Book Review

CLR via C#

By Jeffrey Richter

For those of you who don't know, this book (CLR via C#) is the Second Edition of Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming. The new name reflects the real focus of the book (the "Applied" didn't quite capture it) and when it comes to really learning .Net is is like Sam Gentile says - It's The Runtime Stupid . I am a huge fan of Jeff's Applied .Net Programming book, after all it is the .Net Bible for those of us practicing the .Net religion. This book is the new King Jeff's edition :)

When I first got this book, I would have to say I was a little disappointed about the content overlapping with the first edition (not sure what I was thinking - it is 2nd edition NOT part 2). I guess my thoughts had to do with how I tend to read technical books from cover to cover - which meant some repeat content. Anyways I quickly forgot any bad feelings and got into how Jeff clearly explains the gory details of how .Net works. The book is split up into 5 parts: CLR Basics, Working with Types, Designing Types, Essential Types and CLR Facilities. There is a lot of new material in this book about .Net 2.0 and new hardware architectures. Some of the new .Net 2.0 stuff include: Generics, Nullable Value Types and anonymous methods.

My recommendation to you is: you must buy and read CLR via C# if you are serious about understanding .Net and how it works. If you read Jeff's .Net Applied Programming book, you should read this book to accomplish two things: give yourself a refresher on all the overlapping topics and get up to speed on the new stuff.

Bottom line: if you are a .Net developer and are serious about your career, get this book.