Reviews for Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition

1. Gets to the core in a clear and consice way

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, May 12th, 2010

   You get the important stuff about C# with no more or less words then needed.
   

2. C#

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   Coming from a C++ background on Unix, I wanted to learn C# on windows and found this an excellent book to learn C#. The examples are clear and concise, there are 33 chapters which cover what I imagine to be alot or all of the C# features. I didn't find this book to be verbose even though it has over a 1000 pages, the author concentrates on getting to the examples with short clear descriptions of the C# features beforehand.

3. Awesome!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, January 12th, 2010

   The book was recommended to me by many developers on IRC and Internet forums. I wanted a book that was able to teach me a deeper side of .NET using C# ... and all I can say is it has done that (Even though I'm only half way through the book). I was definatly shocked by the number of pages in the book, bursting from cover to cover with valuable information.
   
   This book is a must for any serious C# developer that wishes to deepen their understanding!

4. Excellent Book

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2009

   This book is an excellent buy.
   You're not going to get the indepth under the hood details like as of the likes of Ritcher, because it isn't aimed at that level.
   The book is well written and not hard to follow. The best thing I like about this book, is that this guy explains whats what in a logical and progressive way.
   What do I mean by that? Well, for example in the chapter about Generics (in this example specifically containers), he comes out with: 'Given the issues we have just examined, you might rightly wonder when (if ever) would you need to create a custom generic container?' Indeed, if you're following correctly, that is exactly what you are thinking. Why is this good? Well his teaching style is to lead you along and feed you chunks of understandable information which is easily digestable. Then you progress onto the next stage. Before you know it youre at the end of the chapter understanding it all. Not rereading paragraphs over and over again because the content is ambiguous or poorly worded. EXACTLY how a good developers book should be! Not rushed,precise, perfect!
   If you are a beginner/intermediate I suggest this book is a very good buy. Top draw stuff.
   
   
   

5. Must-have for C# programmers

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, September 12th, 2009

   Excellent work covering some difficult topics in a detailed but clear manner, illustrated throughout with the simplest possible code examples that suffice to demonstrate the technique under consideration. Some may not appreciate the comparative lack of "real-world" examples, but these would add significantly to a book that already could double as a piece of weight-training apparatus! And the bare bones format of the samples really does make it much simpler to grasp the concepts without getting bogged down in extraneous detail. The book is in hardcover and opens flat (would that this were a more common feature of computer literature!), and although there is no CD included, all the code samples can be quickly downloaded from the associated web site. Apparently as a time-limited offer, the complete book (yes, all 1350 pages of it) can be freely downloaded as a searchable PDF file - a nice bonus for such a weighty tome, that effectively turns it into a portable help file. An additional 5 chapters from previous editions but omitted here can also be downloaded.
   
   As others have mentioned, there are some typos (hardly surprising for a book of this size), but I have so far spotted very few and none of real significance. One reviewer denigrated the writing style. Whilst I do find the over-use of one or two phrases such as "Do be aware that..." a little grating, I find the overall style very readable and effective in getting the message across.
   
   Included in APress's Pro series, in spite of having only a couple of month's experience with C#, I can recommend it to the serious beginner who wishes to develop a deeper understanding of the language, though not for someone withtout prior programming experience of some kind and ideally some grasp of the fundamentals of Object Oriented Programming. Though the latter is not absolutely essential (the book does cover the principles in great depth), a complete lack of its tenets would make some of the earlier chapters hard going.
   
   Real value for money, and contains a wealth of information that you will go back to again and again.