Improve Your C# Programming Skills
“I was prompted to write this post because I was in Barnes and Noble this afternoon and stumbled on More Effective C#, which exactly the kind of book I can rarely find. I started paging through it, and I can safely say my mind was thoroughly blown by about page 20. This is a book that assumes you have Neo-like C# skillz and goes from there. I wish there were more of these.”
Deane of Gadgetopia wrote that comment yesterday about Bill Wagner’s More Effective C#. I could sit here and tell you how good the reviews are that this book is getting, but I won’t.
I met Bill at the 2008 PDC show in Los Angeles. He’s a real genuine guy, and I could tell that he genuinely tries to provide quality content for the readers of his programming books. This is also evident in the reviews he gives of other available titles on topics that are similar to his.
If you’re new to the C# programming language, Microsoft developed the language in conjunction with its popular .NET framework. Since then, it has become a standard in the programming world. C# is not the only programming language that is able to be used with the .NET framework, however. There are 44 others.
Wikipedia offers a nice description of C#’s intentions. “C# is intended to be a simple, modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. Anders Hejlsberg, the designer of Delphi, leads the team which is developing C#. It has an object-oriented syntax based on C++ and is heavily influenced by other programming languages such as Delphi and Java.”
I am by no means an expert programmer. When it comes to hard-coding, I dabble. Don’t get me wrong, I know HTML like the back of my hand, but HTML is not really programming. I also know some php, a bit of java, a little asp, and the syntax of other various web-based programming languages. Keeping that in mind, it was important for me to review the features available in More Effective C# to get a better handle on what it had to offer. Accordingly, here are the noted features of this book:
- Shows developers 49 specific, practical ways to improve their C# programming skills
- Focuses on features new to C# 3.0, including LINQ, generics, and multi-threading
- Helps developers avoid the common pitfalls that others have had to learn the hard way
In the tradition of the Effective series, More Effective C# will provide programmers already using C# with best practices to write C# components that are reusable and easily updated. Programmers will learn how to avoid the common pitfalls that others have had to learn through hard experience by navigating through these valuable tips and tricks.
More Effective C# covers new additions to the C# language as of Version 3.0. It discusses LINQ, Multi-threading, Generics, iterators, nullable types, partial classes, all following the Effective format: concentrating on how to use the new features, rather than being a description of how the new features work. Readers will learn how best to apply these features in their own development to create more robust software.
Leave your response!