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With Microsoft's new C# and .NET framework due out later in 2001, Windows C++ developers are scrambling for reliable sources of information on this new platform. C# Programming with the Public Beta fills this need with a fast-moving tour of the latest from Microsoft on what C# and .NET will offer.

The goal of this concise volume is to get the reader up to speed on what C# is and how it fits into the Microsoft vision for the new .NET. To this end, the book presents a solid tour of .NET features from the Common Language Runtime (and virtual machine) and platform features such as better control of deployment and interoperability with COM, as well as new APIs like ADO.NET (for databases) and ASP.NET (for dynamic Web pages). While sometimes necessarily sketchy (since the material is still emerging from Microsoft), the authors provide short, effective examples on such topics as programming databases with ADO.NET, a simple component deployed with .NET, and Web programming with ASP.NET. In all, this cross section of the APIs and technologies that will be delivered on the .NET platform is quite good.

The other focus of the book is a nicely compact tutorial for C# geared to those with some C++ and/or Java experience. These chapters move quickly through what you'll need to know about C#, from basic data types, flow control, and class design tips, to more advanced features (such as creating and invoking C# objects dynamically or using "unsafe" legacy C++ code from within C#). The Visual Studio .NET (Beta 1) environment and tools are examined thoroughly, as are Microsoft's plans for integrating legacy technologies like COM into the new .NET and C#. Short samples demonstrate the basic programming strategies. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to the Microsoft .NET framework
• The Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• Intermediate language (IL)
• COM+ versus .NET
• History of C, C++, Java, and C#
• Types of .NET applications
• In-depth tutorial to C# (including data types, operators, flow control, exception handling, and classes)
• Overview of Visual Studio .NET (Beta 1) development environment and tools
• Object-oriented programming in C#
• Using classes and inheritance
• Boxing and unboxing objects
• Operator overloading
• Interfaces
• Properties
• Indexers
• Delegates and events
• Advanced C# features (including variable argument lists, reflection, dynamic creation and invocation, attributes and "unsafe code")
• The C# base classes (dates and times, accessing files and folders, Web browsing, and mathematical functions)
• Building Windows applications with WinForms (including programming with controls)
• The ADO.NET object model and basic database programming with .NET
• Deploying components and assemblies with .NET (including security features with shared names)
• Early and late binding with COM objects in C# (including using ActiveX components)
• New COM+ services and how to use them in .NET
• Web programming with ASP.NET
• Using Web services (including the Simple Object Access Protocol, SOAP)