Conventions Used in This Book

This book uses several conventions to help you prioritize and reference the information it contains.

HEADLINE SIDEBARS

Sidebars contain special tips, warnings, and extra facts that are related to the text where they are found. They provide a way for me to communicate with you while preserving the natural flow of information for the concepts you are learning in the normal text. One of the ways I use them is to emphasize important topics, so you may find them very helpful.

Various typefaces are used to make code and input easily distinguishable from regular text:

• Program code appears in a special monospace font.

• Placeholders words or characters used temporarily to represent the real words or characters you would type in code are typeset in italic monospace.

• Material that you are instructed to type appears in bold monospace.

In addition, the following special elements provide information beyond the basic instructions:

SHOP TALK

In most of the chapters, I like to discuss subjects related to the text when I have more personal experiences to share. This is what I use Shop Talks for. Sometimes what I say in a Shop Talk may be considered opinion, and you'll have to judge for yourself whether it applies to your situation. I hope that you find my Shop Talks to be thought-provoking and helpful.

From concept to deployment, C#Builder Kick Start provides the information you need to begin building .NET applications with Borland C#Builder for Microsoft .NET.

I'm very interested in hearing your comments about C#Builder Kick Start. You are welcome to contact me at [e-mail]. I also operate the C# Station Web site, http://www.csharp-station.com, and have discussion forums specifically for supporting C#Builder Kick Start and my other books and writing.