Essential .Net Volume 1: The Common Language Runtime

There are like a zillion CLR books out there and overall, it's not the type of subject that normally keeps you glued to it. When I got Jeffrey Richther's Microsoft .NET Framework book, I was convinced no one was going to outdo him. Well, it's a close call, but I think they are both Superb books by excellent authors. I've purchased Don's stuff before and really liked it. This book lived up to its expectations.I think his ability to communicate some of the more obscure areas of the CLR in a very clear matter is what makes this book shine. This book can be understood by anyone because of the writer's gift for writing...but that's not to say it's a novice's book. Wherever you are in the .NET learning curve, there's something for you in this book.If you really want to learn the CLR, this is a great place to start.

Don't let the first few chapters of this book fool you: this is a book for hardcore .NET developers. It shouldn't be the first book you buy about .NET, as it goes into incredible detail about the fundamentals of the .NET platform. For example, when you learn about using types on the platform, it's not just a pragmatic approach to writing code: it shows underneath how the system does what it does. This gives you a fuller view of the system, and lets some of the mystery disappear. The knowledge makes you a better "big picture" developer.Don thinks at a high level, and writes very concisely as a result. By any other author, this book might've been a 1400 page mammoth; I'm amazed at the valuable data he's packed into just over 400 pages.Some developers may the material in this book unattainable because of the concise and in-depth technical material. Those who do grok it will find it invaluable. This book was well worth the wait for me.

When Microsoft introduced COM to the development community, many developers became utterly confused. It was not uncommon for developers to say things like "What is COM?". In late 1997, Don Box taught all who read "Essential COM" the intricacies of COM. Don convinced many of us that COM really could be a better C++. Also in "Essential COM", Don distilled the "meat" of COM when he covered Intefaces, IUnkown, QueryInterface, Classes, Objects, and more. Well, Microsoft released the first version of .NET (place your own definition here) including the Common Language Runtime almost a year ago. In Don's latest book "Essential .NET, Volume 1: The Common Language Runtime", he does it again. Yes, Don, with the help of Chris Sells, has extrapolated the key parts of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) or what Don might call a better COM. Before I get into the meat of the review, I want to say that, in my opinion, this book is not for a beginning programmer and not necessarily even a beginning .NET programmer. If you are a beginning programmer and want an understandable, but not as deep, technical explanation of the CLR then I recommend you read "Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming" by Jeffrey Richter. If you are an experienced COM developer or you have spent some quality time programming in the .NET environment then I think this title ("Essential .NET, Volume 1: The Common Language Runtime") will be a great addition to your library. As the title ("The CLR as a Better COM") suggests, the first chapter takes a look at the origins of COM and provides the reader with the problem that the CLR is supposed to correct. This chapter is moderately useful to the experienced COM developer as it does set the intent, tone, and style of the chapters that follow. To the development newbie (who I wouldn't recommend read this book), this chapter will be less useful as the newbie is less concerned with where we came from and more concerned with they can live in the environment. I found the first chapter kind of fluffy. The second chapter, "Components", is where the reading gets good and meaty. When Don and Chris say "Components" they mean every little bit and byte that makes up the component. As a result, chapter two covers Modules, Assemblies, Public Keys, the CLR Loader, Resolving Names to Locations, and Versioning. It is in this chapter that, among other things, I learned that of the four assembly types the Module type is the only one that does not contain an assembly manifest. I loved the graphic illustrations in this chapter and the detailed description of what is *really* in an assembly. The third chapter, "Type Basics", covers all things type. The Common Type System (CTS) is another of the many acronyms introduced by .NET. The CTS is, essentially, what guarantees us that a String in Visual Basic .NET is a String in C#. Well, the String type can further be defined with all of the technical makeup of a Type in the CLR. Don and Chris bust open the Type shell and des

Excellent piece of work. Like Essential COM, Essential .NET is essential reading for a fundamental understanding of not just the hows but the whys of .NET. Box moves easily from high level explanations of the motivations behind key architectural/design issues (like how the CLR emerged as an answer to the shortcomings of COM and MTS), to lower level pragmatic nuts-and-bolts stuff (like just how exactly are assemblies located). Nice thick cover too to stand up to ongoing use as a reference.

I ordered this book 3 months ahead of the publish time. It arrived this morning and I just got some time to go through a few pages. It definitely worths the long waiting. I turned to the last chapter CLR Externals right after read the preface. It focuses on the boundary activities between CLR and the legacy world. And it turned out that this is the *ONLY* place I found so far that clearly demostrates such concepts like managed/unmanaged pointers, stack transition between managed/unmanged world, COM Interop, CLR Hosting ect. (Of course, there is always the spec, which is everything but human readable). Most other books only have a 100-feet above ground view of CLR. While Applied .NET Programming makes you stand right on the ground. Finally, with this one, you can dig underground and see what's going on there. And more important, why.