best book for complete newbie on C#

[POLKO]

Hi! thank for response to my questions on learning curve. Now another
thing - NEVER had any experience with programming, zero. What book/s could
You recommend. I started with Programmer's Introduction by Gunnerson, but I
am more ready for complete lack of programming skills introduction. One more
thing, I am using C # 2005 from MS to learn this. Thanks again for all your
help.

 

[Mark Rae]

Hi! thank for response to my questions on learning curve. Now another
thing - NEVER had any experience with programming, zero. What book/s could
You recommend. I started with Programmer's Introduction by Gunnerson, but
I am more ready for complete lack of programming skills introduction. One
more thing, I am using C # 2005 from MS to learn this. Thanks again for
all your help.

http://www.amazon.com/C-2005-Dummie..._bbs_sr_1/002-6316549-9361614?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

[Scott M.]

Programming C# Step by Step. Published by MS Press

 

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Polko,

In my idea there are so many books written about C#, that you need in my
idea 2 livetimes to read them all (and when it is about all languages 5), so
how can somebody tell you which is the best.

If you want an advice here, tell than what is your starting knowledge (and
than not tell about one of those books you have read already).

Just my thought,


Cor

 

[DAVE P]

Visual C# in 24 hours....
step by step
covers quite a bit of area of c# in a way very understandable
Published SAMS
author James Foxall

dave

 

[clintonG]

For those with no previous programming experience its best to learn the
programming language first with little to no involvement with the .NET
Framework.

I've taught in the classroom and I've purchased and used many of the books
others mention and many are in fact not bad but are seriously lacking in
structured learning methodologies used by trained and experienced educators.

I recommend you order for review from a Barnes & Noble one or two of the
textbooks from the father and son team of Deitel & Deitel [1]. These are
actual textbooks used in schools and universities and are pricey so order
and review to see what I mean. These textbooks are foolproof learning tools
and if you do the excercises you will learn the C# programming language.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h

[1] http://deitel.com/

 

[POLKO]

Thank You all for advice - I better go and look at them myself, now I now
what to look at. Thanks again

 

[Hoop]

Hi POLKO,

The Deitel books are excellent, I have "C# for Programmers" among
others.
A free one form Charles Petzold is very good also,
http://www.charlespetzold.com/dotnet/

Jeff

 

[Scott M.]

With respect, I have to disagree. I am a professional IT Instructor and
have been teaching .NET since its inception. I can tell you that IMHO it is
best to learn OO Programming concepts first (non-language specific), .NET
Framework fundamentals (value type, reference type, stack, heap, GC,
Namespaces, Assemblies, primitive types, etc.) and finally a particular
programming language.

I teach a 1 day lecture course that is just on what .NET is and specifics of
the .NET Framework to newbies just learning programming or new to OO
programming. This works well so that when they arrive for the next courses,
which are hands-on, they have a clue as to what the language they are about
to learn is going to help them do. Adults learn best when they can see how
what they are doing fits into the big picture.

-Scott

For those with no previous programming experience its best to learn the
programming language first with little to no involvement with the .NET
Framework.

I've taught in the classroom and I've purchased and used many of the books
others mention and many are in fact not bad but are seriously lacking in
structured learning methodologies used by trained and experienced
educators.

I recommend you order for review from a Barnes & Noble one or two of the
textbooks from the father and son team of Deitel & Deitel [1]. These are
actual textbooks used in schools and universities and are pricey so order
and review to see what I mean. These textbooks are foolproof learning
tools and if you do the excercises you will learn the C# programming
language.

<%= Clinton Gallagher
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
MAP http://wikimapia.org/#y=43038073&x=-88043838&z=17&l=0&m=h

[1] http://deitel.com/

Hi! thank for response to my questions on learning curve. Now another
thing - NEVER had any experience with programming, zero. What book/s
could You recommend. I started with Programmer's Introduction by
Gunnerson, but I am more ready for complete lack of programming skills
introduction. One more thing, I am using C # 2005 from MS to learn this.
Thanks again for all your help.

