C# for Java Developers

This was truely an amazing book, I've read many .NET books, all of which assume zero knowledge of programming, or very little. So when I skipped the first few chapters, or skipped them (Since I've been a Java Developer for several years), I missed valuable differences between Java and .NET.Be sure you do know your stuff in Java, or else this book will seem over your head. This is not a beginners book. But if you're a Java developer, or have similar programming experience, this book is 100% for you.My only quirk with this book, is that at times, it's more of a refrence/comparison, over how to use several key .NET features. And it seemed to jump around a little. So actually I'd probably rate this book a 4.75...but rounding up gives us a 5, which it pretty much deserves.I highly recomend this book out there for anyone who is NOT a beginner programmer, or comes from a Java background. This book is a MUST read for you.

The author does a good job of describing both the similarities and the differences of the Java 1.4 and .Net, C# languages, API's, without any percievable bias to either. The depth of coverage for both the language, API core's is very good. The depth of coverage for the enterprise topics, e.g., JDBC/ADO, Remoting, web services, XML, etc... is also very good.

This book does 3 things:Firstly, the book presents the spirit and syntax of the C# language. And the presentation is very focused - it's done against a backdrop of Java.Secondly, the authors do a flyby of the main areas of the .NET Framework Class Libraries. Again, the assumed reader's knowledge of Java motivates the discusion.Lastly, and most importantly, Java and C# are contrasted rationally. No hype. Just the facts as the authors see them. This is good stuff and useful too.If you're are an experienced Java developer, you will get a lot from this book. I still recommend to the Java folks that you also read up on the specialty areas, e.g. ADO.NET, Remoting, etc., if you will be working in those areas.

Before I found this book, I was rather lost. I was trying to learn C# and the framework using the docs that came with the .Net Framework installation and was only getting so far. I didn't feel like I was learning it comprehensively.Even though this book is large, it's easy to read, has example code throughout, and covers a lot of what I needed to know. It had a breadth I found lacking in other Java to .Net books. Unlike the other books I looked at, this one provides enough information so that you learn how to compile the example code using the free command-line compilers of the .Net Framework SDK rather than making you get Visual Studio.

I have purchased a few of the C# and .NET books for Java people,and this is the best. The feature that stands out for this bookis the great Java to C# class reference, so you can look upa Java class and find out which C# class does the same thing.