Preface
There are many C# books, some, more than a thousand pages long, that aim to be
comprehensive references to the C# programming language and the .NET Framework.
This book is different—it is concise and aims to be a fast-paced read that is packed
with hands-on walkthroughs. I wrote this book to be the best step-by-step guide to
modern cross-platform C# and .NET proven practices.
I will point out the cool corners and gotchas of C# so you can impress colleagues and
employers and quickly get productive. Rather than slowing down and boring some
of you by explaining every little thing, I assume that if a term I use is new to you,
then you know how to Google it with a search engine such as DuckDuckGo.
At the end of each chapter, there is a section entitled Practicing and Exploring, which
contains questions to test your knowledge, and usually a hands-on practical exercise,
and you will explore topics in depth on your own with a little nudge in the right
direction from me.
You can download solutions for the exercises from the GitHub repository at
https://github.com/markjprice/cs6dotnetcore . I will provide instructions on
how to do this using Visual Studio 2015 at the end of Chapter 1, Hello C#!, Welcome
.NET Core!.
What this book covers
Chapter 1, Hello C#!, Welcome .NET Core!, is about setting up your development
environment and using various tools to create the simplest application possible with
C#. You will learn how to compile C# code at the Command Prompt and how to
write and compile code using Visual Studio. You will also learn about the different
.NET platforms: .NET Framework, .NET Core, and .NET Native.
