Book Review: Illustrated C# 2005
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I own a lot of .NET books, including about 10 C# texts. What sets Illustrated C# 2005 apart is that it reads as if I were watching a professor draw on the chalkboard in class. That is the best analogy I can think of. It is hard to find a page without some type of flow chart, code snippet or diagram on it. This is a very visual book. It is a fantastic text for anyone new to the C# language. If you like to learn by seeing then Illustrated C# 2005 is probably the book for you.
This book is geared toward C# beginners or those who prefer a more "visual" approach to learning. However, with that said, this book is a handy reference in any C# library because of the thoroughness in which it covers its topics. |
For example the subject of Classes spans four chapters. It does a better job of explaining objects than my first semester C# college textbook. And there is no filler on these pages. The diagrams are very compact. I love it when publishers print an honest page worth. Nice!
A few advanced topics such as threading are not covered. That is probably a good thing as cramming every bit of C# knowledge into this book would be overloading the user. Not pun intended :)
Several parts of this book really stand out. It has a great explanation of a computer system’s “stack” and “heap”. A lot of us know what these are or have read something about them. For me, the diagrams really helped to clarify how a program uses the stack and heap while running. And that section has a nice segue into value types and reference types.
Another chapter I like is the one on Generics. Generics are a way to apply a class' actions to any "type". They allow you to add an additional layer of abstraction so that you can more easily reuse the code you have written. The Generics chapters is very well written with several nice visual examples. The chapter on Arrays is yet another great example. Most of us who have learned (or tried to learn) arrays know that it is easier to grasp a multidimensional concept when you can see it! There are lots of illustrations in the Arrays chapter.
The last chapter "Other Topics" contains discussion of the StringBuilder class, parsing strings to data values, nullable types, method Main, code domination and nested types. I have noted each chapters approximate page count in parenthesis.
CHAPTERS
- C# and the .NET Framework (13)
- Overview of C# Programming (14)
- Types, Storage and Variables (13)
- Classes: The Basics (15)
- Methods (32)
- More About Classes (40)
- Classes and Inheritance (30)
- Expressions and Operators (35)
- Statements (30)
- Namespaces and Assemblies (25)
- Exceptions (15)
- Structs (8)
- Enumerations (10)
- Arrays (25)
- Delegates (15)
- Events (15)
- Interfaces (22)
- Conversions (30)
- Generics (25)
- Enumerations and Iterators (22)
- Attributes (18)
- Processor Directives (10)
- Other Topics (25)