Essential C# 4.0, 3rd Edition

The new third edition of ‘Essential C#’ is a thick book that covers a lot of ground. In essence, this aims to describe all the principal features of the C# language from the basics (yes, it does have the traditional ‘Hello World’ program) right through to the advanced ( ‘Event-Based Asynchronous Pattern’ anyone..?).

The book is well structured with each chapter devoted to a clearly defined topic whose various ramifications are illustrated by a little ‘mind map’ on the first page of the chapter. For example, the chapter on Exception Handling shows a ‘map’ with ‘Exception handling’ in a box in the middle with numbered branches sprouting out from it: 1) Multiple Exception Types, 2) Catching Exceptions, 3) General Catch Block, 4) Guidelines and 5) Custom Exceptions. This, it is true, is one of the simpler mind maps. The map in the chapter on multi-threading, for instance, has six main branches with numerous second-level branches too. While this is a neat way to display the themes of a chapter I can’t help thinking it would be more useful if the nodes on the map were numbered with the corresponding pages for easy reference.

The text itself generally takes the form of a technical discussion of specific topics, many of which are illustrated with fairly short bits of code. This edition has been expanded to cover new features such as concurrency and dynamic typing. No particular assumption is made about the reader’s programming background. References are sometimes made to previous versions of C# (from version 1.0 onwards) and certain sections are labelled according to their level of difficulty (e.g. ‘Beginner Topic’ or ‘Advanced Topic’).

A book that addresses such a potentially diverse readership always runs the risk of trying to please too many people too much of the time. On the whole, ‘Essential C# 4.0’ avoids that pitfall. Its careful structure with usefully descriptive crossheads makes this a book that is easy to browse when you need to find information on specific subjects.

In short, in spite of its size, this is not one of those books that is more useful as a doorstop than a reference work. On the contrary, it is a well written and informative book which should be of use to most programmers working with C# 4.0.