The author's approach to explaining the C# 2.0 .NET 2005 technology is so versatile that both experienced and novice programmers alike will almost certainly appreciate this definitive guide. Please note that this textbook DOES NOT focus on graphical user interfaces (GUIs), but rather on proper programming techniques, unique C# features, and patterns. To integrate the learning of C# with GUI based applications, you may want to consider a textbook from Addison-Wesley Professional's Microsoft .NET Development Series (i.e. Framework Design Guidelines). If you are completely new to C# you need to know that this language is specifically designed for the development of Internet based and .NET Framework based applications. Any programming project outside of this scope may be better solved by using either C/C++ or JAVA. For anyone only looking for just one textbook to learn both the C# language and GUI design may find one of my other faverate textbooks more appropriate: Apress' ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 (beginner), Apress' Pro ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005 (advanced), Apress' Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C# (advanced); Addison-Wesley Professional's Windows Forms Programming in C# (advanced); O'Reilly's Building .NET Applications with C# (intermediate).

I'm entirely new to object oriented programming; last time I programmed was in 1982 using the original C. The author does an excellent job in presenting this material to someone new to C# and object-oriented programming concepts. The challenge for authors is to balance how much material and detail to include; not enough and even a newbie will get bored; too much and you either loose the average reader or you force the determined reader to go back many, many times to try and parse out exactly the concept you are trying to teach. J. Liberty strikes an excellent balance in this book. At the end of each chapter are programming exercises to test the readers knowledge and all of the code used in the examples is on website.

I've already purchased a few of this authors other works on C# that cover various concepts in more detail and rigor.

If you need to brush up on your Object-oriented programming skills in the context of learning C#, this is a great book. It doesn't go in-depth into data structures, but it will get you going right away, even if you've never had OOP experience.

With only a few months of OO programming about 6 years ago, I needed a book to take me from the beginning again. This book delivered. I found I have needed to read some chapters several times to 'get it', particularly chapters 7 & 8. I like the way he writes an example and then steps you through it, breaking down the code into sections. It was easy to read and easy to refer back to. I still have a couple of chapters to review and I'll be looking for more of his books.

Are you a programmer or novice programmer with little or no object-oriented programming experience? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Jesse Liberty and Brian MacDonald, have done an outstanding job of writing a second edition of a primer on the C# 2005 language specifically, and object-oriented software development in general.

Liberty and Brian MacDonald, begin by introducing you to the C# language and the .NET platform. Then, the authors provide a guided tour of Visual Studio 2005--the tool you will use to build all the applications in the book. Next, they introduce the basic syntax and structure of the C# language, including the intrinsic types, variables, statements, and expressions. The authors then describe some of the symbols that cause C# to take action, such as assigning a value to a variable and arithmetically operating on values. They continue by showing you how to create programs that branch based on conditions that may change while the program is running. Then, the authors explain the principles behind object-oriented programming, including encapsulation, specialization and polymorphism. Next, they introduce the key concepts of programmer-defined types and instances of those types. The authors then delve into the specific programming instructions you'll write to define the behavior of objects. They continue by introducing the debugger integrated into the visual Studio 2005 Integrated Development Environment. They also introduce the array, an indexed collection of objects that are all the same type. Then the authors explore two of the key concepts behind object-oriented programming, inheritance and polymorphism, and demonstrate how you might implement them in your code. Next, they explain how to add standard operators to the types you define. The authors explain how you can define a set of behaviors that any number of classes might implement. Then, they explain generics and show you how generics are used to create type-safe and efficient collections. Next, the authors discuss the manipulation of strings of characters, the C# string class, and regular expression syntax. The authors then explain how to handle errors and abnormal conditions that may arise in relation to your programs through the use of exceptions. They continue by discussing how to write code to respond to programming occurrence like mouse clicks, key strokes, and other events, through the use of delegates and the event keyword. Then, the authors show you how to bring all of these skills to bear to create a Windows application. Finally, they show you how to apply the same skills to building a web application.

This most excellent book focuses on the fundamentals of the C# programming language, both syntactical and semantic. More importantly, after mastering these concepts, you should be ready to move on to a more advanced programming guide that will help you create large-scale web and Windows applications.

