Head First C#: A Learner's Guide to Real-World Programming with C#, XAML, and .NET

Head First Series

by Jennifer Greene, Andrew Stellman

Head First C# is a complete learning experience for object-oriented programming, C#, and the Visual Studio IDE. Built for your brain, this book covers C# 3.0 and Visual Studio 2008, and teaches everything from language fundamentals to advanced topics including garbage collection, extension methods, and double-buffered animation. You'll also master C#'s hottest and newest syntax, LINQ, for querying SQL databases, .NET collections, and XML documents. By the time you're through, you'll be a proficient C# programmer, designing and coding large-scale applications.Every few chapters you will come across a lab that lets you apply what you've learned up to that point. Each lab is designed to simulate a professional programming task, increasing in complexity until-at last-you build a working Invaders game, complete with shooting ships, aliens descending while firing, and an animated death sequence for unlucky starfighters. This remarkably engaging book will have you going from zero to 60 with C# in no time flat.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Computer Science, Nonfiction, Technical, Computers, Education

1919 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 26, 2007

About the author

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(3)brain-friendly guides

Reviews

[Miloš · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting...

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting approach to learning a new computer programming language. I was quite impressed with how well the information is presented and how each lesson builds upon the next. This is definitely a "learning" book, not a reference book but I was pleased with my progress stepping through each chapter. Keep in mind that the layout of the book may not appeal to some, especially those who are strongly geared toward "textbook" style programming books. That said, I felt the layout reinforced concepts that may have otherwise been lost. The only downside I found was having trouble with some of the exercises and finding it difficult to find the exact page where a topic was discussed.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like the rest of the Head First books I have read, it's a solid and even entertaining approach to introducing someone to a topic. While I am an experienced programmer, I haven't touched anything related to .NET since it first appeared on the horizon. Again, like the others, it's not going to be a great reference book later, but it is literally a jump-start into the subject. Keep them coming Head First, even if it's a topic I don't need, I have never hesitated to recommend your books for others. In fact this one is out on loan to a friend.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book really got me more interested in C#, .NET, and OOP. In many ways it only scratches the surface, but then again if you are somewhat of a beginner or even just someone who can code but doesn't know a lot about what is going on underneath the covers (like I was at the time) it dives quite deep while keeping things interesting. There are three labs in the book where you write small games in C#. The last one, space invaders, was one of the most fun times I've had programming so far.

[Steve Malley · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you have not tried these books for learning, they are a terrific series from O'Reilly Publishing. I had to drop this for other work. It is a good book, but you have to use the specific C# Express and SQL Express they are using. This means that the book will get old fast.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are lots of mistakes, examples which are not clear for me even if they are supposed to be easy and "brain-friendly". I think those types of books are experimental (or a another way to make you buy the stuff you don't need), and will never try anything like this anymore. I'd rather have simple straight-to-the-point explanation. All that sweet sugar and back stories will be forgotten 5 minutes after reading so what's the point.

I like the long exercises, they are fun and are challenging, but there are some mistakes in the explanations which are frustrating.

The other pros is I got the feeling that it was written by people who are actual developers and the way of though will be useful at work.

Additional chapters are downloadable, nice, but I'd rather have them on paper.

[William Lennox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super informative book with a lot of real life application build examples. This was the first book i read for c# and it got me going in the right direction and it was easy to follow and understand. If anyone is wanting to begin coding then this would be the first book i recommend they take a look at. This would be best for people who want to learn how to make desktop applications for windows based computers. It keeps the focus on just building desktop applications. In the first chapter you start off building a contact managerment system with a database for the backend which can be useful in just about any business that someone might be in.

[MICHAEL LUKIMAN · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still remember the tiger. The Headfirst series to this day is an immensely lovable concept. Some books of the set may be misses, but their principles of making learning exciting, especially for those who aren't in the classroom yet, are one of the most valuable things you can do. I still remember the simple cylinder drawings representing objects. My first linear dive with formalized, non-scripty computer science. Some of the examples were outdated so I had to genuinely debug the tutorials...perfect strategy, O'Reilly. Hats off.

