Summary

 

Chapter 4 - Advanced C# Topics
bySimon Robinsonet al.
Wrox Press 2002

  

This chapter has surveyed a number of separate topics in the C# language. We have covered the rich mechanism C# has for dealing with error conditions through exceptions, the ability of casting between different classes and structs, passing methods as parameters via delegates, and the related area of notifying applications of interesting things that have happened , via events. We have looked at the two main ways that C# gives us to control how code is compiled, through preprocessor directives and attributes, before finishing up with a discussion on what happens in-memory in the background and the use of pointers to gain that extra level of performance when you really need it.

We have already seen from previous chapters that C# is a powerful, object oriented language that allows you to write well-structured code that follows the latest object oriented methodologies. In this chapter, we have seen how C# actually goes beyond that to also provide facilities for handling a number of important programming paradigms that apply in specific circumstances on modern operating systems.

Although there are a couple of minor points of syntax that we are leaving until the next chapter we will move on to investigate how C# interacts with the base classes to give you access to powerful programming techniques in a number of other areas, including string handling, custom attributes and threading. We will see how, through the technique of reflection, it is even possible for a C# program to access the assembly that describes its own objects, and those of other applications.