1.0 Introduction

For several generations, the most widely sold toys have been those that allow you to take small simple objects and combine them to create a replica of some real-world object. Initially starting out as a large pile of plastic blocks with varying shapes and colors, they can transform into a multistage ignition rocket ship or an elegant mansion without a roof.

Toys aren't the only place we see this sort of design. Almost everywhere you look, this piecewise refinement is evident in many facets of everyday life. Cars aren't built using a myriad of non-connecting objects but rather are assembled from smaller pieces to form the engine, for instance, which is then used as a component in the final automobile. Using another example, a company contains employees who form a team. These teams combine to form a section or business unit, and these units group together to form the corporation. In fact, this type of organization doesn't just make sense in the physical realm but is prevalent in many natural things as well.

Based on this concept, it comes as no surprise that software is logically divided into smaller pieces that contribute to a solution when assembled. At the lower levels of the programming language construct hierarchy are the operator, the expression, and the control structure. An expression is any group of operators and operands that are combined to perform some type of computation, such as setting a variable, calling a function, or performing a system- related task.

In this chapter, we look at all the various C# language elements that are available to construct an application. From the basic layout of a small console application to using overloaded operators to change the semantic meaning of objects, this chapter points out the various options you have at your disposal to efficiently design your next Visual C# .NET application.