[Jesús · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think the style is not for me, I get it and sometimes it can be friendly and easy to understand, but when is not, it's a complete mess.

I can recommend this book if you want lo learn, specially from a beginner level, but no if you are looking for a reference book or if you came with experience from another language.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.

It was a full resource. From start to finish C#.

By the end of this book, you will know Lambdas, Lists, Dictionaries, etc.

A lot of this book I already know well. But, I really enjoyed the programming examples and continually improved some of my own applications alongside reading.

Highly recommended!

4.8/5

[Azat Sulaev · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me fall in love with C#. I'm planning to migrate from VB.NET to C#, because Microsoft's support for the VB.NET is diminishing. Initially I didn't like the syntax (curly braces and semicolons), but despite that this book showed how much C# is awesome and presented in a such engaging way. Thanks to Andrew Stellman.

[Quoc Bao · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for beginner with many pictures and examples, especially these Unity Game Labs very exciting, as I'm really love game development. For those of you who are new to programming, consider Head First Programming, which is more beginner-friendly to read.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Для старта, то что надо.

[Kwuang · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of the first programming books i read, is super hands-on + not boring, great for beginners learning programming as it covers a lot of OOP concepts and other programming concepts too

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've done the 3rd edition which was an absolute blast. All topics in this book are project-driven which makes it practical and fun. I wish I had the 4th edition because it's newer.

[Stéphane Thinel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not remember the details but I remember I loved the approach of this book. It was graphically fine

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started this book a few days ago and so far it's been an excellent read. The examples are a great base to start from and the exercises are a great way to become more familiar.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really solid intro book for someone who is new to C# and especially to object-oriented programming.

[Jake Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing coding book. I received this for an internship so I could learn skills on the job.

(C# is my favorite programming language)

[Jesus Perez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like this book, but I stopped just under the halfway mark. I have previous experience with Java, so going through the concepts was a bit boring and tedious. However, this is a good book for complete beginners and I highly recommend it if you're learning to code. If you already know another language, this book might not be for you.

The only real complain I have about this book is with the kindle version. Large images get cropped on the right side, so text and diagrams inside the image get cut off as well and it's difficult to follow.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I already have some knowledge of programming languages like Java, so this book was quite easy to read. I have read a few Head First series and I like the way they present information (diagrams, Q&As, etc).

It got a bit boring for me though, but I'm probably not the group's target audience. This book focuses on Visual C# and Winforms, but for a challenge I implemented the exercises using MonoDevelop and GTK# instead. Exercises are quite interesting... Beehive simulator, space invaders...

[Aaronichi · Rating 4 out of 5]

book: Head First C#

* always programming or otherwise doing something
* not a clinical, boring white paper
* engaging graphics and use of second person form
* forms great habits to create elegant, and readable code
*structured for maximized speed, accessibility and retention
*it is O'Reilly after all

+1 for the Safari trial of the book

[Kate B · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book for learning C# and Object-oriented programming in general. They walk you through decent examples and explain everything pretty well. It's also not as dry as most programming books are, but not so jokey as to be condescending, as the * For Dummies books can be

[Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol my school book.

Not to bad, easy to follow after the first 5 chapters once you get used to the layout.

[Erik-jan Van]

Awesome book which explains complex methods using all day examples

[Topilno]

Creating Web Pages for Dummies

[Patrick]

yup too much "hoorah, let's have fun" for my taste in tech manuals. Probably good, but not for me

[Lemuel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Doesn't cover any threading, how can you write a c# gui app without threading?

[Mark]

So far very well laid out, and gives great real-life examples. Hopefully, it'll help sharpen up my skills and fill in some of the blanks for me

[Fsgaston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book for learning C#, but assumes previous knowledge of programming. This is not a book for learning how to program. It is for learning C#.