Introduction

In the spring of 2006, I had the privilege of taking a very early look at what would eventually become ASP.NET MVC. Scott Guthrie of Microsoft arranged a personal demo just for me backstage at the DevConnections conference in balmy Nice, France. At the time, I had just started playing with ASP.NET Web Forms and the Model-View-Presenter (MVP) pattern. I expected to see the usual great set of designers to automatically define models, controllers, and views. Instead, I was surprised to see a brand-new application model being worked out on top of the same ASP.NET runtime. (Note that what I saw at that time was at best a distant relative to what you know today as ASP.NET MVC, but the key facts were already visible.)

Not that getting rid of the postback model looked like a bad thing to me, but frankly the idea of changing the programming model quite significantly didn’t impress me that much. The combination of ASP.NET Web Forms and MVP seemed to me a more natural and less disruptive way to achieve separation of concerns and overall better quality code. Scott pointed me to a couple of team members that I pinged a few times during the summer for more information and newer builds. But nothing happened. Instead, in the summer of 2006 all the excitement being generated was for the upcoming ASP.NET AJAX Extensions (remember Atlas?). Overwhelmed by the AJAX bandwagon, I gravitated to this clear sentiment: that funky ASP.NET MVC thing was just a proof of concept, a good-for-fun project. So I removed it from my mind.

In October 2007, I was in Malaga, Spain, to make a presentation to a local user group. During a break, my friend Hadi Hariri asked my opinion about the just-released, first preview of

Introduction

Data-driven, or dynamic, programming is a series of techniques for modifying an application at runtime. You can accomplish this by storing screen definitions, business rules, and source code in a data source and then restoring them at runtime to alter the functionality of an application. The technology to perform data-driven programming encompasses many areas of software development. Languagespecific source code is used as well as the metadata from whatever RDBMS you are using for the back end. Data-driven development is used in code generation, for adding features to an installed application, and for altering the user interface and application response based on previously selected choices.This book explains the hows and whys of data-driven development. Here’s how it’s structured:

• Chapter 1 introduces the technology and explains the use of database metadata and its role in code generation.
• Chapter 2 explains Reflection, which is needed to examine the internals of a compiled assembly and manipulate objects at runtime.
• Chapter 3 shows how to compile .NET source code at runtime, thus altering its response completely.
• Chapters 4 , 5, and 6 explain the specifics of data-driven programming as it relates to WinForms, WebForms, and WPF development, respectively.
• Chapter 7 explains data-driven reports. It covers output to Excel, PDF, Crystal Reports, and SQL Server Reporting Services.
• Finally, Chapter 8 reviews optimal database design for data-driven applications.

Introduction

Microsoft Visual Basic 2010 is an important upgrade and enhancement of the popular Visual Basic programming language and compiler, a technology that enjoys an installed base of millions of programmers worldwide. Visual Basic 2010 is not a stand-alone product but a key component of Microsoft Visual Studio 2010—a comprehensive development system that allows you to create powerful applications for Windows, the Web, handheld devices, and a host of other environments. Whether you purchase one of the commercial editions of Visual Studio 2010 (described later in this Introduction) or you download Visual Basic 2010 Express for a free test-drive of the software, you are in for an exciting experience. The latest features of Visual Basic will increase your productivity and programming prowess, especially if you enjoy using and integrating information from databases, entertainment media, Web pages, and Web sites. In addition, an important benefit of learning Visual Basic and the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is that you can use many of the same tools to write programs for Microsoft Visual C++ 2010, Microsoft Visual C# 2010, Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2010, and other popular products.

Overview of C# 4.0 How-To

This book is very different from a typical “bible” approach to a topic. By structuring the book as a “how-to,” it presents the material by scenario in steps that are easily followed. Throughout, I have tried to keep the explanatory text to the minimum necessary and keep the focus on the code itself. Often, you will find comments embedded in the code to explain nonobvious bits.

This book is not strictly a language/library book. Besides covering the language features themselves, it dives into practical examples of application patterns, useful algorithms, and handy tips that are applicable in many situations.

Developers, both beginner and advanced, will find hundreds of useful topics in this book. Whether it’s a section on lesser-known C# operators, how to sort strings that contain numbers in them, or how to implement Undo, this book contains recipes that are useful in a wide variety of situations, regardless of skill level.

In short, this is the book I wish I had on my desk when I was first learning programming and C# as well as now, whenever I need a quick reference or reminder about how to do something.

INTRODUCTION

C# is a relatively new language that was unveiled to the world when Microsoft announced the first version of its .NET Framework in July 2000. Since then its popularity has rocketed, and it has arguably become the language of choice for both Windows and Web developers who use the .NET Framework. Part of the appeal of C# comes from its clear syntax, which derives from C/C++ but simplifies some things that have previously discouraged some programmers. Despite this simplification, C# has retained the power of C++, and there is now no reason not to move into C#. The language is not difficult and it’s a great one to learn elementary programming techniques with. This ease of learning, combined with the capabilities of the .NET Framework, make C# an excellent way to start your programming career. The latest release of C#, C# 4, which is included with version 4 of the .NET Framework, builds on the existing successes and adds even more attractive features. The latest release of Visual Studio (Visual Studio 2010), and the Express line of development tools (including Visual C# 2010 Express) also bring many tweaks and improvements to make your life easier and dramatically increase your productivity. This book is intended to teach you about all aspects of C# programming, from the language itself, through Windows and Web programming, to making use of data sources, and finally to some new and advanced techniques. You’ll also learn about the capabilities of Visual C# 2010 Express, Visual Web Developer 2010 Express, and Visual Studio 2010, and all the ways that these products can aid your application development.

The book is written in a friendly, mentor-style fashion, with each chapter building on previous ones, and every effort is made to ease you into advanced techniques painlessly. At no point will technical terms appear from nowhere to discourage you from continuing; every concept is introduced and discussed as required. Technical jargon is kept to a minimum; but where it is necessary, it too is properly defined and laid out in context.

The authors of this book are all experts in their field, and are all enthusiastic in their passion for both the C# language and the .NET Framework. Nowhere will you find a group of people better qualified to take you under their collective wing and nurture your understanding of C# from first principles to advanced techniques. Along with the fundamental knowledge it provides, this book is packed full of helpful hints, tips, exercises, and full-fledged example code (available for download at p2p.wrox.com) that you will find yourself returning to repeatedly as your career progresses.

We pass this knowledge on without begrudging it, and hope that you will be able to use it to become the best programmer you can be. Good luck, and all the best!