth the price of the book.
Several reviewers apparently felt that the book didn't provide them with a sufficiently simple path to learning C#. Unfortunately, they were not the core audience for this book. From the introduction, it states that this book "is for developers who want a comprehensive explanation of Visual C# 2005, or want to explore a specific aspect of the language." In other words, this book is for experienced developers with a need for detail. If you don't know C#, look elsewhere. If you're sharpening your existing C# skills, or migrating from C# 1.0 to 2.0, this is your book.
So, why 4 stars and not 5? Reference books rarely make 5 stars for me. In fact, I would rate my own reference book (Programming ADO.NET) at 4 stars. This is an excellent reference, and one you'll keep on hand. For me, 5 Stars are reserved for those technical books that you absolutely cannot put down. Those that fill you with energy, excitement and passion. Reference books rarely do that. This one is no exception. It won't convince you to drop everything else and spend your life becoming a C# junkie. Instead, it'll save your job when your stuck on that intractable problem and just can't seem to figure out why.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
