This print for content only-size & color not accurate 7" X 9-1/4" / casebound / malloy

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GAVIN SMYTH

is a professional software engineer with more years of experience in development

than he cares to admit on projects ranging from device drivers to distributed web applications;

under platforms as diverse as 8-bit “bare metal,” embedded real-time operating systems, Unix, and

Windows; and in languages including assembler, C++, Ada, and C#, among a good many others. He

has worked for clients such as BT and Nortel, and is currently employed by Microsoft. Gavin has

published a few pieces of technical prose in the past (

EXE, where are you now?) but finds criticizing

other people’s work much more fulfilling. Beyond that, when he’s not battling weeds and ants in the

garden, he tries to persuade LEGO robots to do what he wants them to do (it’s for the kids’ benefit—

honest).

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Acknowledgments

W

hile I might be the only name seen on the front of this book, this text would never be printed

without the aid of numerous talented people. Allow me to offer some heartfelt words of thanks to

the many, many people who made this book possible.

First and foremost, thanks to all of the people at Apress, whom I have had the pleasure of

working with for many years now. You are all extremely talented people who do a wonderful job of

transforming my original Word documents into polished prose. Thank you so much. Looking for-

ward to working with you all on the next book (well, after I take a sanity break from this book).

Special thanks to my technical editor, Gavin, who has offered me many words of wisdom that

I feel make this edition of the book better than ever. As always, any remaining typos or technical

errors are my responsibility alone.

Last but not least, thanks to my family, friends, and coworkers who put up with my occasional

grumpy demeanor, which sadly presented itself once or twice during the final phases of this

manuscript.

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Introduction

T

his book has existed (in one form or another) since the first edition of C# and the .NET Platform

was published in conjunction with the release of .NET 1.0 Beta 2, circa the summer of 2001. Since

that point, I have been extremely happy and grateful to see that this text was very well received by

the press and, most important, by readers. Over the years it was nominated as a Jolt Award finalist

(I lost . . . crap!) and for the 2003 Referenceware Excellence Award in the programming book cate-

gory (I won? Cool!).

Since that point, I have worked to keep the book current with each release of the .NET platform,

including a limited printing of a Special Edition, which introduced the technologies of .NET 3.0

(Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, and Windows Workflow

Foundation) as well as offered previews of several forthcoming technologies, which we now know as

LINQ.

The fourth edition of this text, which you hold in your hands, is a massive retelling of the previ-

ous manuscript to account for all of the major changes that are found within .NET 3.5. Not only will

you find numerous brand-new chapters, you will find many of the previous chapters have been

expanded in great detail.

As with the earlier editions, this edition presents the C# programming language and .NET base

class libraries using a friendly and approachable tone. I have never understood the need some

technical authors have to spit out prose that reads more like a GRE vocabulary study guide than a

readable book. As well, this new edition remains focused on providing you with the information you

need to build software solutions today, rather than spending too much time examining esoteric

details that few individuals will ever actually care about.