Rating:  - good book and good service
the book was in very good condition while at the same time being cheap and not too heavy on my pocket and it was delivered to me in a timely manner...
Rating:  - Well Above Average
As far as 1300 page programming books go, this one is well above average. It covers both Visual Studio 2008 and the free Visual C# 2008 Express Edition using Express for most of the examples. C sharp is a great language if you've done any C, C++ or object oriented programming before. One can argue even if you have zero programming experience it's still the best overall language to learn. It's elegant, powerful, works for desktop apps, mobile apps, server apps and is multi-platform. C# is one of those rare things that Microsoft did well.
There's something here for everyone including C# language basics, object oriented programming theory, introduction to UML, Windows programming, web programming, databases, etc. It starts with an intro to C# in 7 chapters before introducing Object Oriented programming which is a different approach than many books. You can download the code at wrox.com.
THE GOOD: The authors manage to keep it readable and concise at the same time. There's not a lot of extra anecdotes and filler like you'll find in many beginning programming books. Most every sentence conveys something useful without being excessively dry. I haven't found many mistakes which seem all too common these days in similar books.
THE BAD: The authors sometimes mention concepts they haven't explained or even introduced yet. Often they point out when they're doing so (i.e. "don't worry about xxxx we'll explain later") but in many instances the reader is left wondering if he missed something earlier in the book only to find the answer in the next chapter. A total programming novice might find this book a bit intimidating as the authors do sometimes assume significant knowledge on behalf of the reader. For example the Object Oriented chapters dive right into UML and other confusing topics with little hand holding. But, personally, I think they did a good job of trying to include lots of useful information versus spending lots of pages on things that most readers will already know.
Rating: - Good book for a beginner
Let me start of by saying that C# was the very first foray into real programming for me. I've had experience with (X)HTML, Javascript, and bash scripts. After reading online about which language(s) to start with, I finally decided on C#.
After perusing the many books that Amazon has I found this book and decided to give it a whirl. I'm up to the chapters concerning Object Oriented Programming now and I feel I can say that this guide provides a good starting point for a real beginner. Each chapter provides an in depth look at each topic and isn't too hard to understand. All of the examples in the book have step-by-step analysis of the code and what it does. It even discusses in the first chapters how to get the tools (for free) to work in Visual C# and compile it (Microsoft Visual C# Express 2008). I'm also impressed with the breadth of topics covered in the later chapters. I can't say I'll use them all but it's nice to know I have access to that information if I need it.
The only quibble I have with this book is it's lack of code in response to the exercises at the end of each chapter. Granted most of the examples in the chapter would give you the knowledge necessary to complete the exercises but sometimes it's nice to see how a professional would do it. Their website does however provide the code for download for the examples in the chapter, but you're left on your own as far as the end-of-chapter exercises.
All in all I'd give this book a go if you've had no programming experience but would like to develop that skill.
Rating: - wrox Beginning C#
This is a super book for those of us who have never programmed, or who started programming using another language like Visual Basic. It has helpful articles, and lots of hints if one gets stuck. It's easy to read, and lacks the boreing quality of many text books.
Rating:  - Visual C# 2008 Review
It is a good book for beginner. But Don't expect much from it, It may not go into greater details and will leave you at mercy of MSDN.
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