(Part 2) Best products from r/csharp

They seem a like reasonable starting point I think. Repetition is the mother of mastery, the more books the better (in addition to applying what is learned).

Since Mosh is calling out learning fundamentals as important to becoming a good C# developers, I would personally also recommend some general (non C# specific books) too for who are starting out in software development:

1. Design Patterns (Amazon) - also known as the "Gang of Four" Design Patterns, it was originally published in 1994 and is still relevant today. When people talk about design patterns, they're referring to the book more often then not.
   
   
2. Soft Skills (Amazon) - Not a book on programming actually... it's a software developers life manual. The reason I like this book is it covers the other parts of the life of a developer that I haven't seen covered anywhere else. Everything from learning strategies, time management, career advice, and even some health and fitness. It was an enjoyable read and I think other developers would enjoy it too.
   
   
3. The Passionate Programmer (Amazon) It's been a while since I've read this one, but I remember it giving decent advice for building a career in software development. Not to be confused with The Pragmatic Programmer (Amazon) which should be read at some point too.
   
   There's a ton more, but those are a few that stood out to me. Essentially the more the merrier in my opinion - books, courses, videos, tutorials, and so on. The books I'm recommending here focus on adopting the developer mindset and being successful at it. That's part of the puzzle.
   
   The other part is understanding the technical details including the programming language and frameworks you intend to use.
   
   And finally, for learning about C#, I do highly recommend Mosh's videos/courses (some are free on YouTube, others available on Udemy). He's got a unique ability to explain things clearly and simply in a way that beginners can pick up quickly.
   
   What I'd do is check out his free content first, and if you agree his style is ideal for learning, an investment in one of his courses is well worth it since he'll cover a lot more breadth and depth on each of the topics and they're organized into a super consumable package rather than scouring the internet for various topics.
   

This is just my 2 cents, but the first thing you should be asking when learning any language is what problem are you trying to solve with the language?

C# as a language doesn't amount to anything, but it's real potential comes from the frameworks it is associated with.

​

If you're wanting to:

web develop then you would need to look into .NET Core + WebApi + MVC or a front-end framework (Angular, React, Vue).

This is a great course to get you started with. It'll create a basic web application you can modify and play around with from the database to the front-end:

https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/aspdotnetcore-efcore-bootstrap-angular-web-app

​

desktop development then look at Wpf (window presentation forms) or use electron and c#

mobile development then take a look at xamarin

​

from your use of Unity though, it seems as if you are more into game development which I would advise then to go a bit lower and really learn algorithms and good implementations. For this, there are some greats books you can use to help you get started:

Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions by Gayle Laakman - Even though this is an interview book it's a great intermediate book to algorithms. The book does assume you have a basic understanding of elementary data structures.

The Algorithm Design Manual by Steven Skiena - This is definitely more advanced and heavy but it's a great book to really dig down into the nitty gritty

A great website for practicing writing algorithms in c# is leetcode.com. It's a site that basically lists a bunch of small questions you can solve with an in browser compiler that includes c#. This way you wouldn't need to download visual studio to practice coding.

if you're up for the challenege, then you can download a framework like SFML.Net and try to develop a game from the ground-up without using an engine like unity. But this is obviously a lot of work ;)

​

Overall it's hard to give really specific advice without knowing where you're trying to head. But it's a good time to get into c# and in general microsoft's development stack. In the past people were shoe horned into using microsoft's technology stack from top to bottom but recently microsoft has made a lot of stride in making there tech more open which is making a lot of people turn heads.


If you are also looking for a more lite-weight ide then I recommend visual studio code or vscodium which is the same but without the trackers :)

Hmmm, I might be completely wrong (it's been a long time since my first CS course), but you shouldn't worry so much about the language.

I mean, if it's your first one, yeah, it matters more. But most imperative, C-syntax languages are very similar, even more so from a CS 101 perspective. So you could try to learn some Java (C# is a better Java :-) ) if you find resources more easily.

If you want to see what a real :-p CS 101 course looks like, check this out: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/sicp/full-text/book/book.html (full text of the book available for free) and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE18841CABEA24090 (videos from 1986 when this course was taught at HP IIRC and they recorded it). SICP is a really interesting and influential book, with a very interesting distribution of reviews on Amazon - mostly ones and fives, people seem to either love it or hate it. You might hate it, but you won't know unless you check it out ;-) I think it's best to try and watch one or two of the lectures to form a quick opinion.

