Microsoft’s .NET is a revolutionary advance in programming technology that greatly simplifies application development and is a good match for the emerging paradigm of Web-based services, as opposed to proprietary applications. Part of this technology is a new language, C#. This new language combines the power of C++ and the ease of development of Visual Basic. It bears a striking resemblance to Java and improves on that language. C# may well become the dominant language for building applications on Microsoft platforms.

This thorough and comprehensive course is a practical introduction to programming in C#, utilizing the services provided by .NET. This course emphasizes the C# language. It is current to Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5, which introduces important new features such as implicit typing, extension methods, lambda expressions and Language-Integrated Query (LINQ). The new features are covered in a new chapter.

This course is intended to be fully accessible to programmers who do not already have a strong background in object-oriented programming in C-like languages, such as C++ or Java. It is ideal, for example, for Visual Basic or COBOL programmers who desire to learn C#.

An important thrust of the course is to teach C# programming from an object-oriented perspective. It is often difficult for programmers trained originally in a procedural language to start “thinking in objects.” This course introduces object-oriented concepts early, and C# is developed in a way that leverages its object orientation. A case study is used to illustrate creating a complete system using C# and .NET. Besides supporting traditional object-oriented features, such as classes, inheritance, and polymorphism, C# introduces several additional features, such as properties, indexers, delegates, events, and interfaces that make C# a compelling language for developing object-oriented and component-based systems. This course provides thorough coverage of all these features.

C# as a language is elegant and powerful. But to utilize its capabilities fully, you need to have a good understanding of how it works with the .NET Framework. The course explores several important interactions between C# and the .NET Framework, and it includes an introduction to major classes for collections, delegates, and events. It includes a succinct introduction to creating GUI programs using Windows Forms. The course concludes with a chapter covering the new features in C# 3.0.

Numerous programming examples and exercises are provided, including the case study. The student will receive a comprehensive set of materials, including course notes and all the programming examples.

The course includes two electronic supplements, provided as PDF files. The first covers Visual Studio 2008, and the second covers unsafe code and the C# pointer type.

.NET Training Learning objectives

• Acquire a working knowledge of C# programming
• Learn how to implement programs using C# and classes from the .NET Framework
• Learn how to implement simple GUI programs using Windows Forms
• Gain a working knowledge of implicit typing, object initializers, anonymous types, extension methods, lambda expression, LINQ, and other new features in C# 3.0.

Course exercises require Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition or higher. The preferred operating system is Windows XP. See the appropriate course Setup Guide for details.

A good minimal hardware profile for this course consists of a 2 GHz or better CPU, 512 MB of RAM, and at least 4 GB of free disk space for tools installation and courseware.