C# 2008 Programmer's Reference

Introduction

Since the release of the Microsoft .NET Framework in July 2000, the C# programming language has gone through a few iterations to its latest version, 3.0. Over the years, the C# language has gained a lot of followers, partly due to its syntax, which is familiar to Java and C programmers. The clear syntax of the language made it easy to learn, and it's a popular choice for beginning programmers. In addition, the C# language is gaining a lot of traction in the Visual Basic camp, especially among VB6 programmers, who needed to move to .NET and did not want to learn a totally new variant of the Visual Basic language — Visual Basic .NET.

The latest version of C# 3.0 comes with .NET Framework 3.5. It contains many new features that makes the language more intuitive and powerful. Coupled with Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft's flagship development environment, developing applications using C# is now available to a wide audience.

In writing this book, I used the approach I believe is the easiest way to learn a new language — by examples. Often, books and articles get into too much of the theory without showing the readers what the concept looks like in code. For each topic, I try to provide numerous examples to illustrate the concept, and I would encourage you to make changes to the program to explore further. If you are an experienced programmer, you can jump directly to a particular chapter, as each chapter comes with independent examples.

Who This Book Is For

This book is for programmers ...