Another language independent, important book is https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-3rd-MIT-Press/dp/0262033844.

My point is you shouldn't focus on a particular language or tech stack in college (you'll get to do that a lot on the job), but instead, try to study interesting stuff (which will help later as you'll be better equipped to recognize ideas, patterns and designs).

You didn't go into too many details, so I just wanted to make sure you weren't missing the things that make for a a foundation.

I think Domain Driven Design is a good path for you, mainly because it doesn't necessarily over prescribe a technology stack (those are in constant flux) and focuses on the fundamentals of designing for a domain and understanding how to deal with the complexities that come with it.

Eric Evan's book is a great place to start. Personally I have two other books that are incredibly helpful for DDD. The first is Implementing DDD by Vaughn Vernon, and the second is Patterns, Principles, and Practices of DDD. I think the second is a little more along the lines of what you're looking for, but doesn't go into as much of ideas and structures of DDD. What it does do is go into more of the patterns that you're far more likely to see in an enterprise application.

Two patterns that you should pay attention to are Command Query Response Segregation (CQRS) and Event Sourcing. CQRS can be used in a number of ways and incarnations. Event Sourcing may or may not be applicable in your application, but its useful to think of an application's state and interactions as an immutible ledger of events.

If you go down the road of microservices, then I strongly suggest you also explore message queues as well. Although they certainly are useful, microservices are seen as somewhat of a fad or buzzword. Message queues, and the patterns that go with them, are quite useful in this context and also applicable in more "traditional" service oriented architectures as well. A great book for diving into those messaging patterns is Enterprise Integration Patterns.

NoSQL and Big Data solutions will likely come up along the way, and although they are worth exploring in their own right, I think its important that they are implemented for the right reasons. I'll leave this here for now, if this is something that you want to explore further, I'd suggest reading through Fowler's Polygot Persistence as a good jumping off point

I bought something like 4 WPF books in 2008 or so because I worked for a WinForms controls vendor and they wanted to evaluate creating a suite of WPF controls. It's hard to say any one of them was "better" than the other, I often found myself reading at least two of them when I got stuck. Here's what I remember about how they compare:

• Petzold's 'Applications = Code + Markup' is what you would expect from Charles Petzold. It's a very nuts-and-bolts discussion that will give you deep knowledge. There are no screenshots, that turns a lot of people off. It was the first I read, I read it cover-to-cover, and I think it's exceptional.
  
• 'Unleashed' is the only one with color pictures, and it uses a lot of them. It doesn't dive into many things as deep as Petzold, but it was my go-to when I felt like I needed a refresher. It's a much quicker read, but definitely a good value.
  
• 'Programming WPF' covered a handful of topics that I didn't feel were covered in 'Unleashed' or Petzold's book. Its technical content lies somewhere between those two: it is deeper than 'Unleashed' but not so deep as Petzold's. That makes it an easier read than Petzold's. It was a good value.
  
• Several months after those, I bought Pro WPF 1st edition (now it's on its 4th edition.) This book covered a few topics none of the other three touched, but I don't remember anything remarkable about it in comparison.
  
  I can't really say any one of them is 'best', I think it's smart to get two of them. The more different they are, the better, because having multiple explanations helps.
  
  One sad thing is WPF hasn't been widely adopted, so you can't supplement these books by joining some random forum and watching people answer dozens of WPF questions. That's how I learned WinForms: I had about 6 books that taught me squat, and spent 2 hours+ per day on a .NET forum absorbing the answers to every question. I learned the most when I started trying to answer questions. Maybe StackOverflow's got active WPF questions, one 'downside' to it is duplicate questions get buried. Having a steady stream of newbie questions to answer is great practice, it's almost like a kata.
  
  Expect slow going at first, and expect to be a little frustrated. I still find it easier to start a new WinForms application. Somewhere in the middle of a largish project, I find WPF becomes more of a joy to use.

I read "Professional ASP.NET MVC 3" about 3 years ago but it seems liek there is a MVC 5 version out now.

To your question about why is asp.net webforms becoming outdata. While there are many reasons I think the biggest is that MVC as a design pattern works really well web appplication development. Webforms is a great technology but it tries to enforce a stateful design pattern on web development which can make development harder. Stateful design patterns are better for desktop applications where as stateless applications are better for web applications. Lastly with MVC works better with a lot of the javascript frameworks out there that webforms really struggled to ingrate well with but a lot has been improved to fix this.

