Introducing .NET 4.0 With Visual Studio 2010 Book Review

This book is a smorgasbord of .NET 4.0 goodies. This book does an excellent job of pulling all the new features in .NET 4.0 into one place. It covers the topics in enough detail that you leave the topic understanding what it is about and in many cases with references to find out more. I am currently working as the SME on some of the Microsoft Learning tracks for Visual Studio 2010, so I have had to dig deep into Visual Studio 2010. I wish I would have had this book at the beginning of the project. I have not found anything missing as far as new features go. Below is the table of contents from the book. Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Visual Studio IDE and MEF Chapter 3: Language and Dynamic Changes Chapter 4: CLR and BCL Changes Chapter 5: Parallelization and Threading Enhancements Chapter 6: Windows Workflow Foundation 4 Chapter 7: Windows Communication Foundation Chapter 8: Entity Framework Chapter 9: WCF Data Services Chapter 10: ASPNET Chapter 11: Microsoft AJAX Library Chapter 12: jQuery Chapter 13: ASPNET MVC Chapter 14: Silverlight Introduction Chapter 15: WPF 4.0 and Silverlight 3.0 Chapter 16: Windows Azure The biggest ding to this book is the typos. Holy smokes, editors should not drink on the job. I won’t ding the book the book for that. Another ding is that although they talk about code samples, I cannot find any. They give you the database they used throughout the book, but I have found no use for it without the code to attach to it. All in all I recommend this book to anyone interested in getting up to speed quickly with the new features in .NET 4.0. It is nice to have them all in one place. It is also nice to have them in a book that does not cover every feature. For example an ASP.NET 4.0 book will have every feature in the 4.0 release along with all the past releases. The book is definitely worth the purchase.

The Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Release Candidate (RC) is Available

Microsoft has released the Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Release Candidate (RC).

MSDN subscribers can get it now.

Also check out the Visual Studio 2010 Release Candidate Walkthroughs.

C# 4.0 in a Nutshell Book Review

This book is great. It’s no nonsense approach to covering the C# 4.0 language is like a breath of fresh air. It is clean, to the point, and thorough. It makes finding a topic, and learning it, or getting a refresher, a very fast process. This new version includes new chapters on parallel programming (including PLINQ), and dynamic programming, and new sections on code contracts and COM interoperability. The authors have a great writing style which makes the book a very enjoyable read. You can read this cover to cover, or use it as a very handy reference. You won’t find any case studies, or made up scenarios, to help the authors describe the technology. They stick to writing about the technology, which is nice. One of my favorite features of the book is the way the authors do their diagramming. They include a lot of diagrams that give a visual representation of the feature they are describing. The diagrams really help with getting a quick understanding of the overall picture of the topic. The authors also demonstrate with code that is always easy to understand and within the scope of the topic at hand. You don’t have 2 pages of code with 3 lines highlighted. Another part of this book I love is the way the authors deliver the code samples using LINQPad. I own the full auto completion version of LINQPad and it rocks. I have been using it since its first release and it has become my favorite tool when working with databases. My only complaint about the book is the construction. The gluing job they did is horrible. It has big clumps of glue embedded in the pages which cause the binder to really bend. It will probably fall apart within a month of heavy use. I won’t ding the book for that. It is a publisher issue, not an author issue. All in all I highly recommend this book. It belongs on the shelf of any serious developer. Review Update- The editor of C# 4.0 in a Nutshell Book read my blog and suggested I contact O'Reilly Media for a new copy since my binder was a mess. They made good on the request for a new copy of the C# 4.0 in a Nutshell Book and I received it today with the binder in perfect condition. No glue blobs in between any pages. Hats off to O'Reilly Media!!!!!