Rating:  - Great reference book
If you're looking for a C# book, a book that would
explain the language, this is the one.
It goes in detail about many aspects of the language.
Rating: - Great C# book !
As the author points out in the introduction, if you're looking for Windows Forms or ASP.NET, then this book is NOT for you. However, if you're looking for a great table-side reference to C# that you'll refer to over and over, then this is definitely the book to buy. I was extremely impressed with the fact that the author teaches you everything about the language in a top-down approach ending up most times in the underlying MSIL in order to show you how a particular feature is implemented. Very nice work. I also liked the concept of showing key BCL classes that the author decided were integral to development (while technically not being part of the language). Definitely the right decision as a book on nothing but the language would not have been nearly as useful. Take it from someone who's read (or at least looked at) just about every .NET book on the market, this is the best C# book BY FAR.
As one reviewer already stated, buy this book, Prosise's BCL book and Richter's internals book and you've got it made in .NET development.
Rating: - Great for existing C and Java programmers!
Probably due to the language's infancy, most C# books dwell far too much on simple syntax. If you are already comfortable with C, C++, or Java, (and perhaps VB as well!) then most other books are just too lightweight. You need more in-depth information.
Enter "Inside C#, 2nd Edition." This book has great descriptions of the hows and whys, and also delves deeper to give you greater comprehension, while still being an entertaining book to read through.
The authors and contributors did a fantastic job, and the programming community is well served by such quality education.
Buy it; read it; put it to work for you.
Rating: - More great teaching from a master
Tom Archer has been training developers for more than ten years. He's written many books that have helped developers overcome the learning curve for C++, Java, and Web development. And Tom reached millions of developers as the Web master at Code Guru.
This book is a continuation of Tom's contribution to developers. If you need to learn C#, this is a great book for you. Tom walks you through explanations, and then gives you examples. I already know C#, but still picked up additional insights as I read this book--so even seasoned C# developers will benefit.
Among the field of C# and .NET titles, this one stands out as a 'Must Have'. You'll refer to it often, just as I did for years to my K&R book when I was a C programmer.
Rating: - Serious upgrade to an already very good book
As with any emerging technology, there's a tremendous amount of ambiguity and lack of knowledge surrounding the .NET platform. Just the other day, I read someone stating that it was not worth anyone's time to learn C# because everything is in the .NET BCL (Base Class Library). Despite this person's rather prominent place among .NET developers, I find this remark to be exceedingly silly and illogical. It's tantamount to stating that Visual C++ developers do not need to learn C++ because the MFC does everything for you! I would agree that the majority of your work writing .NET classes is going to be with the BCL. However, without a full understanding of the semantics of such language constructs as delegates, interfaces, events and even the basics syntax of defining classes and structs, defining and calling methods and using the various operators you're not going to be able to much with the BCL to begin with.
This all brings me to Tom Archer's Inside C#. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr Archer's first edition and still refer to it often. However, with the second edition he has made a tremendous leap in improving what was already a fine book. By adding chapters on such things as file streaming, string handling, regular expression and collection enumeration he has successfully taken this book from a very good book to one that no C# developer should be without. If you have any desire to be a productive .NET developer, this book is for you. Along with the aforementioned chapters, the chapters on COM interop, memory management and security are easily the best of *any* C# or .NET book that you'll find!
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