As others have mentioned, writing code is the best way to get exposure. But if you're a book guy like me then there are a lot of option out there that'll accelerate the process. You'd be insane to read all the following--these are just starting points that can accommodate different interests/tastes.

Having said that, I'll start with the one book that I think every C# developer should own:

Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries

... it's a good read, and it includes a lot of direct input from the designers of the C# and the .NET Framework. Microsoft has been really good about sticking to those guidelines, so you'll immediately get a leg up on the Framework libraries if you work through this book. (Also, you'll win a lot of arguments with your coworkers about how APIs should be designed.)

General knowledge books (tons to pick from, but here are some winners):

• Cookbook-style factoids: C# 6.0 Cookbook, 4th Edition
  
• But since you're coming from a lower level language, you might appreciate more details: C# in Depth by Jon Skeet (the Chuck Norris of C#)
  
• Scott Meyers-style content with good discussions of idiomatic C#: Effective C#: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your C#
  
• CLR via C# goes deep into the guts of the language.
  
  Deep dives into specific features that'll serve you well:
  
  
• Concurrency in C# Cookbook is a good starting point to get productive with the TPL quickly, but I actually learned a lot more from the more prosaic Pro Asynchronous Programming with .NET.
  
• C# generics aren't as powerful as C++ templates, but Metaprogramming in .NET may provide some decent (though clumsy) workarounds.
  
  Note: I've never found a good LINQ book that supported how I actually use the feature. Coming from C++, you can probably just start off by thinking of the extension methods on Enumerable as a C# version of std <algorithm>... a good way to avoid writing raw loops. But if you're a performance-obsessed game dev then you'll probably want to use LINQ sparingly--it does have some overhead.
  

I really enjoyed the C# Player's Guide. There's a newer version now but this is what I got.

Edit: I'm glad you guys liked this book as much as I did. To OP, I would offer two more suggestions.

1. Clean Code This book is NOT specific to C#. However, it gives you a holistic understanding of how to write code that is readable and effective. This is how I was able to transition from writing code that simply functioned (primarily for school) to code that my coworkers could pick up and run with. The book is the bible of software style where I work.
   
   
2. C# and the .NET Framework This is a very optional book in my opinion. It is also a little pricy, very long, more intermediate than beginner and you can gather much of its information from MSDN. However, I prefer looking things up and reading them in a book where possible. I also like having all this information in one location. When I have free time at work, I find myself more likely to flip to an unread section and skim over it than I would with the same information online.

To add to the great answers you've already got:

*At its core Clean Architecture is about decoupling via very strict boundaries so that each component can be deployed separately. That's it, everything else is detail. Before you can fully internalize this, you have to become very comfortable with Dependency Injection. The best way to do it is the book https://www.amazon.com/Dependency-Injection-Principles-Practices-Patterns/dp/161729473X - it IS the last word on the subject.

*The most common violation of CA is referencing the ORM directly from the application layer. This is a simple dependency issue: your application is now no longer deployable independent of the ORM in return for being able to use all of its features. Abstracting the more "advanced" features of the ORM is a fool's errand, so this is a very clear tradeoff. There are applications where taking this dependency would be a huge mistake, and applications where it would be very beneficial.

*The "correct" way to design repositories is an orthogonal matter, but it does depend on whether you are taking that depency on the ORM. There are quite a few issues around that - lifetime of the session/context object (and how to manage it to deal with transactional integrity), using specification objects as opposed to method explosion on repositories, enforcing DDD aggregates by using repositories etc. There is good material out there - my only input would be ignore any discussion that revolves around generic repositories - I find that to be a useless abstraction and not what the repository pattern is about.

*Jimmy Bogard's vertical slice architecture would probably work best overall if you pushed all business logic into a separate domain layer leaving the command objects fairly thin. He heavily uses his MediatR library, which could be confusing because it's not really an implementation of the mediator pattern, but kinda sorta follows the same concept. It's basically a means of locating a command handler (from the Command pattern) for a command without explicitly injecting the command handler. For a one to one scenario it gets you nothing but it helps when you have more than one command handler running around for your business case

*As far as interfacing between the components, you want to make sure you are very clear about the terminology. The ports and adapters in all these architectures refer to two distinct concepts: primary and secondary. The primary port is the API of the component, and primary adapters are its clients - tests would be primary adapters, for example. The secondary ports are the interfaces the component exposes for the purposes of dependency inversion, and the secondary adapters are the implementations of those interfaces by the components you don't want to take a dependency on from the higher level components.

