The Unleashed series from Sams Publishing is a great resource for developers and those learning C#. Sams has published several books in this series since the launch of .NET, and Visual C# .NET 2003 Unleashed is the latest addition to the series. This book is somewhat bulky. This is because the Unleashed series covers all the concepts right from the very beginning. The book also covers advanced tips and techniques involved with C# programming.
This book has been divided into nine parts and 45 chapters. In order to understand the concepts, you should install Visual C# .NET 2003 on your system. If you are looking for console-based C# development, then you should check out C# Unleashed by Joe Mayo, also published by Sams.
Each part of this book begins with a section titled 'In Brief' that contains a brief introduction, and two subsections such as 'What You Need' and 'At a Glance'. Each chapter also includes short tips that help you to perform complex tasks in an easy manner and supplement the main content. At the end of each chapter, the authors provide a short summary and a list of books for further reading. I must say that the authors have worked hard to present the content in a clear manner.
Part 1 of this book examines the Visual Studio .NET IDE with the help of tables, screenshots, and the required explanations.
Part 2 contains 12 chapters and covers C# fundamentals such as arrays, delegates, reflection, assemblies, and COM. Chapter 14 of this part deals with high performance programming and includes a short introduction to garbage collection, memory management, and best practices to be followed when programming with C#.
Part 3 of the book thoroughly examines Windows applications and includes an introduction to Windows Forms, .NET controls, Web Services, and smart clients. The authors have provided a short chapter on smart clients, with the help of a small example. This part ends with a chapter dedicated to the deployment of Windows applications, with the help of examples.
Parts 4 and 5 of this book examine the development of applications using ASP.NET and ADO.NET. This book examines the database concepts elaborately in addition to Windows and Web-based data bindings.
Part 6 deals with Web services. Even though Web Services have been examined in Chapter 18, Part 6 covers it in a detailed manner with an introduction to Web Service Enhancements (WSE 2.0).
Part 7 examines security aspects of .NET.
The final two parts of Visual C# .NET 2003 Unleashed examine advanced topics such as remoting, Enterprise Templates, debugging, and testing. The final chapter covers C# 2.0 concepts such as generics, anonymous methods, partial types, iterators, and much more.
No doubt, readers will get expert advice with the help of this excellent book. Beginners can start with the introductory chapters and then gradually move on to learn complex concepts. The book examines advanced topics such as smart clients, remoting, and WSE in a comprehensive manner. I feel that a disk containing a trial version of Visual Studio .NET would be a good addition to this book. The book should also accommodate a project at the end so that readers will get real world experience. An interesting aspect of this book is that it doesn’t include an Acknowledgements section.
It seems that the authors don’t maintain a website for the support of this book. However, you will find more information about the book from the publisher’s website. You can also download complete source code in ZIP format, and view the table of contents and a sample chapter.
Overall, Microsoft Visual C# .NET 2003 Unleashed is an excellent, advanced reference manual for C# developers. This book can also be placed in user group libraries for ready reference by its members.
About the Book
Microsoft Visual C# .NET 2003 Unleashed
By Kevin Hoffman & Lonny Kruger
Sams Publishing
1008 Pages
USD 59.99
****
Reviewed by Anand Narayanaswamy (Microsoft MVP - www.netans.com)