Jon skeet's book C# in Depth

[TonyJ]

Hello!

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have to
be before understanding anything from your book?

//Tony

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have to
be before understanding anything from your book?

You need to be reasonably comfortable with C# 1. I go through 3 things
about C# 1 in chapter 2: delegates, value/reference types, and what
various things about type systems mean. The delegates section is
probably the most important. However, you should be familiar with other
things in C# 1 - overriding, overloading, methods, properties, classes,
using statements, foreach etc.

You certainly don't need to be an expert - but you need to be willing
to do more than skim. It's a pretty detailed book, which is entirely
deliberate - but that does make it slightly harder reading than some
others. In particular, if you skip a chapter you'll find some of the
later ones are harder to cope with.

(This isn't in any way implying that you skim read, or that you're
likely to skip chapters etc - just a warning that you shouldn't, at
least with my book!)

Of course, in some ways I'm a bad person to determine what level you
need to be at to start with - when the book comes out, hopefully
there'll be some less biased answers!

 

[Willy Denoyette [MVP]]

Hello!

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have
to
be before understanding anything from your book?

//Tony

Just buy the book, even if you aren't that "good" by now, I can guaranteed
that you will become a lot better after spending some time with it.

Willy.

 

[TonyJ]

Hello!

How much do you include about grid, attribute and database access in your
book because these are things
that I must be better on ?
I just wonder is it possible to have just a few pages from your book that
you probably could send to my e-mail.
If so I could sent the e-mail in my next posting.
I'm must say you seems to excellent in C# that's way I ask about the book.

//Tony

 

[Anthony Jones]

Hello!

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have to
be before understanding anything from your book?

I certainly think that anyone wanting to learn C# that already has a
reasonable background in software development will find this book very
useful. It is 'in Depth' as the title suggests but then thats what you'd
want from a book, after all 'C# in Overview' or 'C# an Introduction' can
probably be handled by MS's own documentation. However to use C#2 and 3 to
its best would require an understanding of the subjects covered.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

How much do you include about grid, attribute and database access in your
book because these are things that I must be better on ?

Nothing at all - it's a book which is focused firmly on C# as a
language. This is very deliberate: I find that books which try to teach
both C# *and* (say) Windows Forms, web services etc do a poor job on
both, and/or end up being huge. My book is only 450-500 pages, so is
hopefully more approachable - but it really is just about C# as a
language. It gives very brief coverage to the .NET generic collections,
and chapter 12 gives a whirlwind tour of various LINQ providers, but
the latter is more to give a general impression of what LINQ is about
rather than to actually give you enough information to start coding.
(LINQ in Action is an excellent companion book in this respect.)

What I *will* say is that with a solid foundation in C#, you should
find it easier to read/use books about specific technologies - you'll
be confident about what the *language* is doing at any particular point
in time.

I just wonder is it possible to have just a few pages from your book that
you probably could send to my e-mail.

If you go to http://manning.com/skeet you can download the first
chapter for free - I'll see if I can get a more detailed (and up-to-
date) table of contents posted too. The first chapter is introductory
material, but it gives you an idea of some of what's in the rest of the
book.

If so I could sent the e-mail in my next posting.
I'm must say you seems to excellent in C# that's way I ask about the
book.

Thanks - I hope you decide to buy the book, and that you like it if you
do so

 

[TonyJ]

Hello!!

One question you say that the book is about the C# language.
I assume that a lot is included about .NET framework. Is this correct ?

// Tony

 

[Ignacio Machin \( .NET/ C# MVP \)]

Hi,

Hello!

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have
to
be before understanding anything from your book?

You need to have an understanding of C# and .NET and not be afraid to get
into the details of things
It seems to be a good book, I only read the free first chapter and I liked
it a lot, I'm waiting for the printed version.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

One question you say that the book is about the C# language.
I assume that a lot is included about .NET framework. Is this correct ?

No - it's about the language itself. Obviously it *uses* the framework,
but there isn't much about the framework other than where it directly
touches the language. So I don't cover Windows Forms, web services,
WPF, WCF etc.

 

[Ben Voigt [C++ MVP]]

No - it's about the language itself. Obviously it *uses* the framework,
but there isn't much about the framework other than where it directly
touches the language. So I don't cover Windows Forms, web services,
WPF, WCF etc.