Clean Architecture formalizes this a bit more to this by prescribing the usage of Presenters, Controllers and Interactors. Interactors are in the higher level component encapsulating your use cases, while Presenters and Controllers are secondary adapters that handle output and input, respectively.

Open these in tabs, and leave them open. Spend your bored time reading around.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/language-specification/introduction

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/?view=netframework-4.8

Buy this:

https://www.amazon.com/C-5-0-Unleashed-Bart-Smet/dp/0672336901/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=c%23+5.0+unleashed&qid=1565226579&s=gateway&sr=8-1

It's a little old now, but the only .net book I recommend. Old means it's cheap. De Smet is a treasure, and his book will give you a solid foundation that no other book I'm aware of will. It's an unapologetic programming book that will take you from basic to advanced in a logical progression. Some stuff has been added since 5.0; you can learn about that stuff on MSDN.

Download visual studio 2019 community and get practicing. Spend a lot of time practicing. However much time you are spending practicing isn't enough; you should be practicing more. This process will change your brain, that takes a lot of exposure, and a lot of active application. Watch a documentary about ballerinas... you should be practicing that much. STOP LOOKING AT STACK OVERFLOW. Look at MSDN. MSDN is documentation, stack overflow is not. NEVER copy and paste code. ALWAYS retype if you need someone else's code. Think about everything you're typing, look up what you don't understand on MSDN, and read until you understand. Come up with ideas, and try them out. Microsoft often provides a lot of ways to do the same thing, try them out to figure out how they are different. Explore the space. Revisit your old projects every 6 months or so so you can make fun of yourself and re-write them with what you've learned since then. Oh, and practice a lot.

Please show your copy of the book to your future CS professor, so they can compliment my recommendation. Give the book away to someone starting out when you don't need it anymore (it will be a while).

One of the best ways to learn is by studying other people's code. Using book references like the one you have on C# is a great start. Make sure you ask questions to yourself and really study the code. Questions to keep in mind: why is this line before that line? What would happen if these two lines were swapped? How could I make this easier to read? Do all of these lines make sense when grouped together in a function? How can I break this down into a simpler class/object?

Those are the kinds of questions professional developers ask themselves on a daily basis. If you start asking yourself those kinds of questions early, you'll become a very competent programmer.

I highly recommend new programmers to read Code Complete: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0735619670/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_awdm_ZlAbvb1GP04MC

The fact that you've submitted this question indicates that you're on the right track. You just need practice.

You're not going to want to read things that make you wish you had a computer with you, trust me. You have no idea how many times I have tried to force myself to read stuff like that when traveling or on vacation. Never works. So here's some stuff geared more towards the philosophy of development and programming that will be fun to read and will probably make you want to slow down, relax, and think about the concepts.

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt
  
  And for fun:
  
  
• The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll

If you want something a little more general, and you've already got a handle on how the language (and framework) work in a general sense, then I'd highly recommend Effective C# by Bill Wagner. It really helped me understand some of the idiosyncrasies of both C# and .NET in general, as well as some features I'd never before discovered. It'll really help you make anything you'd create more stable, legible, and maintainable.

VS2015 and VS2017 are practically identical (at least from a learner's perspective). But there's no reason to not upgrade or to have both installed.

I'd recommend getting a book to read and also following along with a video course (Microsoft Virtual Academy is a great place for videos). You can watch videos and work alongside when able, and read the book to flesh out things you're not sure of (or just revise when you can't access a computer).

I recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Visual-2013-Step-Developer/dp/073568183X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492133728&sr=8-1&keywords=c%23+visual+2013

I found the writing style explained things to me better than most other material, and I could grasp concepts that I felt many resources glossed over or didn't explain as well (the Yellow Book is also good at this).

Also, mixing resources helps a lot. You could read one author's take on a concept over and over again and never understand it, only to read a different explanation and it just clicks. When you get stuck on something just find another source.

You're done when you can write the code for any piece you don't have a more detailed plan for in under 5 minutes.

If you're looking for more guidance on how to do this stuff, read Code Complete http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670/ - it's written with C in mind, but translates perfectly well to most software projects. Especially chapter 9 - Pseudocode Programming Process.

I thought Expression Blend 4 Unleashed was good.

If you're looking for WPF, and not Blend specifically, WPF Tutorial is a good place to start. I also found this book really useful.