 

[Paul Hirose]

"Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Step by Step" is the main book I'm using.
It's not bad. The text is clear enough. If I forget some aspect of C#,
it's easy to flip through the book and refresh my memory. However,
when it comes to the exercises, some of them seem unnecessarily
complicated. For example, in the chapter on delegates and events, I
gave up trying to understand the digital clock exercise. It was easier
to write my own example program from scratch! Later I did succeed in
figuring out the clock. (I think my mental block came from the
author's poor choice of identifiers -- too many similar words.)

Somebody mentioned learning C# separately from the .NET Framework. I
think there's something to be said for that. The Step by Step book has
you writing Windows GUI apps from the beginning, and at times I have
felt a bit overloaded.

My setup (Windows XP Home and Visual C# Express) doesn't meet the
requirements stated in the book, but so far no problems. I suspect the
final chapters on databases etc. would not work on my system, but I'm
not interested in that stuff anyway.

The other book I have is "Learning C# 2005" by Liberty and MacDonald.
I mostly use it when I'm not quite able to grasp something. A second
book is handy at such times -- often a different explanation is all
that's needed. This book is nicely suited to a novice, I think, though
there are some odd lapses. E.g., structs are depicted as weak and
nearly useless. Ironically, the same chapter says, "The .NET Framework
provides a fully functional DateTime class." That's a struct, not a
class! This illustrates another reason to use two books.

One thing to watch out for: C# received a significant upgrade in 2005,
but a lot of older C# books are still on store shelves. Recent books
all seem to make a point of saying "2005" in their titles, or at least
prominently noting the year on their covers.

 

[Scott M.]

See comments inline....

"Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Step by Step" is the main book I'm using.
It's not bad. The text is clear enough. If I forget some aspect of C#,
it's easy to flip through the book and refresh my memory. However,
when it comes to the exercises, some of them seem unnecessarily
complicated. For example, in the chapter on delegates and events, I
gave up trying to understand the digital clock exercise. It was easier
to write my own example program from scratch! Later I did succeed in
figuring out the clock. (I think my mental block came from the
author's poor choice of identifiers -- too many similar words.)

Somebody mentioned learning C# separately from the .NET Framework. I
think there's something to be said for that. The Step by Step book has
you writing Windows GUI apps from the beginning, and at times I have
felt a bit overloaded.

Yes, absolutley. If you don't know anything about both and try to learn
both at the same time, you are in for trouble.

My setup (Windows XP Home and Visual C# Express) doesn't meet the
requirements stated in the book, but so far no problems. I suspect the
final chapters on databases etc. would not work on my system, but I'm
not interested in that stuff anyway.

You will not be able to do any ASP.NET web applications because you use XP
Home, which does not come with, nor does it support Mcirosoft IIS web
server. You will be able to work with databases as long as you have a
database to connect to.

The other book I have is "Learning C# 2005" by Liberty and MacDonald.
I mostly use it when I'm not quite able to grasp something. A second
book is handy at such times -- often a different explanation is all
that's needed. This book is nicely suited to a novice, I think, though
there are some odd lapses. E.g., structs are depicted as weak and
nearly useless. Ironically, the same chapter says, "The .NET Framework
provides a fully functional DateTime class." That's a struct, not a
class! This illustrates another reason to use two books.

One thing to watch out for: C# received a significant upgrade in 2005,
but a lot of older C# books are still on store shelves. Recent books
all seem to make a point of saying "2005" in their titles, or at least
prominently noting the year on their covers.

Not really. The .NET Framework received a significant upgrade. Not too
many changes to the C# language took place. Another reason to understand
the difference between the framework and the language.

 

[Bart]

You can get a free book at : http://www.programmersheaven.com/2/CSharpBook

it's 336 pages and covers a lot

Have fun,

Bart

 

[Bart]

You can get a free book at : http://www.programmersheaven.com/2/CSharpBook

it's 336 pages and covers a lot

Have fun,

Bart

Sorry forgot the content

a.. Introduction
b.. C# Language Fundamentals
c.. Classes and Objects
d.. Inheritance & Polymorphism
e.. Structures, Enumeration, Garbage Collection & Nested Classes
f.. Abstract Classes & Interfaces
g.. Arrays, Collections & String Manipulation
h.. Exception Handling
i.. Delegates & Events
j.. WinForms & Windows Applications
k.. More Windows Controls & Standard Dialog Boxes
l.. Data Access using ADO.Net
m.. Multithreading
n.. The File System & Streams
o.. New Features In C# 2.0