.Net Gotchas: 75 Ways to Improve Your C# and VB.NET Programs

by Venkat Subramaniam

Book Overview

Like most complex tasks, .NET programming is fraught with potential costly, and time-consuming hazards. The millions of Microsoft developers worldwide who create applications for the .NET platform can attest to that. Thankfully there's now a book that shows you how to avoid such costly and time-consuming mistakes. It's called .NET Gotchas. The ultimate guide for efficient, pain-free coding, .NET Gotchas from O'Reilly contains 75 common...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596009097
• ISBN13: 9780596009090
• Release Date: June 2005
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 392 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

This book a god-send

.NET Gotchas By Venkat Subramaniam O'Reilly Press ISBN 0596009097 Reviewed by Steven Mullins-HuNTUG member 75 ways to improve your C# and VB.Net programs Thank you for letting me know I was not just going crazy thinking things were not working properly for me. This whole book is for those of us that find things that we can never get to work and now the truth is out. They really don't work. I started this by reading the compiler gotchas and that made me feel a lot better. Being new to the visual studio environment I was very unsure of my code writing since the last time I had to write code we were using simple VB ver.4 scripting so I was not very sure of what I was doing. This book is full of code and talks through the issues and covers things very well. This book stays next to my Visual Studio Developers Notebook. I would give The .NET Gotchas a 5 star rating that book was a god send.

Want to really understand .NET?

At my work, we have a pretty rigorous application process. Once of the most difficult aspects of our application process is the series of very difficult .NET questions, which determine the applicant's understanding of C# and the .NET CLR. If you read this book before taking our .NET test, not only will you pass, but you'll probably be able to put some of the testers to shame. This is one of the best books I've read on the "under the hood" aspects of the CLR. This book is filled with tips (e.g. gotcha #12 - compiler warnings may not be benign), which are then followed by an explanation of what the problem is, and how it can be resolved. In the example above, the author describes how .NET will allow you to do things that you probably shouldn't be allowed to do. In this particular example, the programmer used "=" instead of "==", and failed to mark a method in a derived class with the "override" keyword. This book also does an excellent job describing some of the differences between C# and VB.NET. For example, the author illustrates that the sequence of initialization is not the same between the two languages. In terms of organization, when the author identifies a "gotcha", there is a clear code example provided that exploits the problem. The author even displays a large "X" next to the code, so you know not to use it. After discussing how to resolve the problem, the author usually provides code that is safe to use (which is identified with a large check mark next to it). Without a doubt, this is the best book I have read on the subject of things to look out for in the .NET framework. The issues discussed in this book should be known by every .NET developer. At least read the book before your next job interview.

Absolute MUST-HAVE for BOTH VB & C# Programmers !

There are very few programming books that gives you a sense of "Oh Really ?" after reading them and this is definitely one of those. First of all, be aware that the intended audience for this book is definitely VB.net or C# programmers with experience. If you're a newbie to .Net, then you need to know some stuff before opening this book and therfore it would not be a good value addition for newbies. Okay, I read only Chapter-5 (Garbage Collection Gotchas) in this book so far but from just reading that chapter alone, I got the sense of "Oh Really !". Rarely do you see Garbage Collection discussed in such detail in .Net books, but it is a class act in this book. The concept or Gotcha is explained very clearly without any typos and the code is presented in the book in both VB & C#. Therefore, it is highly useful for both the audience (VB & C#) and also it gives you a sense of what is possible or not-possible in the other language. For example, C# uses ~ for destructor whereas in VB you have to explicitly code the Finalize method. Also, there is no equivalent of "using" in VB although .Net 2.0 introduces it in VB. As far as Chapter-5 is concerned, I had to read the gotchas in order since they kind of build up on the previous one. But, Iam really hoping that I can just read the other Gotchas in no particular order. To Summarize PRO'S : * Code presented in both VB & C# * No typos or obvious errors (atleast in Chapter-5) * Great value addition even if you are just curious and have only a limited time * Gives you a sense of what the other language has or lacks * .Net 2.0 enhancements mentioned alongside so that you know what's coming in the new version CONS : * Really can't think of any unless there is some major conceptual error (I don't think there would be !) BOTTOMLINE : A great value addition to the book collection of VB & C# programmers and an absolute MUST-HAVE !

An effective "Effective C#" book

This book assumes some knowledge with the .NET framework but I think it's approachable to the beginner. Venkat discusses the material in a clear concise manner and even manages to throw in a few jokes for good measure. I have read most of "Effective C#" but prefer this one because of the immediate usefulness of his examples. (or maybe it's the 25 more examples? :)) Having any "effective" type book on .NET REQUIRES part of it devoted to Threading. I would have liked to see more on this topic. It's an easy thing to do but a very hard thing to get right (not to mention debug). One of my favorite parts is where Venkat tied in some of his agile experience into the examples. Maybe his new book is going to have a chapter on agile gotchas!? More Agile Development pitfalls would have been nice too! This book belongs on the reference shelf within easy reach. It's a book from an experience expert that manages to reach beginners and experts alike.

Excellent range of advice for both VB and C#

I like the format of this book. A short title is given, then some explanation and some code examples, then a nutshell summary of the problem. In this case the vignettes are always stated as problems, which gives the book a negative feel. But that's ok, since it's 'gotchas', right? But enough about form. It's about the content. And the content here is up to snuff. An awful lot of time is spent on interop, which is appropriate. And some strategies are provided that will help you build classes that work well across COM. This implies, at least to me, that the book is well researched and I think it is. The writing is good, if just a little dry. The code is hilighted to make it easier to read. And code samples are provided both in VB and C#. Definitely worth a look if you job involves writing components that need to work across languages.