I am sorry but this book is not a novice or begiiner book on C#.
I purchased this book to learn C# and its Object Oriented features.
The first part of the book about branching , looping are great but as soon as you start the chapters about Object Oriented you get some programs as examples who are "POORLY" explained so basically you are trying to figure out what the program does on your own.
This book is "NOT" a book for a "real" beginner in programming meaning you have no programming experience. This book was made for "programmers" who are beginner in C# programming. Do you guys get the nuance? If you are TOTALLY new in programming trust me this book is not worth at all. A better option will be absolute beginner or C# 2005 for dummies.

Excerpt from C# Online.NET Review (wiki.CSharp-Online.NET):
"This is somewhat of a rare C# book: it is designed specifically to educate the novice programmer and those with little or no Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) under their belts. And, it succeeds admirably in its mission.... The focus of the book is C# fundamentals and OO basics."

BTW I have noticed that some people have reviewed the wrong book here: this is the 2nd edition: it does have exercises.

I am a Visual Basic 6 programmer and I have been set it my ways. I figured I could have started at the next level up but something nagged me to start at the begining. I am happy I started with this book and my next book will be by this author.

This book is well crafted and has reintroduced topics to me that has bid me a better understanding of complex subjects in a way that just clicked for me. This book has even taught me things about the if statement that I didn't even realize were happening. "short circuiting"

The knowledge of the langauge by the authors is unquestionable. The thoroughness of the lessons is supperior. I recommend this book highly.

The complaint I have is the examples in the book are boring. That is the reason for the 4 star review.

Let me just start out by saying how impressed I was with this book. This is an excellent introduction to not only C# and the .NET framework, but it's an excellent introduction to object-oriented design. I found this book to be an excellent way for beginning programmers to easily enter the world of .NET.

The book begins with an very brief introduction to C# and C# fundamentals. Again, this discussion is geared for the novice to intermediate programmer, so there's nothing too scary here. The Visual Studio IDE is discussed and a quick tutorial into the various menus and options available in the IDE is presented. After these introductory chapters, the authors dive right in to operators (like + and /), but also more complicated operations like modulus. The authors then proceed to discuss virtually everything you need to know to create a sophisticated program. The book has been updated to incorporate information about the latest .NET release (version 2.0), with a discussion on Generics.

In typical O'Reilly fashion, tips, tricks, and things to watch out for are clearly identified in the text. But this book goes a step beyond and includes a quiz at the end of each chapter. This quiz covers the major points of the chapter and includes the correct answers at the end of the book. I thought this was an excellent step in helping programmers new to C# (or even .NET) an excellent way to test their skills and comprehension.

I absolutely love this book. It's a great introduction to C# and .NET, it's easy to follow, and it's easy to test your comprehension. If you're looking for a great book for the beginning to intermediate developer, I would highly recommend this one.

I'm a seasoned OO programmer (Delphi, c++), and have found Jesse Liberty's Learning C# a very excellent launching point to the latest and best programming language to come along in years.

The book is very well written with excellent examples.

I recommend this book for both novice and expert alike.

For the novice, don't bother learning either c or c++. Jesse Liberty's Learning C# has a thorough and easy to learn introduction to Object Oriented Programming theory and a very excellent comprehensive overview of OO using C#.

For the expert, use this book to accelerate into the new world of C#. Did you learn OO the correct way the first time? With Learning C# you'll have full command of all the features and nuances of C# and you will have mastered the language so that you can help others learn it too. With Learning C#, you will master the foundational aspects of the programming language and will be well prepared for advaced topics in C# and the .NET frameworks.

This book is really good for programmers with no/little knowledge of object oriented programming and starting to learn C#. The author really focusses on explaining the core concepts of C#.NET in the most compact way possible and yet easy to understand.

I loved Learning Perl. I hoped that another "Learning..." book by this great publisher would be similiar.

It is, in some respects. It's well written, easy to read and it has proven a useful tool.

However, I can only give it three stars because it lacks exercises at the end of each chapter. I loved that feature in "Learning Perl" and miss it dearly.

Perhaps O'Reilly is moving away from this technique, a shame if that's the case.

As it stands, I'll end up buying another book (MS's Step by Step) to give me some practice exercises.

This is a good introduction to C# but you can't depend only on 1 book. You can read Programming C# it's a good book too. I read some articles for an author called Michael Youssef in www.c-sharpcorner.com he's a great author and write in a very simple way that you can 100% grasp I hope that he publish his book soon.

