Wrox - Beginning CSharp 3.0 An Introduction To Object Oriented Programming

Over the past 25 years I ’ ve written 15 books on various programming topics. You might wonder why so many . . . Didn ’ t I get it right the first time? Well, no, I didn ’ t . . . not really. When I wrote my first book over 25 years ago, object - oriented programming (OOP) was obscure at best and unknown to most. Like so many others, I had to go through the OOP learning process before I could appreciate what OOP was all about. I have a feeling that there are a lot of people out there who still feel that way.

Each time I teach a programming class, I learn new and better ways to explain things. When I look out across a classroom filled with students and it looks like a still - life painting, it ’ s time to back off, retool, and try a different approach to whatever concept it is I ’ m trying to teach. Every class I ’ ve taught has offered new perspectives on how I teach and how students learn. Changing my examples and the techniques I use to teach programming concepts is one of the reasons I came back to teaching after so many years away . . . I missed the learning experience.

A number of the books I wrote were concerned with languages other than C#, but that too provides for an enriching experience for me as an instructor. The strengths and weaknesses of a language can be appreciated only if you ’ ve grappled with some other less - than - perfect languages. The fact that programming languages continue to evolve supports the conclusion that I ’ m not the only one who is still learning. After all this time, the one thing that I have learned with absolute certainty is that whatever I know today will likely be out of date tomorrow.

Perhaps the real question you should be asking yourself is, Why should I buy this book instead of someone else ’ s book? Good question . . . and a really short answer won ’ t work. A number of factors come into play, but only one really makes a difference. I have absolutely no doubt that there are programmers out there who can write better code than I can. When I had my own software company, my lead programmer, Tim, could code circles around me. He was an amazing coder. But if you asked Tim to explain something, he fell back toward the end of the line. Indeed, there were times when I thought he fell off the planet.

The thing that makes this book different from many others is the fact that I ’ ve tried the techniques, examples, and approach to teaching the various programming concepts on literally thousands of students. I know what works and what doesn ’ t. I ’ ve suffered through many deer - in - the - headlights examples, refined and reworked them to the point where I can actually see some students have an epiphany during the class. So many authors today are, no doubt, brilliant coders, but they haven ’ t had to stumble through the bad examples and teaching methods that simply don ’ t work. What works for you, the writer, rarely works for everyone else. Writing good code does not necessarily equate to writing good books. Some charmed people are capable of both (I think P.J. Plauger, Jon Bentley, Brian Kernighan, and Steve McConnell are examples), but they are rare and far between. Alas, you ’ ve noticed I did not place myself on the list. However, what I may lack in coding skills is (I think) overcome by my teaching experience. Obviously, you ’ ll be the final judge.

I think you will find this book informative, clear in its examples, and perhaps even entertaining in its narrative. I hope you ’ ll give it a chance . . . I think you ’ ll enjoy the book. Even more important, however, is that you will come to appreciate all that object - oriented programming and C# can do for you.