Acknowledgments

James's acknowledgements:

To Sondra Scott, both for the opportunity to do this book as well as just being a great person to work for!

To Wendy for her wonderful contributions, Carol Bowers, Ginny Bess, Joel Mueller, Deon Schaffer, and everyone else that had a hand in this book ”thanks guys!

To Matt Wagner at Waterside Productions for all his help behind the scenes.

To my wife and children for always supporting and encouraging me through these projects. You are the best!

Finally, a special thanks to Mike Pizzo at Microsoft for his contributions to the ADO.NET chapter.

Wendy's acknowledgements:

I would like to thank Sondra Scott for giving me the opportunity to work on this great project. I would also like to thank Ginny Bess and Carol Bowers for making sure everything came together and technical editors Joel and Deon for making sure this new technology worked the way I said it did. Also, special thanks to Peter Farquharson, David Marcato, Deon Schaffer, and Larry Wall for helping to get this project started on a good foundation.

To James Foxall, I have enjoyed reading your VB .NET book, and it has been a great pleasure working with you on this C# book.

A big thanks goes out to my husband, Dave, for his constant support in all my projects and for always believing in me.

To Olga and Alfonso, thank you for all the support, encouragement, and love you have always given me.

Finally, thanks to all my relatives and friends for buying this book!

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Tell Us What You Think!

As the reader of this book, you are our most important critic and commentator. We value your opinion and want to know what we're doing right, what we could do better, what areas you'd like to see us publish in, and any other words of wisdom you're willing to pass our way.

As an Associate Publisher for Sams Publishing, I welcome your comments. You can fax, e-mail, or write me directly to let me know what you did or didn't like about this book ”as well as what we can do to make our books stronger.

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When you write, please be sure to include this book's title and author as well as your name and phone or fax number. I will carefully review your comments and share them with the author and editors who worked on the book.

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Introduction

With Microsoft's introduction of the .NET platform, a new, exciting programming language was born. C# is the language of choice for developing on the .NET platform, and Microsoft has even written a majority of the .NET Framework using C#. C# is a modern object-oriented language designed and developed from the ground up with a best-of-breed mentality , implementing and expanding on the best features and functions found in other languages. C# combines the power and flexibility of C++ with the simplicity of Visual Basic.

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Audience and Organization

This book is targeted toward those who have little or no programming experience. The book has been structured and written with a purpose, and that is to get you productive as quickly and as smoothly as possible. I've used my experiences from writing large commercial applications to create a book that, hopefully, cuts through the fluff and teaches you what you need to know. All too often, authors fall into the trap of focusing on the technology rather than on the practical application of the technology. I've worked hard to keep this book focused on teaching you practical skills that you can apply immediately toward a development project. Please feel free to send me your suggestions or success stories at jamesf@tigerpawsoftware.com.

This book is divided into five parts, each of which focuses on a different aspect of developing applications with C#. These parts generally follow the flow of tasks you'll perform as you begin creating your own programs using C#. I recommend that you read them in the order in which they appear.

Part I The Visual Studio Environment teaches you about the Visual Studio's C# development environment, including how to navigate and access ' numerous tools. In addition, you'll learn some key development concepts such as objects, collections, and events.
Part II Building a User Interface shows you how to build attractive and functional user interfaces. In this part, you'll learn about forms and controls ”the user-interface elements such as text boxes and list boxes.
Part III Making Things Happen ”Programming! teaches you the nuts and bolts of C# programming ”and there's a lot to learn. You'll discover how to create methods , as well has how to store data, perform loops , and make decisions in code. After you've learned the core programming skills, you'll move into object-oriented programming and debugging applications.
Part IV Working with Data introduces you to working with a database and shows you how to automate external applications such as Word and Excel. In addition, this part teaches you how to manipulate a user's file system.
Part V Deploying Solutions and Beyond shows you how to distribute an application that you've created to an end user's computer. Then, the focus is brought back a bit to take a look at Web programming and Microsoft's .NET initiative from a higher, less-technical level.