Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by bratsche on Thursday December 13, 2012 @11:44AM
(#4916499)
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. :)
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by CodeCube on Thursday December 13, 2012 @11:11AM
(#4916288)
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 :)
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by felideon on Thursday December 13, 2012 @12:19PM
(#4916766)
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.
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by jinushaun on Monday December 17, 2012 @04:42PM
(#4934557)
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.
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by felideon on Thursday December 13, 2012 @12:07PM
(#4916664)
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?
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by WayneDB on Thursday December 13, 2012 @12:58PM
(#4917027)
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.
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by CodeCube on Thursday December 13, 2012 @11:36AM
(#4916444)
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 :)
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by JonD on Thursday December 13, 2012 @12:40PM
(#4916905)
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.
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by CodeCube on Thursday December 13, 2012 @12:56PM
(#4917010)
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 :)
Re:Show HN: Wrote a Book – C# 5 First Look
by CodeCube on Friday December 14, 2012 @09:14AM
(#4920973)
On the side ... I work full time as a mobile application developer. Of course, I had to stop all other side-projects. I usually (against my better judgement) work on at least 2 other things on the side at any given moment, but this book took all of my extracurricular attention.
On the other hand, C# the language is not terrible.
What exactly is 'PacktLib access to the book' included in the print version as opposed to just the eBook?
PacktLib is their online repository of titles, similar to Safari Books Online - http://packtlib.packtpub.com/
.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.
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 :)
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 :)