Andrew Troelsen - Pro C# 8 with .NET Core 3: Foundational Principles and Practices in Programming

Technology authors write for a demanding group of people (for the best of possible reasons). You know that building software solutions using any platform or language is extremely complicated and is specific to your department, company, client base, and subject matter. Perhaps you work in the electronic publishing industry, develop systems for the state or local government, or work at NASA or a branch of the military. Collectively, we have worked in a variety of industries, including developing childrens educational software (Oregon Trail/Amazon Trail), various enterprise systems, and projects within the medical and financial industries. The chances are almost 100 percent that the code you write at your place of employment has little to do with the code we have authored over the years.

Therefore, in this book, we have deliberately chosen to avoid creating demonstrations that tie the example code to a specific industry or vein of programming. Given this, we explain C#, OOP, the CoreCLR, and the .NET Core base class libraries using industry-agnostic examples. Rather than having every blessed example fill a grid with data, calculate payroll, or whatnot, we stick to subject matter we can all relate to: automobiles (with some geometric structures and employee payroll systems thrown in for good measure). And thats where you come in.

Our job is to explain the C# programming language and the core aspects of the .NET Core platform the best we possibly can. As well, we will do everything we can to equip you with the tools and strategies you need to continue your studies at this books conclusion.

Your job is to take this information and apply it to your specific programming assignments. We obviously understand that your projects most likely dont revolve around automobiles with friendly pet names (Zippy the BMW or a Yugo named Clunker, among others), but thats what applied knowledge is all about!

Rest assured, once you understand the topics and concepts presented within this text, you will be in a perfect position to build .NET Core solutions that map to your own unique programming environment.

Pro C# 8 with .NET Core is logically divided into eight distinct parts, each of which contains a number of related chapters. Here is a part-by-part and chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the text.

The purpose of Part I is to acclimate you to the nature of the .NET Core platform and various development tools used during the construction of .NET Core applications.

This first chapter functions as the backbone for the remainder of the text. The primary goal of this chapter is to acquaint you with a number of .NET Corecentric building blocks, such as the Common Language Runtime, Common Type System, Common Language Specification, and base class libraries. Here, you will take an initial look at the C# programming language and the .NET Core assembly format.

The goal of this chapter is to introduce you to the process of compiling C# source code files. After installing the .NET Core SDK and runtimes, you will learn about the completely free (and fully functional) Visual Studio Community edition as well as Visual Studio Code. You will also learn how to configure your development machine using the new workload-based Visual Studio installation.

The topics presented in this part of the book are quite important because you will use them regardless of which type of .NET Core software you intend to develop (e.g., web applications, desktop GUI applications, code libraries, or services). Here, you will learn about the fundamental data types of .NET Core, work with text manipulation, and learn the role of various C# parameter modifiers (including optional and named arguments).

This chapter begins your formal investigation of the C# programming language. Here, you will learn about the role of the Main() method and numerous details regarding the intrinsic data types of the .NET Core platform and variable declaration, and you will work with and manipulate textual data using System.String and System.Text.StringBuilder . You will also examine iteration and decision constructs, narrowing and widening operations, and the unchecked keyword.

This chapter completes your examination of the core aspects of C#, beginning with creating and manipulating arrays of data. Next, you examine how to construct overloaded type methods and define parameters using the out , ref , and params keywords. You will also learn about the enum type, structures, and nullable data types, and you will understand the distinction between value types and reference types. Finally, you will learn about tuples, a new feature in C# 7.