C# Class Design: Coding Effective Classes

This book is a great example of the quality literature one expects from Apress. It delves into topics covered in most books on C#, but with an eye strictly toward class design and functionality. The authors have done a great job and the book reads as if it was written by one voice instead of five. A must read for all beginners.

The book gets to the point and covers the details of the CLR and how classes are represented. The MSIL representations are very enlightening providing good insight into how the class will perform. The example source code from the website is helpful and offers a good place to experiment. I bought this in 2004 and the cover is worn and faded the pages are dogeared and from time to time I see other programmers digging through it. If anything would be a reference to the books value it would be the amount of wear it has compared to my other books.

Let me start by saying that I found this book to be fantastic. I would recommend this book to any intermediate programmer that's feeling a little stuck in where to go next. The book starts off with the basics, the same way that most C# programming books do. It starts with the difference between value types and reference types, but what I found as I read into the first chapter was that this book went way beyond any other that I have read. It has simple examples to differentiate between the two types but then has you view the IL for the examples and starts to explain why value types and reference types are handled differently. That was just the beginning. The Class Design Handbook takes you through short, easy to understand examples that enforce the goal of the book but then as in the first chapter it goes on to explain why things are done a certain way, why a good design my incorporate or avoid something and what is actually happening behind the scenes. The other aspect of the book that I've found to be exceptionally useful is chapter 6. Events and Delegates; this book contains the first concise explanation of the .NET event handling model that I've seen. It takes you through the code that .NET creates to represent a delegate class and through IL shows you what is really happening. This book sits on my desk at work and when I know I'll be writing C# at home, it travels with me. Simple explanations, easy to understand code examples and straight-forward text make this an excellent reference book, although I read it cover to cover (geek). I use this book especially during the design phase of any project and recommend that anyone that feels like they need a little boost in the learning department will enjoy this book.

With all due respect to another reviewer this book is not mis-titled. It is not a design pattern book but a class design book as the title correctly states. If you want a C# design pattern book they are out there but if you want a to-the-point handy reference for coding classes in C# this book is outstanding!

I was looking for a book that could clearly communicate best practices in developing with C#. This is the book I was looking for. I've been delighted with this book and it is one of the few in my stable that is getting the cover-to-cover treatment. An excellent book that will help make you a better C# programmer.