Focuses on basic language syntax in a very slow, very wordy way. Those fairly new to programming will appreciate this, such as the guy in accounting who has written some Office macros, the web designer who writes simple javascript blocks, or the QA tester who aims to become a QA engineer or developer. The back cover description is misleading because it mentions being for "experienced programmers who are new to object-oriented programming," whatever that means. Any truly experienced programmer, coming from VB6 or C or Fortran etc, will be skimming and skipping A LOT to get over the many paragraphs of hand-holding.

I can only see this book being really valuable for novices, and those "experienced programmers" who have only been doing scripting in the past. Note that there are *much* better books for going from VB6 to C#.

And despite the subtitle, there is very little coverage of object-oriented programming in this book. The basics are scratched for about 4 pages of chapter 3 -- but this is of little value, especially since classes are not introduced until chapter 8.

This book is definetely for programmers new to c# or even for beginners. Jesse Liberty explains with real world examples the concepts. Best part is he has kept the book concise such that you can easily read everything and practically apply all the examples and finish everything in a months time. I only found Destroying Constructors and Delegates, Events chapter to be a bit more difficult but on the whole the book is a treat. I have already bought his book Programming C# third edition also for adavanced programming. Best part I forgot to say is that Jesse personally answers to all your queries which is really handful. I sincerely reccommend this book.

Regards
Nitin

This book is a gentle introduction to C#, the .NET platform, and object-oriented programming. But by gentle, I do not mean weak. There is a wealth of basic foundational instruction in not only the "what", but also the "why's" of the language.

One of the problems I have always had with programming books is that the authors are great technical people, but not-so-great communicators. This book is a refreshing exception to that rule.
Instead of assuming a certain level of knowledge, the author is patiently detail-oriented towards giving you a full understanding of the code you are writing, not just slapping together a bunch of esoteric functions and variables.

If want a clear understanding of both "what" you are doing and "why" you are doing it in C#, this book is for you!

There seems to be some confusion about this book, with some reviews denegrating the book because it is too elementary.

This book is designed for the beginning programmer, or the programmer with little or no object oriented experience. As such, it does not attack the more advanced topics I cover in "programming C#" (also by O'Reilly).

If you are looking for a comprehensive introduction to the language for an intermediate to advanced programmer, this is not the book for you, but if you are looking for a gentle introduction to .NET and C# in particular and object oriented programming in general, I hope you will take a look at this book.

Thank you.

Perhaps this would be a good book for a first-time programmer, I don't know. But for an experienced programmer, it is way too elementary. The same author has another book that is aimed at experienced programmers. Perhaps that is better. Instead, I got _Professional C#_.

I just finished reading this book and I think it is a good starting point for learning the language. Some of the other reviews say "it didn't cover this" and "it didn't cover that", but I think the book accomplishes the task. It teaches a beginner the basics of the language. It's not going to teach everything about programming in C#, it just starts you on the path. I thought it was very readable and the author explains concepts very well. This book was so interesting that I want to learn more about the language. The next book I read will definitely be "Programming C#" by the same author. If you are a seasoned programmer and want to learn advanced topics, this is not the book for you. If you are new to programming and want a good start, I highly recommend this book.

I am most impressed with the examples in this book. The author clearly has a knack of weeding out irrelevancies that might cloud the issue. His examples deliver the main point of the subject matter quite adeptly. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn C#.

As a side note though, this book is not for readers who want to learn the advanced features of C#.

One of the great benefits of using C# is the ability to use the many built in methods. This book covers very few of them. It doesn't even cover the common ones like Math and DateTime. If you're looking for a book to cover fundamental C programming, this may work. If you're looking for an introduction to the new features and methods within C# specifically, this ISN'T it.

Clearly and accessibly written by Jesse Liberty (President of Liberty Associates, Inc. which provides .NET training, contract programming, and consulting services), Learning C# is a straightforward and "reader friendly" instructional guide to the fundamentals of C# and .NET programming. Individual chapters address the basics of object-oriented programming, essentials of the C# language, and the basic concepts that any C# programmer needs to understand such as inheritance and polymorphism, overloading operators, throwing and catching exceptions, looping and branching, string objects, debugging, and other such integral building blocks of solid programming. Learning C# is an especially excellent reference source, particularly for programmers new to C# language.

