

Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look - CodeCube
http://codecube.net/2012/12/c-5-first-look/

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bratsche
Congrats on the book release! Sounds really cool. And don't worry about the
Xamarin.Mac release, it's based on MonoMac so the work you put into this
section of your book wasn't wasted. :)

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CodeCube
Glad to hear it ... definitely planning on digging into Xamarin.Mac soon :)

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jinushaun
Thanks for covering Mono. Does it also cover other alt.NET technology?

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CodeCube
No, the book doesn't really focus on individual libraries (EF, MVC, etc.) as
much as it just tries to focus on the language itself. I wanted to drive home
the point that if you use C#, you can target all the major platforms :)

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felideon
That's great. Focusing on specific MSFT technologies or frameworks is a waste
of time. For one, they're not very good. And two, you never know how soon
it'll be deprecated.

On the other hand, C# the language is not terrible.

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jinushaun
The C# community is trying. It's hard to separate C# the language from C# the
Microsoft product. People just have it in their minds that you're stuck with
the MS tools and libraries. Things like Nancy and Albacore is where C# should
be headed.

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felideon
How does Nancy (which I had never heard) compare to something like
ServiceStack?

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danabramov
On a sidenote, C# blog entry URLs always confuse me for a second because
default rewriting rules strip out the “#”.

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ScottWhigham
Awesome - congrats :) Packt is a really good company too IMO.

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felideon
Congrats! Looks interesting, and at a pretty decent price. I've been meaning
to update my C# knowledge (as a non-.NET developer) and your book has piqued
my interest even more.

What exactly is 'PacktLib access to the book' included in the print version as
opposed to just the eBook?

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CodeCube
Thanks!

PacktLib is their online repository of titles, similar to Safari Books Online
- <http://packtlib.packtpub.com/>

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profexorgeek
The projects in the book look like actually-useful case studies. Yay!

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nanijoe
Would this be the book to get if I want to develop desktop apps for Windows?.
Does C# 5 support Win 7 , XP ?

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WayneDB
You could start with C# 4.0 / .NET 4.0 which is supported on XP.

.NET 3.5 has a much higher install-penetration than .NET 4.0 though, so if
you're really concerned with making installations hassle-free, you might want
to consider starting with C# 3.0 / .NET 3.5 (using Visual Studio 2010).

Also, I would suggest starting with Windows Forms (WinForms) instead of WPF
because it's super simple and easy to wrap your head around. You can get
something built very quickly with WinForms. In WPF you'll be spending _at
least_ a month studying before you start to feel confident.

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CodeCube
Actually, I temporarily forgot (it was in the book :P ) ... you can actually
target .NET 4 and still use C# 5 if you use the Async Targeting Pack for
Visual Studio 2012 - [http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=2957...](http://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/download/details.aspx?id=29576)

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throwaway1979
I've been thinking about writing a book in my spare time. Can you provide some
details on your experiences?

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CodeCube
Sure, this will be my 3rd published title
(<http://amazon.com/author/joelmartinez>), though first as the sole author.
From first contact with the publisher to today was about six months, actual
writing time was approximately 3-4 months, and the rest of the time was the
editing process (still have to review/approve the final laid-out PDF tonight,
actually).

Process-wise, the first step is to have a solid outline and target audience in
mind. That will inform the book's style and keep you on track as you put the
proverbial pen to paper. When working on an individual chapter, I like to
write most of it longhand. That forces me to rewrite it as I transcribe it to
the computer and I find the end-result requires many fewer iterations to
complete when I do that. Aside from all that, it's all the same things any
author will deal with, things like writer's block, etc. Just make sure you are
prepared to really focus on getting it done once you decide to write it ...
because there's nothing worse than starting a project like this, and then
letting it languish. It will always be on the back of your mind and you won't
be able to enjoy relaxation time until you get back to it.

Anyways, hope that helped, happy to answer any other questions you might have
:)

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JonD
Congrats on the release. I just preordered a copy of your ebook. After writing
articles on some networks, I've decided to start working on a monotouch ebook.
Your tips of your process will come in handy.

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CodeCube
Thanks so much!

Great news on the book, we definitely need to start seeing more books out
there on Mono/Xamarin tech. Hopefully we can help people understand what a
great opportunity C# can be when you embrace it :)

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jeremyflores
Really cool--congratulations!

