Question, old programming books for beginnner okay?

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ZenMasta - 13 Mar 2008 17:38 GMT

Hi, I have a couple of csharp books for beginners that I never used. They
were published around the 1.0 framework era. Would I be doing a friend a
disservice by giving him these books? ie. should he buy more recently
published books instead or will the ones I have be okay.

I would hate for him to use these books and then feel like he's having to
relearn 3.0 framework code. I'm not a programmer myself so I really don't
know how much is changed or whatever. I heard was they included more
namespaces and chagned some syntax? I'm hoping that since they're beginner
books, most of the code samples and training will not be dramatically
affected by newer framework versions.

Thanks a lot.

p.s. oh, if you don't recommend using the old books please recommend new
ones.

Books are
Learning C# - Jesse Liberty
C# By Dissection - Ira Pohl

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Jon Skeet [C# MVP] - 13 Mar 2008 17:45 GMT

> Hi, I have a couple of csharp books for beginners that I never used. They
> were published around the 1.0 framework era. Would I be doing a friend a
[quoted text clipped - 14 lines]
> Learning C# - Jesse Liberty
> C# By Dissection - Ira Pohl

Hmm. I'm in two minds here. (Warning: bias as I'm an author.)

It's probably not worth learning about all the nongeneric collection
classes in .NET 1.0 - but I think it *is* worth getting a solid
foundation in C# 1 before trying to learn the others.

There are certainly books around which cover C# starting from scratch
and going all the way to C# 3 - but to my mind that's a *hugely*
daunting prospect. Then again, I'm biased as my own upcoming book
(C# in Depth) just covers C# 2 and 3, assuming the reader already knows
C# 1.

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Jon Skeet - <skeet@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet Blog: http://www.msmvps.com/jon.skeet
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Michael A. Covington - 14 Mar 2008 01:27 GMT

I think a good way to sum it up is that C# 1.0 books are fine, but if
something in C# 1.0 seems tedious, look in a newer book to see if it has
been made less so.

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ZenMasta - 13 Mar 2008 17:58 GMT

Thanks for your opinion. This would be for someone completely new to c# with
minor programming experience in java and php.

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Michael A. Covington - 14 Mar 2008 01:26 GMT

They are very good, with the proviso that as soon as your friend gets
oriented to C# he should also look at some of the newer features.

C# has not been radically redesigned. Only minor (but powerful) additions
have been made.

> Hi, I have a couple of csharp books for beginners that I never used. They
> were published around the 1.0 framework era. Would I be doing a friend a
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
> Learning C# - Jesse Liberty
> C# By Dissection - Ira Pohl

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Question, old programming books for beginnner okay?

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