Pro C# 7: With .NET and .NET Core https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1484230175/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_suTDCbEGBZC36

Really very good. Teaches the modern fundamentals of OOP in a clear way, as well as comprehensive covering of C# and .NET features.

This is what you are looking for

It introduces you to all concepts you need to learn under your first year(s) of programming with C#. It has great, easy-to-grasp instructions and every chapter ends with exercises that it walks you through. I went from a novice to comfortable with the language in ~3 months.

After this, you have to get your hands dirty. Google for "programming exercises" or something like that. The point is that you will learn 100 times more when you take on a task that you have to solve by using your brain.

There are two good texts that I'd recommend, each have their own bright spots. Pro MVC 5 and Professional Asp.net MVC 5.

Oh! These are indeed very useful tips. Thank you for the points. I am currently learning ASP.NET Core MVC. I have been a C# developer for a few years but I have never developed Web applications with ASP and have always resorted to what I already knew (Java and PHP). My current work laptop as well as the home software ecosystem is now Apple-based and I would rather not split work and switch between operating systems. That's why I was trying to utilise VS for Mac. As of now, my aim is to learn ASP.NET, but at some point I would also need to build .DLL files and I may have to build REST APIs and host apps on Azure. I doubt if I will go back to building native/desktop apps for now. But if I will someday, I will probably start learning something like Electron.NET. So, any further tips are appreciated.

​

P.S. The book I am currently reading is Pro ASP.NET MVC 2 by Adam Freeman which looks comprehensive thus far even though the examples are built in the Windows version of Visual Studio for which he takes no blame.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pro-ASP-NET-Core-MVC-2/dp/148423149X

I'm currently using this book. The author prefers not to use templates meaning you actually learn to read the code properly rather than just following mouse clicks.

Because he doesn't use templates he writes everything in a way that you can use Visual Studio code as well as Visual Studio. It's great if you have an older computer/laptop or plan to develop on a Mac or on Linux.

John Sharp's Microsoft Visual C# Step by Step is a great book. It teaches beginner, intermediate, and advanced concepts.

You're looking for step by step: Microsoft Visual C# 2013. I keep it on my desk at work. It's intermediate level, which means it assumes you know what programming is and you know what an IDE is, etc., and he does a fantastic job of holding your hand through the basic syntax before launching you off on the more difficult things. Highly recommended.

First, there is never a way that's always right. But we will go forward that you need a client server app.

I am guessing no web is involved so I would use a tcp/ip connection. .net has wcf which can utilize tcp/ip but I would just do it myself, so you understand what's going on.

This book is short and great http://amzn.com/0124660517

This would be the updated version of that book (as long as you are OK focusing on Core). Adam does a good job introducing ASP.NET, but he also covers a broad spectrum of cross cutting concerns and OOP concepts. I would highly recommend his books for anyone new that wants to go down an MVC path.

Thanks, but this is one 7.5 hour course and does not seem anywhere near a complete path to being job ready.

I have a Udemy account and would buy Mosh's courses on Udemy if I thought that they would form a concise package when put together. I would supplement this learning with books if necessary - specifically the following:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0735619670/?coliid=I3G8SYORH393ZR&colid=1IRAIWB2MBRLH&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0132350882/?coliid=I1ZCBXMO9SV7S2&colid=1IRAIWB2MBRLH&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0984782850/?coliid=I1OZDYM4OMN8N7&colid=1IRAIWB2MBRLH&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

But a course where everything fits together (such as a bootcamp I can't afford) is really what I'm looking for.

> is there a good book/course for developing desktops apps? I can only find books/courses on developing backend, REST services and the sort, never about desktop apps.

I just purchased two books this week. They might be helpful to you:

• C# 7.0 in a Nutshell
  
• Programming WPF
  

The C# Player's Guide (2nd edition) by RB Whitaker is a good recent one for beginners and intermediates. It's also for C# 6.0.

If you don't want to pay for a book, I recommend either the Yellow Book or The Fundamentals of Programming by Svetlin Nakov, et al.

