ActiveWin.com Book Review: A Programmer’s Introduction to C#, Second Edition (Eric Gunnerson)

I only have one word for this book – excellent. Perhaps it is because of the clarity of the book, perhaps it is because of the clear organization and concise description of every technical feature, or perhaps it is because it was written by a programmer who worked on Microsoft’s C# design team. Whichever way you look at it, this book is a must and definitive read for anyone who is really interested in the C# language.

The book starts off with a brief introduction to object oriented programming. It is not the best introduction there is and in my opinion, the author could have done better than that five pages worth of information. But the rest of chapters are a lot better, with enough coverage on topics such as exception handling, versioning, conversions all the way to arrays and strings. I judge this book not on how much is covered, but rather, how much necessary is covered and in what manner are those information covered. And in my opinion, this has to be one of the best (and I have read a lot) introductory guide to C#.

The author’s ability to describe with elegance data structures such as arrays and strings were what impressed me the most. At the same time, he provided plenty of examples of their uses, so much so that users will find it hard not to master these subjects in the shortest possible time.

Windows forms were also covered very well. The framework used to write “rich-client” applications, it is the first thing C# programmers are interested in. Gunnerson guided readers through his creation of a GUI application and amazingly, he was able to impress what was important without the use of numerous screenshots that would have otherwise confused readers.

Sadly, if the author had included chapters on ASP.Net and web application building using C#, the book would have been more of a complete guide. Nevertheless, it is still a book that does its job – that is to introduce readers to C#. Existing programmers will welcome this book with open arms although it may prove a slightly less worthwhile investment for new programmers because of the little explanation that has been provided.

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