Rating:  - Chatty, Witty Style that Teaches Several Lessons
First, what this is not:
1. This is not a textbook on eXtreme Programming
2. This is not a textbook on C#
3. This is not a textbook on .NET
This book is, instead, a narrative trip through developing a software project using the techniques of eXtreme Programming, writing in the C# langauage, in an effort to learn the .NET environment.
Ron Jeffries has been a leading advocate of (if not the founder of) the eXtreme Programming concept. Rather than talk more about eXtreme Programming itself (he has several books on eXtreme Programming listed on Amazon) he is using a new format in this book to get away from the heavy tutorial/lecture approach used in the other books.
He, pair programming with Chet Hendrickson some of the time, first goes out and buys some C# text books. The first step is to learn a bit about C# so he starts working on some of the examples -- I was glad to see that the first attempts (like most of my own) didn't work, and he got a not very helpful diagnostic -- this sounds like my learning a new language. Then as he says, "I fumbled around in Visual Studio a fair amount." Yup, I understand. A few dozen pages later, "Well, it almost worked, but it didn't." Been there, done that. Another few dozen pages, "Found a bug, Write a Test. But we don't know how to test that particular bug."
I suspect from this you get the idea about this book. It's got a friendly, chatty, open writing style and along the way passes along some pretty deep messages about the subjects of XP, C# and XP. I like the style, it may or may not be your cup of tea.
Rating: - Really a good book for programmer of all levels
If you want to learn How C# works, just to buy another book about the syntax. But if you want to lear how to program, especially how to program with intention. I strongly recommend you to buy this book. It is the right book that a master programmer teaches you what programming really is and how to program efficiently.
Rating:  - Very Frustrating Inputting the Code
I want to start out by first saying that the topic is wonderful.
Since I'm not currently working I thought I would actually put the code in and really learn these new techniques. To my dismay, the code is riddled with problems. So don't expect the code to work.
I've made it to chapter 7 and I'm extremely frustrated. I end up having to flip through the book to find other references to a method to see if it might help solve the compilation problems. This would all be fine, but the author has stated that he expected readers to put the code in as we went. That's why he didn't provide the final files.
Here are some examples of what I'm talking about:
1. page 31: image It's showing a menu. No menu has been created.
2. page 44: XMLKeyDownHandler method. Refers to textbox. It should be txtbox. (occurs 4 times)
3. page 45: First line of code. It's wrong. It is right in Chapter 5 but it doesn't work here.
4. page 46: same as #2.
5. page 63: Code won't compile. InsertControlPText is crashing. I decide just to comment it out.
6. page 63: Code won't compile. Problem in NewSelectionStart. I decided to move on because I see it's getting reworked later.
7. page 67: current code sample.
a. InsertControlPText has appeared but with no code.
b. LineContainingCursor has changes that were never talked about.
c. Appearance of Enter() method (find out why in Ch. 6)
d. Appearance of TestText method (what is it?)
e. Appearance of TestLineContainingCursorDirectly method
8. At the end of chapter 5 I still have two NUnit tests that are failing and I'm not exactly sure if they should be failing or not.
What I am very surpised about is that Microsoft would publish a book with so many mistakes in it. I'm also surprised they would allow references and links to restaurants (see page 76).
The theory is wonderful. I will finish the book but I'm going to stop trying to type in the code. It's just taking to long to work through the bugs in the book.
Rating: - I'm giving the best advice I have
Ron Jeffries often provides the line "I'm giving the best advice I have.
You get to decide if it's true for you." as a signature for his many newsgroup posts.
And the same is true for this book. Ron is giving you the very best advice he can based
on his experience as a both a programmer and advocate of XP.
I would describe this book as "quietly looking over Ron's shoulder" and is about as close
to getting inside Ron's head as you're probably going to get without actually working along
side him.
I did not find this to be a specific "learn C#" book and I suspect that if that is what you
are wanting that you may be disappointed. If your are new to C# you may need a C# reference
book or two close at hand. I did find it to be a good book illustrating "how to learn C#",
or in fact how to approach learning any new language.
I actually work in Java and so applied the principles to a Java application instead.
Another thing I liked about this book is that Ron makes mistakes! And he left them in print!
And although he may come to regret that later :-) it is of tremendous value to the reader.
All too often programming books show code going from A to B to C and the reader is left to
guess what lead the author to take the direction that they did. With this book you get to
closely follow Ron's thought processes and see the results. You sometimes see the results
refactored, and sometimes refactored again. But you are never at a loss to wonder "why he
did that" or "how did we just get to here from there".
One of the key techniques used in XP is Test Driven Design and of the examples used in books
so far I have found it somewhat difficult to get a feel for how the practitioner applied their
"design sense". In most cases this is because the book is focussing on the technique alone.
What I really got out of this book was how Ron uses his sense of design coupled with the
techniques of XP (as they applied to this development situation). A great read!
Rating: - A very good book!
If you want to learn C#, don't buy this book. If you want to become a better programmer, this book can probably be of considerable help to you. This book is about Extreme Programming. The only way it can be really shown how XP works is of course in practice. In my opinion Ron Jeffries has succeeded in coming very close to letting the reader be an observer of a real XP project. You get a good feeling for how things should be done, what to avoid, etc. We know some of those things already, of course, because there's no black magic involved, but Jeffreys at the very least makes us more conscious of them. After having read this book, I've become convinced that all those people who are shouting on top of their lungs that XP is just a fancy name for something very shallow, are probably wrong and that they should at least give it a serious try before condemning it.
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