Just curious if anyone has any opinions? I really like the sounds of the book. I'm sort of reading two tutorials that are online pertaining to learning c#. I only have knowledge of some intro courses, so it's my first real language that I'm concentrating on. I'm reading two of them, because sometimes one tutorial will explain something better than the other and vice versa. I've read about the Head First C# book and I'm 99.9% sure I"m going to buy it and go through it.

Any opinions about it?

I have seen that head first book as well as the ones for javascript, object oriented design and analysis, HTML and Java. They are a very slick and laid back type of book which can be great for people who often think most programming books are way too dry. They have nice pictures and some good info but I find the extent of their info a bit lacking. As you can imagine, a book with lots of pictures and such take a lot of space where good content and tables could be. So while it may help you learning the basics, it by all means won't get into the heavy stuff and give you a well rounded and in depth read.

I must say that one book that I have seen lately that totally rocks is Illustrated C# for 2008. That has some good stuff in it and comes with many visual examples and diagrams. If you read the content and not quite understand, you can look at the diagram and almost always you will quickly get the idea. I would have bought it this weekend if I hadn't already known most of the topics actually covered in the book. At about 45.00 CAD it wouldn't have been worth it for me to really get maybe two chapters of really new info. But I highly recommend it for those learning for sure.

The head first series is nice too, but like I said, if you want to master a language it can only take you so far.

I guess one thing I like about the book, is it has a lot of coding exercises. The tutorials don't really have any and I'm not really diving into "so called practicing coding". But I am still learning alot from reading and looking at code examples. I'm concentrating on some theory's right now for the most part and definitions. plus some coding.

If you are looking for a book with tons of practice questions and little side projects, then the book to read for that is the Deitel How to Program with C#. I have provided a link below. The Deitel books are thick and a bit pricey (The java one was 107-120 CAD but totally worth it) and have lots of extra stuff, colored syntax examples and printed on nice paper.

Visual C# 2008 How to Program by Deitel

Next time you are in the bookstore look for it and give it a go.

Does this book treat you like your a beginner "or at least somewhat of a beginner" or is it more like a book you buy after you have already dived into other types of books that have practice coding questions and/or side projects. Such as the Head First C# book for example.

This post has been edited by legend_018: 9 Oct, 2008 - 02:31 PM

Hi, not sure about that book, but I have a copy of Visual C# Step By Step and that is pretty good because it treats you as an absolute beginner but at the same time doesn't patronise you. It's examples are sometimes a bit wayward but the explanations are generally good! So I would recommend that, but I'm sure you cant go wrong with most books