Introduction

This book has existed (in one form or another) since the first edition of C# and the .NET Platform was published in conjunction with the release of .NET 1.0 Beta 2, circa the summer of 2001. Since that point, I have been extremely happy and grateful to see that this text was very well received by the press and, most important, by readers. Over the years it was nominated as a Jolt Award finalist (I lost . . . crap!) and for the 2003 Referenceware Excellence Award in the programming book category (I won? Cool!).

Since that point, I have worked to keep the book current with each release of the .NET platform, including a limited printing of a Special Edition, which introduced the technologies of .NET 3.0 (Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Workflow Foundation) as well as offered previews of several forthcoming technologies, which we now know as LINQ.

The fourth edition of this text, which you hold in your hands, is a massive retelling of the previ-ous manuscript to account for all of the major changes that are found within .NET 3.5. Not only will you find numerous brand-new chapters, you will find many of the previous chapters have been expanded in great detail.

As with the earlier editions, this edition presents the C# programming language and .NET base class libraries using a friendly and approachable tone. I have never understood the need some technical authors have to spit out prose that reads more like a GRE vocabulary study guide than a readable book. As well, this new edition remains focused on providing you with the information you need to build software solutions today, rather than spending too much time examining esoteric details that few individuals will ever actually care about.