The Barnes & Noble Review
Java. Perl. VB. Whatever the language, developers have come to rely on O'Reilly's In a Nutshell guides for concise, expert tutorials combined with fast-access, reliable reference information. A programming language hasn't really come of age until there's an In a Nutshell for it -- and there's now an excellent one for Microsoft's C#.
C# hasn't been here long, but this is already the second C# book by Peter Drayton and Ben Albahari. Last year, they worked with the C# alpha to write Essential C#, one of the first (and best) hands-on introductions to C#. Albahari also wrote A Comparative Overview of C#, the Web's most widely cited comparison of C# with C, C++, and Java. Put simply, C# in a Nutshell is authoritative.
The authors start with an overview of the C# language itself: its goals, what makes it different, how it relates to the .NET Runtime, and the potential impact of Microsoft's decision to submit C# for ECMA standardization. In Part 2, they move on to the essentials of programming with C#: basic syntax, object-oriented techniques, the language's powerful unified type system, and more.
Since (in the short term at least) virtually all C# development is also .NET development, the authors present thorough coverage of .NET programming with C#, starting with a practical overview of the Framework Class Library. You'll find coverage of strings, collections, XML, networking, I/O, serialization, assemblies, reflection, custom attributes, memory management, threading, and more. There's also example-rich coverage of integrating with both native DLLs and COM components.
As with most In a Nutshell books, the second half offers a comprehensive reference. Coverage includes C# syntax, XML documentation tags, C# naming and coding conventions, and development tools. There's also a soup-to-nuts API quick-reference covering collections, reflection, serialization, XML, diagnostics, Microsoft.Win.32, and a whole lot more.
(Bill Camarda)
Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer with nearly 20 years' experience in helping technology companies deploy and market advanced software, computing, and networking products and services. He served for nearly ten years as vice president of a New Jersey-based marketing company, where he supervised a wide range of graphics and web design projects. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks For Dummies®, Second Edition.