There's tutorials and getting started links on the side bar. Start there. Then check out pluralsight. The following books are good. Consider getting Microsoft Certified at some point if you really want to.

http://smile.amazon.com/C-6-0-Nutshell-Definitive-Reference/dp/1491927062/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451614908&sr=8-2&keywords=C%23

http://smile.amazon.com/Pro-NET-Framework-Experts-Voice/dp/1430242337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451614991&sr=8-1&keywords=pro+C%23

http://smile.amazon.com/Pro-ASP-NET-Experts-Voice-ASP-Net/dp/1430265299/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1451614991&sr=8-4&keywords=pro+C%23

http://smile.amazon.com/C-6-0-NET-4-6-Framework/dp/1484213335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451615074&sr=8-1&keywords=pro+C%23+6

Originally MS published a great beginner series called "Learn {thing} Visually" and there was a book for each subject. Instead of teaching boring fundamentals of coding, it started by making simple Windows forms which were drag and drop and slowly taught the programming. I use to buy a stack of these books (they were like $13 on Amazon) and anytime somebody had a series interest I would get one from my trunk and give them the book.

Apparently this series was replaced with the "step by step" series:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1509301046/

https://www.amazon.com/Professional-ASP-NET-MVC-Jon-Galloway/dp/1118794753

is the book I recommend. I learned how to do ASP MVC from it years ago.

One thing is what do you wanna do - ASP MVC 5 which is pretty established or ASP MVC 6, which has lots of features I'd say overwhelm a new beginner

>Here's an HP with 8GB for $250 at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HP-Probook-6470B-Notebook-Professional/dp/B06X92SJF8
>
>So, 6% of the memory. Again, I think the'll be fine.

Plunk 5-6 Electron apps on your system, and you will find it a challenge to run more than a few full-sized programs properly without running into memory/paging issues. I already have three Electron-type apps on my work computer (Gitter, Slack, Discord), and Gitter+Slack alone is a 1Gb hit to my system. And since I run databases, Visual Studio, dev environments and other shit from my system, even the 12Gb it comes with isn’t enough sometimes -- I have to shut down other programs just to get my work done without getting held back by the paging file.

If the Electron apps I do use were as much of “heavy hitters” as my daily bread-and-butter tools (MSSQL, VS2017, Waterfox, etc.) I could forgive them. But sucking down 1Gb for doing absolutely nothing? Yeah, kill those fuckers, they aren’t worth the trouble.

And with nearly half the computers out there in active use being more than three years old (I see many 5-8 year old computers still in play, with 8Gb and 4Gb memory ceilings), memory usage is still a very important aspect of putting out a quality program. You simply cannot expect everyone to upgrade just because your program needs memory that a better-programmed product could easily do without.

Pieces of your app should be able to change without considerable changes to the whole.

research solid principles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOLID_%28object-oriented_design%29

research a layered architecture:
http://layersample.codeplex.com/

try this link for sqlite:
http://brice-lambson.blogspot.com/2013/06/systemdatasqlite-on-entity-framework-6.html

also, if you are in school, complete your assignments, but other than that
do not write another line of code until you have checked out (at least read the chapters on writing classes and functions):

Clean Code

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882

and Code Complete

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670

Try reading THIS Code Complete and / or any of the well reviews books in the "you might also like" section of that page.

Not sure if you are still looking for a book, but I own this one and I really like it.


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&ei=pemtVPjGN4jboASy54H4Bw&url=http://www.amazon.com/Programming-WPF-Chris-Sells/dp/0596510373&ved=0CBwQFjAA&usg=AFQjCNEUS564892pYODydH4c00lTQt2HNg&sig2=IupvV8EHhAQcaKUpWB1Crg

Thank you for the response. I guess I have the same question for you so I will just copy and paste what I wrote to AberrantCheese.

Right now I am debating whether to get

Windows Presentation Foundations Unleashed

or

Programming WPF

I guess I just want the one that is less complex since I am a beginner.

On a side note, do I need to understand WPF and XAML before I proceed to MVVM?

500mb as a percentage of 16gb = ~3% Something tells me they'll be fine.

Here's an HP with 8GB for $250 at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/HP-Probook-6470B-Notebook-Professional/dp/B06X92SJF8

So, 6% of the memory. Again, I think the'll be fine.

At 1625 pages, [C# 6.0 and the .NET 4.6 Framework][book] is the most comprehensive book about C# I know about. Open its table of contents on Amazon and there's your checklist!

Another idea is to read the [C# language specification][spec] - that way you can be absolutely sure you haven't missed anything :)

(As far as I can see, the C# 6 specification has not yet been released but there is a draft on GitHub.)

