Beginning CSharp 2008 From Novice to Professional

The first computer programming book I read was entitled Programming Windows 3.0 by Charles Petzold. This was around the time when Microsoft Windows 3.0 (circa 1992) once and for all showed the industry that Microsoft was a company with a future. Writing code for Windows back then was complicated by many things: lack of documentation, 16-bit architecture, and the necessity of buying a compiler separate from the software development kit (SDK). Charles’s book tied everything together and solved the problem of how to write a program for Windows. Now the problems are quite the opposite: we have too much documentation, we have 64-bit architectures, and everything including the kitchen sink is thrown into a development environment. Now we need to figure out what we actually need. We have too many options too many ways to solve the same problem. What I am trying to do with this book is the same thing that Charles did for me when I first started out, and that was to help me figure out what I needed to write code.

This book is about explaining the C# programming language in the context of solving problems. C# has become a sophisticated programming language that can achieve many goals, but you are left wondering what techniques to use when. This book is here to answer your questions.

This book is not a reference to all of the features of the C# programming language. I don’t explain the esoteric C# features. I stick to the C# programming features that you will use day in and day out. That does not mean that you will be missing certain C# programming language constructs, because I have covered all of the major features.

To get the full benefit of this book, I suggest that you do the exercises at the end of the chapters. The answers are available on the Apress web site (http://www.apress.com), and you can cheat and not do the exercises, but I advise against that.

If you are a beginning programmer who has no clue about C#, and you read this book and do the exercises, I am almost entirely sure that you will be a solid and knowledgeable C# programmer by the end of the book. If that sounds like a big promise, well, yes it is. The chapter text is intended to get you acquainted with the C# programming language and how to apply its features. The exercises are intended to make sure you actually understand the C# programming language and its features.

The chapter exercises are challenging. They cannot be solved within a few minutes. In fact, when I did all of the exercises, it took me five working-hour days to do all of them! If you have any questions, such as, “So what was he trying to get at with that exercise?” I am available on Skype with the user ID christianhgross. Please don’t just ring me. First chat using text, and if necessary, we can have a voice conversation. Also, you can send e-mail to me at christianhgross@gmail.com.

Thanks and good luck.