Free eBook: Foundations of Better Programming | Dan

littleguru
<3 Seattle

Cool book. Thanks for sharing, Dan.

Jason Teale

I'm only into the second chapter, and I just had to say - fantastic book!
Most of the books out there tend to be just API references, but to have this kind of stuff down on "paper" in a coherent manner is extremely useful.

Have you ever thought about writing a full length, in depth book?

Dan

In reply to Jason Teale

#Jun 26th, 2008 @ 2:20 PM

Hey Jason,

I agree with you that many are just rehashes of the API with simple, almost unusable samples with each. One of the things I liked about Karl's book is that he teaches you not just how to build software but how to build better software.

As for me writing a book, I'm knee deep in co-authoring a Coding4Fun book actually Smiley

The book's content is centered around buildnig 10 fun, cool projects on everything from YouTube, World of Warcraft, the Wiimote and more.

As for a more in-depth book, it depends on what you mean. A lot of the larger books (1,200 ASP.NET page books) only cover each topic in 15 pages, but they cover a LOT of topics, just not deeply. Then there are single books that go very deep, and those are good if you want to know what the heck is actually happening like Jeffrey Richter's CLR via C#. I'm probably best suited for an applied book with actual projects as documenting APIs to me isn't personaly interesting, but showing how and when to use those APIs in an application is. As for a Richter-type book, I'm not the right person and I don't think I could compete with him anyways Smiley

There are a couple of other books that I think the .NET community needs though -

Pragmatic Business Intelligence for Developers - SQL Server 2008 BI using real-world examples like US Census data, Technorati search data, YouTube video popularity, etc.

Simple, Beautiful WPF Designs for Developers - This was a personal pain for me having read multiple WPF books and flipped through several including Expression Blend books - almost none of them show you how to make something attractive. Go to a bookstore and flip through WPF/Blend books and you'll see terrible-looking UIs with big green and red blocks. This book would be a collection of WPF control skins, quick usability guidelines, and instructions for how to reuse and structure them in your applications.

Cheers,
-Dan

littleguru
<3 Seattle

In reply to Dan

#Jun 26th, 2008 @ 6:38 PM

You are writing a book? When does it come to the shelves?

Dan

In reply to littleguru

#Jun 26th, 2008 @ 11:12 PM

By December, it's due out by the first week of August (gasp!) Here's the book on Amazon, note that the title isn't final Smiley

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

Great, this and the Silverlight 2 book ended up straight on my mesh. Can't wait to browse through them at home.

One of the things I liked about Karl's book is that he teaches you not just how to build software but how to build better software.

True. Coding stuff that works is only part of the goal; coding it well is another matter entirely. It's the main reason why Steve McConnell's Code Complete (2nd edition) is downright the best programming book of all time. I use stuff I learned from that book every single day.

elemental

Just wanted to say thanks for the kind comments about the book. Hope it's useful Smiley

Cheers,
Karl

wkempf

IF you ignore the snarky comments about Microsoft, it's a very good book. But then, that's like most of the posts from the ALT.NET folks. IF you ignore the snarky comments about Microsoft, they have a lot of things to bring to the table.

elemental

In reply to wkempf

#Jun 27th, 2008 @ 11:02 AM

I think the snarkyness is pretty much gone by chapter 2, which isn't surprising since chapter 1 specifically deals with ALT.NET Smiley