Who This Book Is For

Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook is written for programmers who are already familiar with previous version of C# (C# 1.0 or 1.1) and who have used a previous version of Visual Studio .NET (either 2002 or 2003) to build Windows (Windows Forms) or web-based (ASP.NET) applications. My aim is to introduce you, through a series of hands-on labs, to the new features of the C# 2.0 language, the .NET 2.0 Framework, and the Visual Studio 2005 developer environment.

To get the most out of this book you'll need a copy of Visual Studio 2005 that supports C# programming. I encourage you to work your way through the labs as they are purposefully small and to the point. However, the complete source code, along with an errata sheet, a FAQ list, and links to a private support discussion center, are available on my web site, http://www.LibertyAssociates.com (just click Books and scroll down to Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook), or at the O'Reilly web page for this book, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/visualcadn.

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Tip: This book went to press before the final release of Beta 2 was ready. All screenshots and code were validated against the February 2005 Community Techinal Preview. For final Beta 2 changes, please visit the O'Reilly web site for this book or visit my own web site.

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Visual C# 2005: A Developer's Notebook covers very little of the material an experienced C# programmer already knows. My goal is to help you build on your current knowledge, not to waste your time demonstrating old material.

Similarly, this book does not try to be exhaustive when it comes to building Windows and web applications with the .NET 2.0 Framework or the Visual Studio 2005 developer environment. The goal is to introduce you to what is new in the language, the development environment, and the class libraries, and to equip you for further exploration of those areas that are likely to be of interest to you.

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Tip: If you are not yet familiar with C# and Visual Studio, you might prefer to read Programming C# (O'Reilly), which teaches the entire language without assuming you are already an experienced .NET programmer.If you are a proficient VB.NET (as opposed to VB6) programmer, on the other hand, read on; this book will teach you what you need to know to make the jump from VB.NET to C# 2.0, all in one go. (Although you'll have to work a bit harder than a C# 1.x programmer, I believe you'll find that most of the syntactic differences between VB and C# are trivial and obvious.) For more information, see the C# AND VB.NET Conversion Pocket Reference (O'Reilly).

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