From the parts of it Jon has shared with me, I'd say it's targetted for the
person writing code that needs to be flexible enough to be reused and
maintained. If all you're doing is mashups, you can "make things work"
without understanding what different features are available and where each
excels, but if you're writing code to be edited or reused by other people,
you'll want to not just pick a feature that gets the job done, but the best
feature, the one that does it cleanly and efficiently, because your design
will accomodate future changes better. This is what I think Jon has focused
on, and I have great confidence readers of his book will learn exactly that,
as well as a little about language design and how to recognize cases where
the best way to do the job isn't with C#, or is to combine C# with some
other platform.

Also, I think Jon addresses .NET in general in addition to C#, but this is
focused on the runtime mechanisms, type system, JIT, and so forth, rather
than the libraries.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

From the parts of it Jon has shared with me, I'd say it's targetted for the
person writing code that needs to be flexible enough to be reused and
maintained. If all you're doing is mashups, you can "make things work"
without understanding what different features are available and where each
excels, but if you're writing code to be edited or reused by other people,
you'll want to not just pick a feature that gets the job done, but the best
feature, the one that does it cleanly and efficiently, because your design
will accomodate future changes better.

Yup, I think that's a reasonable approximation

This is what I think Jon has focused
on, and I have great confidence readers of his book will learn exactly that,
as well as a little about language design and how to recognize cases where
the best way to do the job isn't with C#, or is to combine C# with some
other platform.

That's slightly less so - I don't *tend* to talk about other platforms,
beyond the comparisons of generics in C# with generics in Java and
templates in C++ (the latter being the area I specifically asked Ben to
look at

I certainly mention a few alternatives in some places, but don't do an
awful lot of it.

Also, I think Jon addresses .NET in general in addition to C#, but this is
focused on the runtime mechanisms, type system, JIT, and so forth, rather
than the libraries.

I talk about it when it touches the language - often to say "this
feature doesn't require a runtime change". I would love to see a book
parallel to mine, but focusing entirely on the runtime - AppDomains,
assembly loading, JITting, GC, memory models etc. I wish I were
qualified to write such a book, but sadly not...

 

[RobinS]

Speaking as someone who has read the entire book...

What I thought was really cool about Jon's book is that it is not a
comprehensive C# book. I don't need another 1200 page tome explaining what
variables, methods, OO, forms, web services, ADO, database access, etc. are.

Jon's book explains features in C#2 that aren't in C#1 (or features that
have changed), and same for C#3 versus C#2.

This was an excellent and fairly specific way to see the differences between
the versions and focus on the new features of C# available in the new
versions of the .Net Framework.

I highly recommend it for any C# programmer.

RobinS.
GoldMail, Inc.

 

[DeveloperX]

Hello!

This question is for Jon!

I'm interested in your book "C# in Depth" but I wonder how good do I have to
be before understanding anything from your book?

//Tony

I ordered it last week on pre-order. Jon has a quite unique ability to
focus on the language. You can't get an MBA if your work is poorly
written, I hope that's sort of where he's coming from. I'm still
pointing new developers at his site.

From what I've read so far, you'll be fine. It's not about being good,
it's about becoming good. That's our goal (shared goal) I hope. There
are always people here willing to clarify anything that you don't
get.

 

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

I ordered it last week on pre-order. Jon has a quite unique ability to
focus on the language.

I suspect it's not so much a unique ability as a unique *decision*.
Other authors have apparently decided it's worth being broad rather
than deep. Frankly it's a bit of an experiment - as is the decision to
not include stuff about C# 1. I'm hoping there are enough people who
know C# 1 and don't want to read about it again to make the gamble pay
off Only time will tell...

You can't get an MBA if your work is poorly
written, I hope that's sort of where he's coming from.

Exactly. In fact, my technical reviewer (Eric Lippert) wrote about my
aim more eloquently than I've been able to:

http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2004/03/01/syntax-semantics-
micronesian-cults-and-novice-programmers.aspx

The fact that I only read that blog post after writing most of the book
*and* after we managed to grab Eric as the tech reviewer is a very
happy coincidence.

I'm still pointing new developers at his site.

You're very kind

From what I've read so far, you'll be fine. It's not about being good,
it's about becoming good. That's our goal (shared goal) I hope.

"It's not about being good, it's about becoming good" would be a
fabulous tag line for the book - or possibly even a quote for the back
cover I don't know what stage the back cover is at right now, but if
you've be interested in the possibility of being quoted, please mail me
privately.

There are always people here willing to clarify anything that you
don't get.

And of course when it's a case of the book itself not expressing what I
wanted to express rather than it just being a difficult concept, I can
translate!

 

[Alvin Bruney [ASP.NET MVP]]

certainly sounds like willy is on Jon's payroll? grin.

--

Regards,
Alvin Bruney [MVP ASP.NET]

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