C# in a Nutshell (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly)) [Paperback]

If this view is widely shared, then clearly we need to add such information to the next edition. But since a revision lies somewhere in the future, for those of you considering purchase of "C# in a Nutshell" today, here are some answers.

First, the complete list of the 22 .NET Framework namespaces documented in the 450-page "C# in a Nutshell" API Quick Reference is a follows:

Microsoft.Win32
System
System.Collections
System.Collections.Specialized
System.Diagnostics
System.Globalization
System.IO
System.IO.Isolated

System.NET
System.NET.Sockets
System.Reflection
System.Reflection.Emit
System.Runtime.InteropServices
System.Runtime.Serialization
System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters
System.Text
System.Text.RegularExpressions
System.Threading
System.Timers
System.Xml
System.Xml.XPath
System.Xml.XSL

These namespaces comprise more than 700 types, and thousands of members, which are listed in a quick-lookup format that complements, we believe, the syntax used by the official Microsoft documentation.

O'Reilly customers who have purchased "Java in a Nutshell" or other Nutshell titles already know that the series aims to provide experienced professionals with usable quick references that are reasonably complete, but not exhaustive. In the case of C# (and Visual Basic .NET), our idea was to first match the coverage of the Java Standard Edition core classes found in our best-selling "Java in a Nutshell," and to then add additional namespaces that were core to programming the .NET platform itself.

The first criterion clearly required us to document the System namespace, as well as more specialized namespaces for threading, collections, reflection, diagnostics, and so on. The second led us to include serialization, COM interop, and the Microsoft.Win32 types needed to interact with the Windows
platform. In addition, because XML is so core to .NET, we included the most important XML namespaces as well.

We decided early to exclude the specialized .NET libraries for building Windows and web applications, web services, and data-access applications. We felt these libraries deserved volumes of their own: "Windows Forms in a Nutshell," "ASP.NET in a Nutshell," and "ADO.NET in a Nutshell."

We had a hard time deciding what to do about remoting, enterprise services, security and a number of other important .NET libraries. In the end, we decided these would be of interest mostly to enterprise application builders and should also be presented in a Nutshell of their own, much like "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell."

In the end, we hope our readers will appreciate "C# in a Nutshell" as a reference for C# programmers that also documents the core runtime .NET libraries most programers need to complete their basic tasks: manipulating strings,
performing mathematical operations, doing I/O, and so on. In this respect, the book resembles existing core volumes on C, C++, and Java, where one would expect coverage of the C standard library, STL or the Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition.

Thanks for the feedback -- we rely on our customers to tell us when we've missed the mark. We'd welcome additional feedback from Amazon.com readers about "C# in a Nutshell." And as the previous reviewer has suggested, we'll try to be clearer about our choices in the next edition.

(I'm giving the book 3 stars in an attempt to avoid unfairly influencing its rating.)

C# in a Nutshell scores high marks in both the brevity and correctness categories. Humorous as it might be to label an 830-page book as brief, it actually qualifies as such. The main discussion of the language is kept to the first 270 pages, with an average of about 20 pages devoted to each subject. Only the essentials are discussed, and that will usually be enough when you need to quickly look up how to do something. The remaining 560 pages are devoted to a Quick Reference of the .NET framework classes. While reading the text, I never came across any glaring inconsistencies, such as conflicting descriptions of how to accomplish a task, which leads me to suspect that the text is mostly correct. The few actual tests I ran worked as expected. On a superficial level, I found the content credible.

When it came to completeness, I wasn't as impressed. As a reader, I have somewhat of a personal bias: I'm pretty familiar with both C++ and Java. I also suspect that this knowledge is shared by a large percentage of this book's audience. As a consequence, I found myself wishing that the advanced features particular to this language had been covered more thoroughly, and that the description of features shared by C++, Java, or both, had been trimmed down a bit. I found the sections on Custom Attributes, Serialization and Threading to be especially light, given that they are all core features of the C# language. I also found the two sections dealing with integration of legacy components (DLLs and COM) to be somewhat inadequate for professionals who actually need to deal with these issues. However, I do understand the balancing act that has to be done to keep this book brief. I would have wanted more emphasis on the unique features and considerations associated with this new language, and less on the basics. On the other hand, the authors should be commended for the range of topics they manage to touch on in such a small number of pages. Certain topics, such as Diagnostics and Command-line tools, are fully described and could easily have been forgotten.

My real beef with the completeness of this book is related to the 500+ page SDK Quick Reference. Let's start with the good: The descriptions of the classes and their uses are verbose, and useful. The Quick Reference is logically divided up according to the .NET package divisions, and each description includes a very good UML diagram showing you where each class fits into the grand scheme of things. Now the bad: Though the class interfaces are fully detailed, there is no description whatsoever of the actual method parameters, and how they will be used internally. From a programmer's perspective, this is extremely annoying. Here's an example of what I mean: The class System.Timers.Timer has a property called interval that can be set through the constructor, or through property accessors. Without a proper description, one might imagine that this property relates to the interval at which the Timer does what it does (in this case, throws an Event.) However, we have no idea what units the interval property is using. Do we specify the units in seconds? In milliseconds? In nanoseconds, even? We have no idea, and we can only figure it out by trying it ourselves. You can imagine how frustrating this would be for properties where the answer is not so easily discovered.

The second major issue I have with this book is the unadvertised omission of the System.Windows.Forms and System.Web namespaces in the Quick Reference. It seems as if these GUI-related namespaces have been saved for Programming C#, but I found their omission in this book to be questionable, at the very least. I wouldn't complain if the namespaces were at least described briefly in the Quick Reference, but they aren't even mentioned once. This choice renders the book practically useless on its own for anyone who wishes to add a visual interface to his or her program, which, unless you're writing server code, is nearly everyone. I think that if the goal of this book is for it to be the only desktop reference you'll need, then in this respect it has failed. Similar to the Java in a Nutshell / JFC in a Nutshell combo, you'll probably need both this book and Programming C# for a complete reference from O'Reilly.

All in all, it is hard not to recommend this book for anyone who plans to work with C#. Its description of the language basics is thorough, the advanced features are at least brought up and discussed, and the reference, for all its flaws, will be considered useful by most. In particular, I appreciated the UML diagrams included in the book, placing it one step ahead of the Microsoft documentation. However, the book is somewhat incomplete, and you will most likely want to get Programming C# (convenient, isn't it?) and keep that bookmark to Microsoft's online documentation, at least to look up what the function parameters actually do.

This book serves my needs ideally. It is a reference, not a tutorial. It covers the whole language and most or all of the standard API, in a book of modest length. Of course, that sacrifices detail. Fine. When I need information, I'll look here to find out what system facility does my job, then use the system help for details. This book really is the index that the help system lacks.

This goes on the shelf next to Flanagan's "Java in a Nutshell." I have no higher praise for a language book.