Extreme Programming Adventures in C#

This is a hard-to-come-by book. I think it's especially useful for someone programmed for less than 10 years or not ever get trained by computer science. The book uses C# which I am very happy with, but it's more like "Extrme Programming Adventures" in any lanaguage. I learned a lot from the technique delivered by the author, ex. test,test,always write a test before coding (Don't be lazy,it'll bite u back sooner or later if you don't). I can't appreciate this more after three days of practicing that I feel more comfortable to continue my three and half year fluid dynamics project now. Before doing this, I do test but I always test in "kinda of" state. Check it out, see if you code in that state, lol. Futhermore, the way to write test for GUI application enlightens me too, 'cause I never actually write test for GUI and don't know how. If you have the same problem, the book has a solution for you. Personally, the nice thing about the book is that the way he wrote the book makes me think he's no better than me when he's coding :) XP is not about how to design and setup the project( which I thought what it was, maybe there's another book for this), but several ways that can help you to code with more confidence without being a master.

It's a pleasure to watch a master at work. It's human nature to enjoy identifying with experts, whether you're picking up tips or just validating your own experiences. If you're a golfer, you probably love to watch golf on TV. If you (as I do) build furniture in your spare time, you'd love Fine Woodworking magazine. And if you are (as I am) a developer using the Extreme Programming methodology, you'll love this book.In "Extreme Programming Adventures in C#", XP guru Ron Jeffries lets you pull up a chair next to him as he takes a small programming project from concept to delivery. Along the way, Ron learns the C# language, pair programs with several partners, makes mistakes, hurts his arm, and writes clean, well-factored code. In short, he acts like a real programmer with a real life that you'll be able to identify with easily. You'll see Test-Driven Design in practice, and watch as a complete customer-test tool is developed as an organic part of the project.The most amazing thing about this book is that Ron checks his ego at the door. He doesn't try to hide his mistakes, but instead celebrates them as learning opportunities. The review at the end of each chapter examines what went wrong and what went right. This book validated many of my own experiences in using the XP methodology. If you're interested in how XP and TDD work in the real world, buy it now.

I learned to program back in the dark ages before books came with CDs or websites where you could download the author's code. Back then, if you wanted the author's code, you typed it in from the book. I typed in the code from many wonderful books and I learned to code that way. As I typed, I was paying attention to the code, not just mindlessly hitting the keys. While this taught me what a great programmer's code looked like when it was done, it didn't teach me how that programmer arrived at the solution that was in the book. What I always wanted was to see the author's thought process as he arrived at the finished code presented in the book.With Ron Jeffries' "Extreme Programming Adventures in C#" I finally have that opportunity to watch over the shoulder of a great programmer and watch not only his code but, more importantly, how he thinks. I love that the author is willing to show his dead ends and false starts. And then how he recovers from them. The book is really language agnostic. It's in C# but the lessons are more about programming and thinking about programming than about a specific language. I highly recommend this to all programmers, not just C# programmers.

This is an excellent book - it does what I believe it was intended to do. The walk-through of a full project using the test driven approach is a very unique insight into this practice. You can read methodology books for weeks - but this book actually shows you how to apply the methodology. It gets a little terse at times, but is otherwise a technical book you can actually - read - and get lots out of. It's definately not a reference, but that's not the intention. It's also not built to provide source code to an XML Editor, it's designed to show you how the code was built over a lengthy amount of time to arrive at an XML Editor. These reviews should be on the content and intended goals of the book. Good job, Mr. Jeffries