Visual C# 2005, A Developer's Notebook, O'Reilly
Microsoft .NET Framework, ASP.NET, Visual C# (CSharp, C Sharp, C-Sharp) Developer Training, Visual Studio
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C# Online.NET Book Review
Busy programmers and developers do not want to spend a lot of time poring over wordy books extolling the new features of C#. Neither do they want to cull the new stuff from an 1,100 page Visual C# reference manual. MSDN is fine for researching a particular feature you are using right now; but, it is not the most efficient or pleasureable way of learning about all the new features and how they work together. The ideal reader for this book is just such a busy developer who is already neck deep in Visual Studio .NET 2003 and C# 1.1.
This book is a concise, focused, short, "just the facts, Ma'am" introduction to the new features of C# 2.0 and Visual Studio .NET 2005. This is not a typical O'Reilly reference book. This book features plenty of screenshots and factual information but eschews both historical background and theory. It does not waste time going over the history of the Web or proselytizing for Extreme Programming (XP). The book is an incremental upgrade to your existing C# and VS skills covering only the delta between the old and new versions.
The first chapter of the book covers the new features of C# 2.0 including generics. The second chapter covers what's new or different in Visual Studio 2005. The third chapter demonstrates the new Windows application development features like ToolStrip. The fourth chapter covers new features for building and deploying Web applications including the ASP.NET 2.0 Framework. The final chapter covers the new .NET 2.0 data access controls and ADO.NET 2.0 changes.
Each notebook entry is in a crisp, no nonsense format:
- Feature name and description
- How do I do that? - explains how to do it (C# code or other method).
- What just happened? - explains how it occurred.
- What about… - covers common variations.
- Where can I learn more? -leads to further resources.
I must allude to the marketing hype in the book's "Developer's Notebook Series Notes" which sets very ambitious goals for the Series including real-world examples and insider developer notes. In fact, both the source code examples and the developer's margin notes in a handwritten font were fairly typical offerings. That said, the formatting, fonting, and other editorial decisions present the information in a very pleasing package.
The authors writing style is colloquial and direct. Jesse Liberty is, also, the author of the popular Programming C#.
All source code examples are in the C# language.
Bottom line
Visual C# 2005, A Developer's Notebook is an excellent primer on the new features of C# 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005.
Publisher's description
Microsoft's C# language has attracted millions to .NET. Now, to make development on this platform quicker and easier, C# 2.0 offers some key changes as part of Visual Studio 2005. Our unique "all lab, no lecture" guide offers 50 hands-on projects to explore each new feature. Learn what C# 2.0 can do for you now.
In the three years since Microsoft made C# available, there have been lots of tweaks to the language. That's because C# is not only essential for making .NET work, it's a big way for Microsoft to attract millions of Java, C and C++ developers to the platform. And C# has definitely made some inroads. Because of its popularity among developers, the language received standardization from ECMA International, making it possible to port C# applications to other platforms. To bolster its appeal, C# 2.0 has undergone some key changes as part of Visual Studio 2005 that will make development with .NET quicker and easier. That's precisely what Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook allows you to do. There are some great new features in C# and this unique "all lab, no lecture" guide covers them all with 50 hands-on projects. Each project explores a new feature, with emphasis on changes that increase productivity, simplify programming tasks, and add functionality to applications. C#'s component-based design combines the productivity of Microsoft's popular Visual Basic with the raw power of C++ for web-based applications. Many reviewers note a similarity between C# and Java--in fact, a new feature that took the Java development team five years to incorporate into Java is now available in C# 2.0. Called "generics", this feature enables developers to reuse and customize their existing code, so they can dramatically cut down the time it takes to develop new applications. Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook is full of no-nonsense code without the usual page-filling commentary. You'll find suggestions for further experimentation, links to on-line documentation, plus practical notes and warnings. The book also tells developers how to acquire, install and configure Visual Studio 2005. Are you a coder to the core? Learn what C# 2.0 can do for you now.
About the author(s)
Jesse Liberty, Microsoft .NET MVP, is the best-selling author of O'Reilly Media's Programming ASP.NET, Programming C#, Programming VB2005 and over a dozen other books on web and object-oriented programming. He is president of Liberty Associates, Inc. where he provides contract programming, consulting and on-site training in .NET.
Jesse is a frequent contributor to O'Reilly Network websites as well as many industry publications and has spoken at numerous industry events. He is a former Distinguished Software Engineer at AT&T and Vice President for technology development at CitiBank.
Table of Contents (abbreviated)
Chapter 1. C# 2.0
Chapter 2. Visual Studio 2005
- Create a Type-Safe List Using a Generic Collection
- Create Your Own Generic Collection
- Implement the Collection Interfaces
- Enumerate Using Generic Iterators
- Implement GetEnumerator with Complex Data Structures
- Simplify Your Code with Anonymous Methods
- Hide Designer Code with Partial Types
- Create Static Classes
- Express Null Values with Nullable Types
- Access Objects in the Global Namespace
- Limit Access Within Properties
- Gain Flexibility with Delegate Covariance and Contravariance
Chapter 3. Windows Applications
- Configure and Save Your Developer Environment
- Configure Your Application
- Make the Editor Work for You
- Use Refactoring to Speed Revision of Your Code
- Use Code Snippets to Save Typing
- Examine Objects While Debugging Them
- Visualize XML Data
- Diagnose Exceptions
Chapter 4. Web Applications
- Add Tool Strips to Your Application
- Allow Valid Input Only
- Create Auto-Complete Text Boxes
- Play Sounds
- Create Split Windows
- Create Data-Driven Forms
- Create Safe Asynchronous Tasks
- Put the Web in a Window
- Enable One-Click Deployment
Chapter 5. Data
- Develop Web Apps Without IIS
- Provide Forms-Based Security Without Code
- Add Roles to ASP.NET Accounts
- Create Personalized Web Sites
- Personalize with Complex Types
- Add Anonymous Personalization to Your Site
- Let Users Personalize Your Site with Themes
- Unify Your Look and Feel with Master Pages
- Bind to Data Without Writing Code
- Create Detail Pages
- Create Master Detail Records
- Get Database Statistics
- Batch Updates to Improve Performance
- Bind to an XmlDataSource Control
- Improve XML Manipulation with XPathDocument
- Select Within XPathDocument Using XPath
