Recently MSPress gave me a copy of Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2008: The Language (Donis Marshall, ISBN 0735625409) to read and review. Having read the book cover to cover, I thoroughly enjoyed every page.

Background

First, a quick bit of background to let you know where I’m coming from. I’m a self-taught C# and .NET programmer – so this is the first book I’ve read on the subject. I wasn’t expecting to learn much about C# itself in the book, more the technologies that were added in .NET 3.5 (LINQ, extension functions, etc). Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised.

Look and Feel

Overall, the book reads like a technical manual. Marshall writes in a very dry fashion, and it’s not the type of book you would read from end-to-end for the sake of reading a book. The use of code samples and real life examples help solidify lessons are fantastic to understand the technical jargon used. All of the paragraphs are kept short and concise are often intermingled with MSDN style documentation and examples.

Typically, the learning curve in each chapter is quite sharp, starting with basic knowledge about the subject and rapidly accelerating to the newer and complex features that .NET 3.5 introduces. The chapters are very content heavy, but this load is lightened by attempting to replicate the examples are trying out new knowledge in Visual Studio while reading. Mixing reading with coding is probably the best way to maximise the learning from this book.

Target Audience

Marshall requests a basic knowledge of programming and Object Orientated concepts. I would also add that a basic knowledge of C#, .NET and Visual Studio are highly recommended. This book is by no means a ‘C# for Dummies’ style guide. The book is more angled towards .NET 2.0 programmers looking to upgrade, Java (or other OO) programmers looking to switch languages or a Computer Science student who wishes to learn .NET.

Content

To say the least, this book is fantastic. Marshall demonstrates her mastery of .NET in the deep level of knowledge presented in this book. There were a great number of things that I learnt for the first time while reading this book, even basic concepts of C# (did you know that C# has a ?? operator?). The topics presented spread from basic Visual Studio usage to LINQ, delegates and the operations of the .NET Garbage Collector.

I’ve learnt a massive amount from this book, and am much more confident in using some of the new features in .NET 3.5 such as Lambda functions and LINQ. The book also contained quite a lot that I would have never learnt from my self-learning such as the internal workings of the Garbage Collector and using some advanced debugging and profiling tools.

Conclusion

Reading this book was beyond valuable for me. I have improved my coding techniques and now understand other coding examples much easier. I would highly recommend this book to anyone with some experience with Object Orientated languages and techniques who wishes to start coding in C# .NET 3.5.

More info and books at http://www.mspress.com.au/ 

- Daniel Paoliello
Curtin MSP

Question: Do you know what IDE stands for?
Question: Do you know what languages Visual Studio can use?
Question: Do you like free pizza?

If you answered yes to the last question, then this event is for you!

The Curtin MSP’s will be demoing off Visual Studio – showcasing its ability as an IDE and why it has become industry standard.

So, even if you think you already know everything there is to know about Visual Studio and IDE’s, come along anyway – there will be heaps of giveaways and FREE PIZZA.

For more information, either click the poster (left) or visit http://curtinvs.eventbrite.com/

- Daniel
Curtin MSP

While in Sydney at the Microsoft headquarters I had an opportunity to play with a Surface and after watching the Future Visions video this got me thinking about the future of computing, especially touch computing and how the surface plays a part in this.

At the moment multi-touch computing is struggling to take off because of the fact that outside the iPhone hardware is expensive, multi-touch development is young, casual developers can’t really afford the hardware and the application base does not yet exist because of this. It is a case of catch-22, people won’t use them as there is no support but people won’t support them till people are using them. This problem will be solved with time as the hardware price lowers to a more consumer/developer friendly price and as the number of applications slowly grows multi-touch devices such as the Surface and multi-touch tablet PC’s will become ubiquitous, we are at the beginning end what is surely to be an exponential growth.

After pondering on this I realised one ideal situation for the Surface would be a restaurant, your table could be a (larger version) of the Surface with icons on the side from which you could drag food and drink menus out from passing one to each diner on the table, you could then peruse this digital menu and drag items off of it for comparison or to pass an item to a companion as a suggestion or some such. Your meals and drinks could be ordered from the table itself where your order would then be sent to the kitchen or bar. Glasses in this theoretical restaurant could be RFID tagged and placed on a surface behind the bar where your drink order would appear attached to an empty glass, your drink would be placed into it and brought to your table. These glasses would also solve the problem of getting glasses mixed up as your table would label whose glass is whose and would (if you so desire) tell others what you are drinking to quell such curiosity.

With a Surface as your table this would be an ideal place to go to celebrate a birthday or a return from a holiday. While waiting for your meal you could plug in a USB drive into the table and browse holiday snaps of childhood photos across the table, play a game with friends or just scribble notes or doodles.

As everything is automated but for the food and drink preparation and delivery efficiency would be increased, potentially valuable ordering data is automatically saved and errors are reduced, the downside however would be that this technology is very expensive and this would be a very experimental venture but I do believe (and hope) some day it will be entirely common place if not even better then what I can imagine.

-Mitchell
Curtin MSP

Microsoft loves students. And they want students to have the best access to software and technology. For Microsoft software there is two main ways to do this.

1. DreamSpark – any university student has access to this, technology wise or otherwise
2. MSDN-AA – each university specifically signs up for this. Generally this is available only for Computing & Engineering students. The university can sign up for MSDN-AA on its own or to IT Academy with includes MSDN-AA.

The good news is both Curtin and UWA both have signed up for MSDN-AA.

MSDN-AA primarily works by allowing students to borrow DVDs of the software and installing it on their machine. For Curtin students you can get the media from ComSSA, and UWA students should ask at the CSSE reception desk.

ELMS for MSDN-AA is an addon for MSDN-AA which allows the students to download the software online, not just install off pre-burned media. UWA has signed up for this and if you are a Computer Science student you should have received an invite for you to register. Once you have registered you can download the software at http://msdn70.e-academy.com/au_37792

For more information, please contact ComSAA at comssa@lists.curtin.edu.au for Curtin students or go to http://web.csse.uwa.edu.au/school_and_systems_information/school_systems_information/downloads for UWA students.

A couple of students noted why bother if they can just pirate the software? I would say just for the easy of use. No worrying about keygens or serials, updates all work and any genuine advantage addons just work.

Luke
Aussie MSP Lead
The University of Western Australia

As I am the newest WA MSP I figured the best place to start is to introduce myself.

My name is Mitchell Sullivan, I am currently studying Information Technology at Curtin University. I work for a web development company called Nutworks. Nutworks is the company behind Loconut, a WA based website which incorporates social networking. Nutworks is also responsible for many external projects as well and our tool of choice is Asp.Net.

I decided to become a MSP after seeing the great work the other WAMSP people did last year and as I am part of the Curtin University computing social club (ComSSA) it would be easier for me to execute events. The fact that there are so many perks also helps greatly but I really was unprepared for all the additional perks introduced for this year’s partners.

That’s a long enough introduction for a person you probably don’t want to know that much about.

These are exciting times for technology, for Microsoft and to be a MSP and I shall be posting here regularly about all of those.

Mitchell
Curtin MSP