Rating:  - Overwhelm a beginner like me
This was the first C# book I bought because of the course I took. Although it was recommended by my instructor, I felt overwhelmed when reading through the book. First, the layout of the explanation is not clear. Constantly, the tips of programming distracted my attention. It is disturbing to read the book when the tips are in the way. Also, the bold print on keywords bothers me to focus on the important concept. Second, the explanation itself didn't convey clearly how the program works. Therefore, it didn't help much for a beginner to do the exercise at the end of each chapter. Actually, I would like to have solutions of the exercises to familiarize the C# programming. Lastly, several times, the book would mention a good case to work on. However, it then quickly switched to other example. It seemed a waste of mentioning it but didn't get to the C# program of it. I wouldn't recommend a beginner to start from this book. It really made everything so complicated to absorb the information. However, the examples in the book are quite good and they work.
Rating:  - Helpful. Not perfect, but good enough!
This book had included some academic contents, plus code samples and practical guides to C# programming.
The text presentation does not look clear enough. I would give it 2 stars.
On the other hand, the code examples and audio explanation should be of great help to those who want to study C# and enhance C# knowledge. The presentation is like in training classroom. You do not need to pay tuition and then burn gas and time to get to the class room. That said, I would give it 6 stars.
On average 4 stars.
BTW, this book hardly touch remoting, which is important to enterprise development.
Rating: - Good book with some issues.
This book is huge... I mean... HUGE!!! There is an incredible amount of information. You will learn OOP, TCP/IP, multi-threading, some ADO.NET and a whole lot more. One of the problems is that since this book covers so many different topics, most of time you're really only scratching the surface. That isn't all bad however, as you will get a basic understanding of a lot of different subjects and from there you can pick up other books that delve deeper and you can go through them with more confidence. One other problem is that the book seems to get quite dry and after awhile it feels like a chore just to get through to the next chapter.
This book packs in loads of examples, quizes and excercises that force you to really learn each topic covered. Some excersises can actually get quite tough, which is good. If you can make it through this entire book and complete all the quizes, excercises and such, then you will come out a pretty good programmer.
Rating:  - Book Has Serious Problems
As a university instructor, I used this book until it was replaced. I would absolutely NOT recommend this material. Students regularly complained over and over again about this text (the level of complaint far higher than with other textbooks). As for myself, I found the content to be very sloppy, the overall organization is terrible, there are serious omissions in places, and generally the book is shamelessly commercial (in one chapter, the actual examples are simply a list of other books, with prices, which Deitel publishes -- a pathetic attempt at marketing).
To the average person with little knowledge of this material, on the surface I’m sure this book will appear to be adequate. Under the surface, this book has significant problems.
What I’ve seen happen over and over again is, a student reads through a section of the material, but is still confused and doesn’t grasp important concepts. Unfortunately, the student simply blames him or herself for not understanding this material. But it’s not the fault of the student. It’s the fault of the book authors, who do not present the information in a clear and well organized manner.
Rating:  - Good Book -- GREAT Company
The 5-star review is more for the Deitel publishing company than the book itself. That being said, I have been programming in C# for several weeks now, building complex custom applications, and I have yet to find a situation that the book did not either solve completely or get me started. It is an indespensable resource for learning and using C#.
But the true reason why anyone should buy this book (or any other Deitel book) is the level of service. Many people complain that Deitel books are expensive, and they are. They very often contain the same information as other books, so why would you pay more? Here is why...
After using their book for a while, I opened the companion CD to get some information from one of the Appendices that is not in the printed book, but only available on the CD. My CD was damaged and unusable. I sent an e-mail to Deitel's "catch-all" e-mail address (deitel@deitel.com), explaining my predicament. I was only half expecting to hear back from them, much less get a satisfactory resolution to my issue. Instead, I was contacted within the hour, just to let me know that they were handling my request, and I received another e-mail the next morning, letting me know that a replacement CD was already in the mail.
Finally, someone that appears to care about the consumers of their books past their checkbook.
I will be buying more Deitel books in the future.
|
