Beginning C# Objects: From Concepts to Code 
Buy it at Amazon
Read a Sample Chapter From The Publisher
Author Jacquie Barker, Grant Palmer
Publisher APress
Length 819 pages
vbRad Rating: 4 fingers up. (4 out of 5)
Reviewed by Robert Jurado

When it comes to learn something like a new computer language, designs, or systems, I've been a huge fan of those "dummies books". When I finally decided to break away from my beloved Delphi (that's another story, nothing that therapy can fix) and decided to learn C#, I went to buy the book. I was confident that it will give me the necessary start up information like it has been on previous books. Normally, the dummies books will teach concepts and information in a very interesting way that it will make learning a new language a great experience.

However, I was disappointed, very disappointed to be exact. It was very unfortunate that the book started very slow and too closes to a beginner course. As a developers of many years, the context information spend too much in explaining common programming techniques and not much of the potentials that C# can provide. Even most of the examples were console programs. I was interested to know the 'good stuff' and hype that everybody is talking about.

Then, I read "Beginning C# Objects, from Concept to Code". Although, the title starts with the word "beginning", I decided to read the book from the start without skipping any chapter. Like any beginner books, the book started by showing the syntax of any typical programming language. Next, it continue developing the language concepts and simple examples and easy to follow. The book is decided in three parts; First part the first seven chapters with it will explain from C# 101 to object programming concepts. Next, Part two; five more chapters explaining object modeling, requirement and Use Cases, modeling and other Dynamic and behavior. Finally, part three, at this point, I haven't read it so I won't lie about it, but from what I've seen and read on this book, it seems very interesting. The only down part of this book is the lacks of information about the IDE. Even that I can write code using any text editor, reality is that I won't be using anything else, so more information about the IDE would have made this book complete.

In summary, I have enjoyed reading this book. It has been a very easy book to read, to follow and learn the syntax of C#. The book is well balance and gives you enough information after reading Part One; it makes you start creating your first programs on your own. As a Delphi programmer, I have to give Microsoft credit for doing a good job with the language even when I don't completely agree on some techniques and ways to handle things, but I can't complain, it is not VB6 and it is not C++, but it is a good mix of these languages and others. Delphi developers will have no problems in picking up C# and I highly recommend this book to help them start learning this language.


Want more reviews and sample chapters? Click here.