Visual C#.NET Step by Step 2003 (Step by Step (Microsoft)) (Paperback)

It makes me wonder who it is actually aimed at. The beginning C# programmer will benefit hugely from the first half and be totally lost in the second half.

Dividing the book into 4 parts of about equal size ; the first part is simple coding and the C# syntax. The second part is classes, collections, structure and inheritance. So about half the book is C# standard coding. This is a bit slow for someone who can code but not bad. The next quarter is a bit of component creation and Windows Forms.

The last quarter, the last 170 odd pages is where a beginner would get stuck. It tends to throw ideas at you at a fairly rapid rate. It's not impossible for a beginner, but it is quite likely IMO that such a person would just get hopelessly lost. In this section there is too little explanation of what is what ; what is the relationship between a connection, dataset, datagrid, data adaptor - it never tells you. What is the cache then ? It never says, it's just demonstrated to you.

It gets worse ; at certain points you are hand modifying generated HTML code to access data. This is all well and good, but by this point you are just following instructions really, whether you can figure it out again, what actually is going in, well this book won't really tell you. You might be able to knock out some simple web apps and XML Services, but only by following the recipe.

It also doesn't have much in the way of excercises - well there aren't any, just revision notes at the end of each chapter. This is a failing of many books ; one thing I like about the Deitels books are the numerous well thought out things to try yourself - I've found these really useful in ramming home concepts that you don't get just following recipes.

I think it's not so much that its a bad book ; it just tries to do too much. As an intro to another book it's okay.

Each chapter is packed with workthroughs, simple explanations and the pearls are well hilighted. The index is a little insubstantial but if you want more detail, get a different book. This one gets into each of the big .NET players (XML, ADO, ASP etc) to a uniform depth that's no higher than your ankles.

I would've liked to see some tasks laid out - example programs for the student to go off and write: some active encouragement to be creative and explore what was learned in each chapter.

The lack of an epilogue or some kind of pointer to where to go next left me feeling a bit cold and unsatisfied but then, it's a reference volume, not Harry Potter.

Nevertheless, I think it's a great start for anyone.

So, if you've ever uttered the words, "Explain it to me like I'm a 6-year-old", then click "Add to cart".

This book also helps people, who wants a starting point to object orientated programming. You start out with VERY simple console applications, moving onto Windows Forms applications. After that, you take on database connections, and you're introduced to ASP.NET, as well as XML Web Services.

This book is good for people who wants to start using the .NET framework. You get a good introduction to what .NET can do!