Rating: 
Summary: The essentials of C#
Review: Although written for the Beta1 release of .NET, I found very few version related problems with both understanding the text and running the sample code. In fact, any version inconsistencies were more related to the BCL than they were the language specification. If you are a programmer, and more specifically, a programmer already familiar with OOD principles, I think this is a great book. Please, note, however, that this book is not meant to be a thorough explanation of the .NET Framework itself, nor is it a tutorial in OOD. It is a quick dive into the C# language. This book will be a great reference to have on the shelf._howard
Rating:
Summary: good language reference
Review: Although written for the Beta1 release of .NET, I found very few version related problems with both understanding the text and running the sample code. In fact, any version inconsistencies were more related to the BCL than they were the language specification. If you are a programmer, and more specifically, a programmer already familiar with OOD principles, I think this is a great book. Please, note, however, that this book is not meant to be a thorough explanation of the .NET Framework itself, nor is it a tutorial in OOD. It is a quick dive into the C# language. This book will be a great reference to have on the shelf. _howard
Rating:
Summary: Needs to be updated when .Net is final.
Review: Being a professional, I didn't want a "dummies" book. I didn't want an abstract. I wanted the "essential" so that I could start developing today. This book is absolutely the "essentials" and I got what I needed. If you are only going to buy one C# book (and you know what you're doing with programming languages), this is a good one. My only complaint with this book was the lack of discussion on using C# in ASP.NET. (Probably should be another book altogether, but it should at least be mentioned.) Next, I need a definative reference of the .Net framework. Does anybody know of any released?
Rating:
Summary: Needs to be updated when .Net is final.
Review: Being a professional, I didn't want a "dummies" book. I didn't want an abstract. I wanted the "essential" so that I could start developing today. This book is absolutely the "essentials" and I got what I needed. If you are only going to buy one C# book (and you know what you're doing with programming languages), this is a good one. My only complaint with this book was the lack of discussion on using C# in ASP.NET. (Probably should be another book altogether, but it should at least be mentioned.) Next, I need a definative reference of the .Net framework. Does anybody know of any released?
Rating:
Summary: Needs to be updated when .Net is final.
Review: Being a professional, I didn't want a "dummies" book. I didn't want an abstract. I wanted the "essential" so that I could start developing today. This book is absolutely the "essentials" and I got what I needed. If you are only going to buy one C# book (and you know what you're doing with programming languages), this is a good one. My only complaint with this book was the lack of discussion on using C# in ASP.NET. (Probably should be another book altogether, but it should at least be mentioned.) Next, I need a definative reference of the .Net framework. Does anybody know of any released?
Rating: 
Summary: Beta 1
Review: Book is written for Beta 1 (see obsolete).
Rating: 
Summary: A great reference, Concise, Complete, great value for price.
Review: C# Essentials by O'Reilly is a small, yet complete reference of the C# language. In less than 200 pages it contains a complete specification of the language. Having worked with C# since before it was public beta, and the only documentation that existed was a specification within Microsoft, I was surprised to open the book and learn new things about the language that I was not aware of.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the language and it's relation to the .NET programming paradigm. The one issue I had was the use of the term "Component orientation." The use of the overloaded term "Component" to describe a single class has confused many people and its use in here was no different.
Chapter 2 - C# Language Reference
Chapter 2 is a complete reference of the syntax and features of the language. This chapter really shines. It provides complete explanations of the language features without being too wordy. Additionally, it provides real world contexts for using the features that keeps the usefulness out of academia.
One piece that's incongruent with the recommended coding standards published by Microsoft is that the author places curly brackets on the same line as the construct, rather than moving them to the next line.
Chapter 3 - Programming the .NET Framework
Chapter 3 gives a great introduction to the .NET framework as it relates to C# and covers things such as string use, collections, regular expressions, attributes, threading, COM interop, and others.
Chapter 4 - Framework Class Library Overview
Chapter 4 gives a brief overview of where to find major functionality within the .NET framework. It doesn't go into detail of how to use the class library, but does give an overview of where things are. This chapter probably could have been left out, since the framework is well organized into pretty descriptive namespaces, and the book didn't elaborate enough to be useful.
Chapter 5 - Essential .NET Tools Being only 4 pages, this chapter could have probably been called an index. It lists out the utilities distributed with the .NET framework and provides an abstract of their function.
Conclusion
Chapter 2 and 3 alone are worth buying this book. If you're looking for a concise C# reference, or are looking to migrate from C# from another language, this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: A great reference, Concise, Complete, great value for price.
Review: C# Essentials by O'Reilly is a small, yet complete reference of the C# language. In less than 200 pages it contains a complete specification of the language. Having worked with C# since before it was public beta, and the only documentation that existed was a specification within Microsoft, I was surprised to open the book and learn new things about the language that I was not aware of.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
The first chapter gives a brief introduction to the language and it's relation to the .NET programming paradigm. The one issue I had was the use of the term "Component orientation." The use of the overloaded term "Component" to describe a single class has confused many people and its use in here was no different.
Chapter 2 - C# Language Reference
Chapter 2 is a complete reference of the syntax and features of the language. This chapter really shines. It provides complete explanations of the language features without being too wordy. Additionally, it provides real world contexts for using the features that keeps the usefulness out of academia.
One piece that's incongruent with the recommended coding standards published by Microsoft is that the author places curly brackets on the same line as the construct, rather than moving them to the next line.
Chapter 3 - Programming the .NET Framework
Chapter 3 gives a great introduction to the .NET framework as it relates to C# and covers things such as string use, collections, regular expressions, attributes, threading, COM interop, and others.
Chapter 4 - Framework Class Library Overview
Chapter 4 gives a brief overview of where to find major functionality within the .NET framework. It doesn't go into detail of how to use the class library, but does give an overview of where things are. This chapter probably could have been left out, since the framework is well organized into pretty descriptive namespaces, and the book didn't elaborate enough to be useful.
Chapter 5 - Essential .NET Tools Being only 4 pages, this chapter could have probably been called an index. It lists out the utilities distributed with the .NET framework and provides an abstract of their function.
Conclusion
Chapter 2 and 3 alone are worth buying this book. If you're looking for a concise C# reference, or are looking to migrate from C# from another language, this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: The essentials of C#
Review: C# Essentials is perhaps the best, most compact introduction to the C# language that you can find. If you don't have much programming experience and want to get into .NET, I'd suggest finding another book. However, if you're a professional programmer or have some pretty good experience in C, C++, Java, Visual Basic, etc. you'll find this book very accessible and a good introduction to the C# language. While the book has a total of five chapters, there are really only two chapters with any meat to them. Not to say the other three are worthless, they just don't have quite the depth of information contained in the other two. Expect to learn everything you need to know about data types, conversions, access modifiers, interfaces, events and delegates, and even unsafe code (using pointers). The examples are short and to the point. You will probably want more detail or another example for some of the topics covered, but enough is presented to give you a good start.
Rating:
Summary: Good introduction
Review: Good introduction for Java/C++ programmers. I have only one objection: nothing is said about Async delegates. They should have been mentioned in Delegates section.
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