C#Builder Kick Start

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book From The C# Expert
Review: "C# Builder Kick Start" is not just an intro to the subject, but the standard text that no one should be without. I was attracted to this author because of his previous great book entitled "C# Unleashed". If you desire the power and quick development of C# Builder, then this is THE book to take you by the hand and lead you into tremendous productivity. I highly recommend it!
Going through this book carefully, you will not only learn, but you will "own" the technologies of C#, the .NET platform and C# Builder. I appreciate the foundational concepts that are established and then built upon step by step. The following subjects are comfortably dealt with; basic and advanced C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Debugging, Forms, Security, Events, Web Services, XML, with many others.
The code samples are thought out and well written so that you will probably use them with your own projects. I can't imagine a book better written, more concise or able to make you more productive. Kudos once again to author Joe Mayo!

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Book From The C# Expert
Review: "C# Builder Kick Start" is not just an intro to the subject, but the standard text that no one should be without. I was attracted to this author because of his previous great book entitled "C# Unleashed". If you desire the power and quick development of C# Builder, then this is THE book to take you by the hand and lead you into tremendous productivity. I highly recommend it!
Going through this book carefully, you will not only learn, but you will "own" the technologies of C#, the .NET platform and C# Builder. I appreciate the foundational concepts that are established and then built upon step by step. The following subjects are comfortably dealt with; basic and advanced C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Debugging, Forms, Security, Events, Web Services, XML, with many others.
The code samples are thought out and well written so that you will probably use them with your own projects. I can't imagine a book better written, more concise or able to make you more productive. Kudos once again to author Joe Mayo!

Rating:
Summary: Recommended Reading
Review: Recommended Reading

After having taken the time to learn C# and create the first .NET training offerings for Borland in 2003, I relied heavily upon both the Microsoft documentation as well as hefty tomes like Jason Price's "Mastering Visual C# .NET". For this reason, when Joe first contacted me and asked me to read his book, I was skeptical. After reading it however, I feel that it is one of the better books on using C#, let alone Borland's C# Builder. I found the coverage of WinForms, Web Forms, ASP.NET, and even related security concerns to encompass material that I had to painstakingly dig up from over six (6) other sources when I first learned .NET.

Book Overview: After the required orientation to .NET and C# Builder, Joe begins his book with an easy to understand explanation of .NET that anyone not already familiar with the language should enjoy. His propensity to clearly segregate topics that he considers to be "beginner" or "intermediate" is encouraging. (The segregation is a good way to help people avoid being intimidated by more complex topics, or to concentrate on the basics that they might first need to build some experience in before tackling more advanced topics. Nice job!)

I found the evolutionary style of subject presentation to be very good as well. By beginning to delve into areas such as how to use the command-line compiler, as well as how to configure C# Builder, the first time C# Developer will defiantly be able to find some morale boosting victories early on in this read. If you are new to C# but have some other programming experience, then I recommend working the example as you encounter them, and then playing with them to make them into something more. This approach will yield some excellent surprises when you return to the book to see what Joe is cooking up next.

In general I found the presentation to be reminiscent of the training that I created for Borland with some pleasant surprises. For example, while errors with the initial release of ADO.NET prevented us from covering too much Borland-specific database know-how in Borland's first training release, Joe's coverage of Borland's support for ADO.NET arrived after the bugs had been squashed. Like Borland's training, Joe's book is up to date with the latest practices.

I believe that this book stands a good deal higher that the rest of the C# training pack at the moment. Moreover, being that the trail to creating a book such as this one is never an easy one to brave for a 1.x product release, I can easily round my initial 4.5 stars up to the amazon-supported 5. I appreciate the work that Joe had to put into this book!

In short, if you are going to brave the new .NET world using Borland's tools, then I recommend buying this book.

Randall Nagy
President, Soft9000.com
(Former Principal Trainer for Borland Software Corporation)