C# Primer Plus

Speaking as someone who is new both to programming and C#, I can honestly say this book is "the one" that is finally making all those lightbulbs go off in my head. Using real-life examples and throwing in a little humor for good measure, the author manages to make sense out of the "language" of programming. He gently guides you toward a greater understanding of how a program is constructed, how both the programmer and the computer think about the program that is constructed, and why it all works out in the end. He seems to presuppose the questions a novice like me will come up with and then offers clear and insightful answers. I am very pleased with the book and hope to see more titles from Michelsen.

This is one of three books that I purchased in order to learn C# and learn it fast. The other two are Robert Oberg's "Introduction to .Net Programming using C#" and Jesse Liberty's "Learn C#". This book really surprised me with how good it is. I think this is Klaus Michelsen's first book (I may be wrong) but this is an excellent book and it concentrates on the C# language. I am not one of those people who give 5-stars just because several other people gave it 5-stars. If you only buy 1 book to learn C#, I would highly recommend this book. As a book geared toward learning C#, you should follow up with a more advanced book on C#.

I just finished reading this book. Despite a number of typos, It's an excellent book. The authors explanations and examples are first rate. Important concepts are well emphasized, and often even linked together, as the author builds on and compares concepts in latter chapters using ones found earlier, while emphasizing important concepts.As it's a beginner book, it does have some significant coverage of very basic concepts, which some programmers may find tedious. And the extent of the coverage doesn't extend much beyond intermediate level. Most advanced topics are either not covered at all, like marshalling, interop, threading, and regular expressions, and others are only briefly touched on, like attributes and XML comments. What's more it doesn't delve deeply into the FCL, as nearly all the examples are Console apps. So since I need a complete tutorial of C# and .NET, I've had to complement this book with "Programming C#" and Richter's book on applied .NET. Nevertheless, I think this book provides a better tutorial of basic-intermediate C# concepts than you are likely to find anywhere else.

As the title suggests, this book focuses almost entirely on the C# language stopping only briefly to explain key elements of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and by extension the Common Type System (CTS).Where this book differs from many of the other titles out there is that it doesn't attempt to walk the reader through the .NET Framework at the same time. At the moment there are a number of books on the market that proclaim to teach C# but use it only as a tool to explore the framework.The target audience for C# Primer Plus is hard to classify; the book provides depth coverage of the C# language constructs and important parts of the CLR, yet this detail is punctuated by practical examples and discussion which should have the programming novice up to speed in no time.Much of the first two chapters are devoted to explaining introductory programming subjects such as Object-Orientated Programming, the value of design in the development process and conventional computing models. In my opinion, this is still valuable to even the most senior programmer as sometimes we forget the fundamentals of our trade.What really makes this book stand out is the widespread and strategic use of diagrams to provide visual context. Further, the book provides ample practical examples for all the material it covers. Klaus has an exceptional writing style which sadly only a few percent of the authors out there possess.In many ways this book reminds me of some of the older C++ books which focused key programming concepts and the core of the language and left discussion of the various libraries for the reference materials.It would be a real shame to see senior programmers overlook this title because of some of its novice material. It heartily recommend it as usable language reference for the experienced programmer and an educational tool for those just starting out.C# Primer Plus has earned a place on my bookshelf and I recommend it to those who want a quality language reference with good supporting material. Because of its introductory material it is also ideal as a educational tool.

I spent most of my Christmas holidays immersed in the pages of this superb C# book and was amazed by its clarity and attention to detail. Apart from being well written and well organized I particularly enjoyed the many inventive and well-crafted figures supporting the text.Keep in mind that if you are looking for a book about Visual Studio, ASP.NET or Windows Forms (or similar .NET stuff) this book is not for you. It dedicates all its one thousand pages fully to C#, relevant core parts of .NET, and important programming techniques. Even though this initially disappointed me a bit, I now appreciate the great depth this apparent deficiency allows Michelsen to engage in when he probes into the C# language. The book begins by explaining the very basics of computer programming, but because of its rock solid focus on the C# language it manages to span across the entire set of C# features and even provides a thorough and extremely clear treatment of its most advanced features (many of the advanced C# features are treated more extensively in C# Primer Plus than in a lot of the advanced C# books I have sifted through in the book shop)For example the two meticulously written chapters about inheritance don't just scratch the surface of this subject but made me more excited about programming than I ever thought possible. The case study found here (one of several case studies in the book) about a simple drawing program utilizing inheritance and polymorphism to implement its functionality was a real eye opener for me. If you are a beginning (C#) programmer and want a complete and clear cut introduction to this exciting new language, without being sidetracked by tons of .NET and Visual Studio stuff, you can't beat this book.