I would never recommend just 1 book to learn a new language or to study for a certification exam. As a matter of fact, I would recommend several books and C# is no exception. C# is a new programming language and it will take several books to be proficient with it. When you use several authors from different publishers, you get a better understanding of that subject. Jesse Liberty's book "Learning C#" is a good primer for the novice developer or to a person who knows a little bit about Visual Basic 6.0. For a more experienced developer I would recommend several other books such as Jesse Liberty's "Programming C#".

Pros:
There are ample examples in every chapter to demonstrate the principles the author is trying to convey. The important changes are highlighted in bold. This makes for easy reading. Jesse Liberty tries to cover all of the basics and then some. This book was published after the initial release of Visual Studio.Net, so you do not get the errata associated books that were published during the beta.

Cons:
The readers of this book (Learning C#) will find that it is not a good book if you want to learn how to program C# for Windows or Web applicatons. Approximately 90% of this book covers "console" applications. Jesse tries to explain that the fundamentals of C# are best learned if the user does not have the extra baggage that Windows or Web development have but I have to question how much "real-world" development is done using console mode. The author skims over the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and the very first application is actually created using Notepad. The basics of the IDE are covered in Chapter 4. In Chapter 10, the author uses the IDE to demonstrate debugging. Some of the screen shots (which are in Chapters 4, 10, 12, and 16) of the IDE are hard to read. Not impossible to read, just hard to read. They have been reduced down in size to the point that someone without perfect vision will have a hard time reviewing these screen prints. In chapter 3 (Object-Oriented Programming), the author states that the 3 pillars of OOP are encapsulation, specialization, and polymorphism. The other books that I have read call these encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism respectively. In chapter 11, the author does some back-tracking and substitutes inheritance for specialization.

Overall this is book is good but it could be better. I would also recommend several other books including Robert Orberg's "Introduction to C# using .Net" and Klaus Michelsen's "C# Primer Plus". With all three books, you will get a solid foundation for C# and then you could go on to the more advanced C# books.

I cruised through the first seven chapters, but I got bogged down in the eighth. So I went to the author's Delphi forum and posted a couple of questions. Received four answers promptly, two by JL himself. And he even apologized (!) for being less than perfect.

Yeah, the book is intelligent, well organized, entertaining, blah blah...but who cares? With this kind of support from the author, you are just about guaranteed success.

Speaking as a novice programmer myself, I found Liberty's title a very readable introduction to C#, not to mention .NET, Visual Studio .NET, and related concepts (e.g., ASP.NET). In working towards the MCAD, I felt comfortable with Microsoft's training kits. However, wanted a better foundation in C#, as I plan to make that my emphasis, even though my [limited] background is in Visual Basic. There may be better titles out there; but for someone in a similar situation, it's hard not to recommend success.

...my familiarity with other O'Reilly titles leads me to think that this would be the ideal C# intro, if compactness is a concern, and paper is preferred over cathode rays.

If you expect anything other than a primer, you probably will be let down. That includes if you're not actually up to primer level: if you're absolutely new to programming, make this a 2nd title, after a more basic and general intro.

Jesse Liberty has written an excellent introduction to C# entitled, "Programming C#". That book required some background in an object oriented language such as Java or C++ to get the most out of it. This book is geared for the less experienced developer. "Learning C#" covers basically the first half of "Programming C#" in about 50% more pages. A person without a background in OO will find this book much easier to follow. The book covers the language a little slower, gives more hand holding, and even gives an introduction to Visual Studio. Of course, none of the advanced topics in "Programming C#" (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Web Services, etc.) are found in this book. The author has a nice style of writing that makes the topics easy to follow. His examples are clear and there are plenty of them. All the basic C# topics are covered including control structures, enums, structs, delegates, operator overloading, polymorphism, interfaces, and collections. The topics covered demonstrate the main features of OO languages without being overwhelming. However, the book is not a complete introduction to C#. Some topics are left out (I/O for example). But overall, the book is a good introduction for the novice object-oriented programmer. If you already have some OO experience then you will probably want to get "Programming C#". If object oriented programming (or just programming in general) is new to you then this would be a good place to start.