C# primers

So, for reasons bureaucratic related to my master's degree, I've been taking a .NET class. I don't especially recommend taking courses in things you already largely know--especially if long-distance. If you're going to disagree with someone on a philosophical or stylistic point of code, you don't want to do so by email.

Anyway, one of my classmates asked the class,

> What outside reference materials, books, sites, personal advice, etc
> would you recommend for someone with a subpar knowledge of C#/.net in
> regards to this class?

My reply was lengthy enough that it now becomes its own post. It's old hat but I wanted a copy in the archive.

* * *

One of MS's top developer blogs is Scott Guthrie's. He was away over the summer for paternity leave but is gearing up again lately. He writes lots of "how to" pieces and overview pieces about new releases or forthcoming products. He's very senior, so if scottgu's not writing about it, he's probably the boss of someone who is and thus will have a link to it. The comments on his blogs are often useful, too. Extensive archives to search.

Another top blogger is Scott Hanselman, who went to MS about a year ago after being CTO at a firm that got bought. His job now is more or less to evangelize MS developer technologies to the community and advocate for developer issues within MS. His writing is good, and the
comments on his blog entries are usually very smart.

I mostly read the articles but he has a podcast and frequent screencasts, too. Be careful, though: Hanselman is co-author of "Professional ASP.NET in C# and VB", a book that, in my opinion, is a waste of time, money, and trees. It basically repeats what is obvious from the APIs and docs: no useful advice or insight. The code samples are trivial. If I were Hanselman, I'd take my name off the book.

I agree with others' assessments of Jeffrey Richter's main .NET book. Really good but dense. He has a blog but doesn't post much.

Richter is also a contributor to "Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries", which is very good at filling a certain niche. The book is almost like a printout of a blog: there are two main authors but several other contributors (such as Richter) whose comments are in sidebars throughout the text. This book won't help you learn how to write your first C# program; it's mostly an explanation of various decisions that
were made by the people who designed the .NET Framework, and recommendations on what "programming in a .NET style" might mean. It also provides anecdotally interesting insight into the amount and styles of usability testing that MS does with its developer tools. (These guys are all very smart, but they realize that they're writing tools for an entire industry of developers, not just the world's elite. When I get worked up about MS doing something stupid, it's nice to be reminded that sometimes MS omits effective solutions not out of raw incompetence but because they want to be all things to all people.) Anyway, if you're someone whose learning/retention is
improved by understanding why* the framework is a certain way, or if you just enjoy deeper understanding, this book can be very helpful.

Joe Duffy is another very smart guy who writes well, and he's written a book for beginners: Professional .NET Framework 2.0. I've only had it for a few weeks but I've liked all the parts I've read. His blog is very technical. He works at MS on parallel programming extensions
to the .NET framework.

If you're going to work professionally on ASP.NET, read Stephen Walther. His "ASP.NET 3.5 Unleased" is my favorite ASP.NET book so far, and his blog has been a steady stream lately of
interesting experiments with the forthcoming ASP MVC framework.

Eric Lippert works on .NET language and developer stuff at MS. Very smart and reflective about how tools and languages relate to good design. He's for professional developers; not recommended fo people who haven't programmed much or who don't plan to. Really wonderful
stuff, though.