Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform

Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, 5th Edition
By Andrew Troelsen
Published by Apress
ISBN: 978-1-4302-2549-2

The first edition of this book was published way back in 2001, and its various editions have become pretty much the definitive guides for anybody seriously interested in learning C# to a professional level.

C# has, in recent years, come to dominate Windows programming, significantly eclipsing the formerly very popular VB, so if you are serious about getting into writing anything from class libraries, desktop or Silverlight apps or ASP .NET web sites, and you have some programming experience already (perhaps Java or VB) then this is the book for you, but it is definitely not a beginners book - if you have little or no programming knowledge you will soon become lost.

A big chunk of the book examines in great depth the minutiae of the C# language itself, and then goes on to describe the main parts of the .NET Framework, including the all-important ADO .NET used to interact with databases, file I/O and LINQ. The final eight chapters of the book are devoted to actually developing applications, specifically WPF desktop apps and ASP .NET web apps. Coverage of the obsolete WinForms technology has been dropped from the latest edition, and if you want to get into Silverlight the WPF chapters will give you a good grounding in XAML-based development.

This book prepares you for just about anything the world of Windows development is likely to throw at you, and if you then go on to study more specific topics such as Silverlight or WCF, these will seem almost trivial.

If you are prepared to make a serious long-term committment to C#, then this book is pretty much a must-have. I have had three editions of this book over the years and, although it is supplemented by many more, it is still the most important in my collection, and one I refer to almost daily. This is certainly in the "if you only buy one book on C#" category.