[book]: https://www.amazon.com/C-6-0-NET-4-6-Framework/dp/1484213335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484208486&sr=8-1&keywords=andrew+troelsen
[spec]: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=7029

thanks all for the suggestions. I know that I have to eventually choose a source and just follow through. But I came across these 2: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0985580127/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 and https://www.devu.com/curriculum/. Any experiences with either?

These ones are good - and much newer:

https://www.amazon.com/Pro-ASP-NET-Core-MVC-2/dp/148423149X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1550791644&sr=8-6&keywords=asp.net

https://www.amazon.com/ASP-NET-Core-Action-Andrew-Lock/dp/1617294616/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1550791644&sr=8-7&keywords=asp.net

Since I'm also a beginner I need to ask: Is there a need for algorithms? I don't see anyone mentioning algorithms. Anyway, if you do care about them I suggest the book Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd edition.

I found Visual Studio C# Step by step to be a good book for people who are just starting or are even on intermediate level.

For a good algorithms and data structures textbook take a look at: Algorithms 4th Ed. by Sedgewick and Wayne (https://www.amazon.ca/Algorithms-4th-Robert-Sedgewick/dp/032157351X/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=Y10M1BMYGCSJCJJN2GJT) or Introduction to Algorithms 3rd Ed. by Cormen, Leiserson, Rivest, and Stein (https://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Algorithms-Thomas-H-Cormen/dp/0262033844).

There is this book which basically talks about everything in C# 7, a good and deetailed book. https://www.amazon.com/Pro-NET-Core-Andrew-Troelsen/dp/1484230175

I used "Pro C# 5.0 and the .NET 4.5 Framework 6th Ed" to teach myself C#.

​

I'm pretty sure there are newer editions now, but the content will be mostly the same, specially at beginner levels.

I would recommend not looking for C# specific books. Language specific books tend to get out-dated very fast and won't be as high of quality.


For this reason you want books like https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Algorithms-3rd-MIT-Press/dp/0262033844 and https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Programming-Volumes-1-4A-Boxed/dp/0321751043

​

I'm personally in the market for data structure books, sadly its a slippery slope when you already have a few.

Exactly the books many people suggested !
Further they recommended me this

I have actually been using this book to learn C# and it has been helping immensely. It even tells you where in the book to begin based on your programming experience. Big book, but it really breaks everything down and lets you know how everything works.

Essential reading:

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426600164&sr=1-1&keywords=clean+code

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Coder-Conduct-Professional-Programmers/dp/0137081073/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426600164&sr=1-2&keywords=clean+code

http://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426600164&sr=1-4&keywords=clean+code

http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426600164&sr=1-5&keywords=clean+code

What about this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/148423149X/ref=sxts_sxwds-puwylo_rv_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3534076942&pd_rd_wg=rU58U&pf_rd_r=6XX2FG98ZDRHPT4Z67ZP&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-top-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=148423149X&pd_rd_w=Phw0H&pf_rd_i=ASP.NET+Pro+MVC+2&pd_rd_r=c098776a-c5f2-4a8a-b209-1433c55a484a&ie=UTF8&qid=1522906247&sr=1

Is ASP.NET Core MVC the same as ASP.NET MVC for the .NET Framework?

Just to confirm, this is the one?

Read "Code Complete, 2nd version". Its everything you'd learn in 10 years of experience, summarized into 1 book.

http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-programmer/

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670

The C# Player's Guide (2nd Edition) by RB Whitaker

These are my recommendations:

• Microsoft Docs
  
• Pro ASP.NET Core
  
• ASP.NET Core In Action
  
• EF Core In Action
  
• Programming ASP.NET Core (good if you're coming from a WebForm background)
  
• NDC Conferences

https://www.amazon.ca/Pro-ASP-NET-Core-MVC-2/dp/148423149X

https://www.amazon.ca/Pro-ASP-NET-MVC-Adam-Freeman/dp/1430265299

Just about to pull the trigger one of these.
I'm not going going be applying for jobs for a couple of years because of college. Should i bother with MVC 5 or try to jump straight into core.

For less messy amazon links you can extract the part after "/dp/" in

https://www.amazon.com/C-6-0-NET-4-6-Framework/dp/1484213335/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484208486&sr=8-1&keywords=andrew+troelsen

and make it:

https://amzn.com/1484213335

BEEP BOP

Plz send any recommendations via PM

https://www.amazon.com/dp/032157351X/
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0262033844/

C# is not a popular language with academics who tend to write cryptic Java and C/C++ for a living, so good luck finding a reference written by someone credible.