hey,
i want to start learning c# in the near future and i want to get a pretty updated book , so i can get a book that covers all the new features on the language and the .net framework. (don't see a point learning c#2 while there are new versions)
i do have a pretty good background in c++.
any recommendation ?
searching amazon i came up with this 3 , how are they :
Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform, Fourth Edition
thx
I'm a big fan of the Head First series, though I haven't read this particular book. I learned using Windows Forms Programming in C# by Chris Sells
Learning "all the new features" in C# won't do you much good until you know the basics and fundamentals. I would suggest the Heads Up book. Most Heads Up books are very good and the fundamentals.
I'm a big fan of #2 -- Jesse Liberty's book. Also check out Richter's book, which is, IMO the definitive guide to the .NET CLR itself. You should have a good background in programming before reading Richter, though.
I agree with Randy about the fundamentals. The "new features" in C# are primarily in the libraries themselves and affect Windows, Web, WCF, etc development. If you don't know C# yet, then learning the basics on 2.0 vs 3.0 vs 3.5 won't make too big of a difference.
That being said, when I go buy a book I usually spend a few hours at the book store pouring over "competing" books to see which one fits my learning type. I prefer lots of labs, concise explanations, and a focus on the fundamentals (I've never liked books that tried to teach me C# fundamentals and web development all in one).
I liked Murach's C# 2008 enough to buy it, it is a good reference book.
I'm not a big fan of Jesse Liberty's book, but if you get the most recent printing of Head First C# that's okay - the earlier printings had a lot of mistakes.
Personally I like C# 3.0 in a Nutshell and Accelerated C# 2008.
Of course there are v4 editions of all of these books coming up.
I have reviews of all these books on my blog - although bear in mind that as an author of a C# book myself, I'm somewhat biased. (Fortunately in this case I can say that my book (C# in Depth) is almost certainly not the one you want to get - it's aimed at people who already know C# 1 and want to know 2 and 3 in a lot of detail.) Also bear in mind that I reviewed the first printing of Head First C#, so the criticisms of accuracy have largely been addressed now. I don't like the Head First style in general myself, but that's just a personal preference. I keep meaning to go back and do an updated review of HFC# now that I've got a much more recent printing...
I recently had to find a book for a friend to help them, I looked through quite a few including Head First C#. I know everybody learns differently but I thought this book was awful. It looks and reads like somebodies private notes. It starts off with creating a database. I was expecting a book that teaches one a language to start off with a simple console app so you can learn the main concepts.
There were two I thought looked pretty well laid out. They are:
Illustrated C# 2008 by Daniel Solis. It went through topics in the order that personally made sense to me.
Rob Miles C# Yellow Book 2009. This book is very easy reading, it takes concepts really slowly for beginners and also seemed to focus on the details of the language and not on how to use windows form designers or databases.