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

I am now on page 332 of this book. I picked the book up around 12 days ago. This book is HANDS DOWN my FAVORITE text book I've ever read. EVER...Just open the book up and look... Unlike most boring computer programming books, this one has TONS of drawings, notes, captions, pictures, and other intriguing little tid-bits on EVERY SINGLE PAGE. I've never seen a text-book that is jam-packed with as many little side-notes, useful hints, and illustrations. The authors of this book clearly consulted professional research when they wrote the blueprint for how this book was going to be presented.Another extremely important thing is... It's accurate. VERY accurate. Despite the book being written in 2013, I am using Visual Studio 2015 and have yet to encounter any problems whatsoever. The authors provided workarounds for version differences in the appendix but you barely even have to use them. If you do, they are written just as well, with all of the same illustrations, as the main pages in the book. I haven't even seen ONE little typo in this book, which is extremely important for a programming guide. Great job!Honestly, this book has pretty much left me speechless otherwise... It's THAT good. I haven't programmed a single line of code since I was 13 years old, I'm now 27 and I read half the book in a couple weeks and completed every exercise so far. Thanks to this book, I am easily able to write up my own code and understand most people's code.But perhaps the best part of the book is not that it teaches you C#... It teaches you how to THINK like programmer. Being a programmer is much more than just knowing the language. This book teaches you how to draw up class diagrams, plan out your programs with optimal structure, and most importantly, it gives you assignments and you have to FIGURE THEM OUT. This is how programming professionally is. It's not reading some boring book, memorizing syntax, and then just toying around. You have to be able to convert someone else's ideas and designs into a working product and that is what this book has you doing.I see some negative reviews on here... I honestly don't get it. Yeah, maybe if you're a seasoned programmer you may not like it because it may bore you. But if you're a seasoned programmer, what the heck are you doing buying a book entitled "Head First C#" in the first place? Clearly, this book is written for beginners. This book would also benefit experienced programmers who are new to objected-oriented programming.I would not buy this book solely to use as a reference, it is not written as a reference. Instead, you'd be better getting C# 6.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference.

Head First C# is a great book, great tutor and great friend. I learned more about the language using this book than I did taking a semester course. It offers clear, concise instruction with thoughtful and interesting exercises. The book's innovative layout is engaging. Learning the language is fun! Like good teachers in a classroom, the authors really want their readers (students) to learn C# and have fun doing it. I absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is serious about wanting to learn this language and has the time and motivation to accomplish their goal.Other reviews noted that the book is out of date or that Windows 8 is required. I disagree; the book is about as current as it can be. Yes, Microsoft has released the 2013 version of Visual Studio, and the book references the 2012 version, but the differences are minor. Yes, the first few chapters are provided for WIN8 users, but they have a doable workaround for other Windows versions which was fine for me. If you have a Kindle or iPad, then it is easy to read the supplement PDF while working in the book.If you want to learn C#, then it is simple: buy Head First C#!

I used to hate all of the "silly" books ("...for Dummies," "...for Idiots," "...in 24 Hours," etc.) on programming. Then I tried "Head First Java" and discovered that there is a difference between "silly" and "appealing." The publishers claim these books incorporate new teaching methods grounded in recent, but established, psychology. (You know, the same claim textbook writers make to justify charging college students hundreds of dollars for new editions of their works every year, even though maybe three pages will actually change from one to the next; this time it's true, but you aren't getting reamed on the price for it). I have to admit they do seem to have found a way to communicate complex subject matter without ignoring important features, while still making it fun and (more importantly) effective reading.As a recent convert from Java to C# (and from about a dozen languages before Java), I have developed the humility necessary to at least skim the parts of the books I use to learn new languages that cover the "obvious" stuff (like the difference between a short and long). But, by doing so in this book, I have found that there are a few C# specifics one might otherwise miss. Yet, the book is so well structured that a real skim (looking each page over, without either reading the whole thing nor just flipping inattentively) tends to be what it takes to find them. So, even though this book is clearly intended to be useful to a beginning programmer, I'd recommend it to someone crossing over from another language.They left out threading, unsafe, and native code, which is fine for a beginner's book. But I have to give it one star off of perfection because it would be possible to include them and they just didn't. Still a very good book.